If only I have two weekend days off!

Dear Diary,

Quite surprised that a colleague called me up and chatted for slightly over half-an-hour just minutes ago… It was a nice experience and I realised that I rarely have phone chats these days since I graduated from university. Communications are usually through emails, SMS and MSN… all without that human voice and touch to it. Today was a pretty relaxing day for me. I worked for just 4 hours in the pharmacy before returning home and accompanying Dad to the mechanic workshop. Yup, on last Saturday (15/12), our car battery went flat but resourceful Mum called up her company’s mechanic. The mechanic came in the rain and fixed a temporary battery for our car in just half-hour later. So today, we went to the mechanic to replace the temporary battery with the new 60 Ah (ampere-hour) battery. Apparently, the mechanic’s wife told us that it is surprising that our car is using such a powerful battery as an equivalent Japanese-make will require only just 40 Ah battery. Hmmm… so ours is in the range of the Mercedes and BMWs…. At least for the battery, haha… It was interesting to watch the mechanics fix the maintenance-free (which means you don’t need to top up with battery water periodically) battery and how they took out the tyres and “balance” them. It was such a long time ago since I watched the mechanics at work! =) Received an SMS from another pharmacist who was puzzled why I am not in the list of nominees for promotion and tried to persuade me to submit before the deadline which is today. I declined. In that decision, I find joy because I can still choose to decline what would seem so materially rewarding. Thank God that I am not totally driven by career success alone. I am brave! Yay! ;-) Maybe it will be a precursor to a huge change in my life next year.

On Saturday (15/12), I was on leave to attend a friend’s wedding ceremony. I reached City Hall early and decided to take a little walk along CityLink. It was about 11am. The throngs of window-shoppers, the fact that it was a Saturday morning and I was walking in the midst of them all… oh, how wonderful… yes, I am totally deprived! Haha… I must make it a more frequent experience! ;-) I met up with my classmate and I led her to the Grand Plaza Park Hotel for the ceremony. Initially, we queued up in front of a desk which we thought was the reception. Saw name-tags on the table and I was wondering… wah… since when did a marriage become so “conference-like”, haha… even have name-tags! We did not even move when the bride beckoned us towards her. We then realised that we queued at the wrong place. =S Oh well… hee…

The solemnisation ceremony was held in a small function room. It wasn’t furnished in any way… and there were just about less than 60 guests. It was a far cry from the other marriage at ACM which had about 250 guests. Nonetheless, despite the simplicity of the event, it felt very warm. I felt almost as if I were part of that close-knit “family” to witness my pharmacy friend take her marriage vows. After that short marriage ceremony, we adjourned to the Indulge café where we ate buffet lunch in the courtyard. It was an awesome time of get-together although I was one of just two guys from pharmacy class invited. The other guy was the photographer. So I sat with a bunch of girls and was glad that I survived the chit-chatting very well. ;-) I left the hotel after 3 hours. In the evening, I accompanied my parents to Bedok for an evening stroll. Bedok brought back childhood memories because when I was much younger… Tampines (where I resided till 1994) had no library and my family usually frequented the Bedok Community library. We ate at a hawker centre. Dad initially waved us quickly towards a table in that crowded food centre but two girls (both twins probably 9 years old?) beat us to it, haha… they smiled widely. I gave them a “good job” wink and they laughed. It was quite hilarious… all the “friendly competitiveness” which we Singaporeans are so guilty of, haha…

Sunday (16/12) capped a relaxing weekend. I attended church and the preacher was the Dean of St Mary’s Cathedral, the Diocese of West Malaysia. I thought he was pretty funny with that joke…. Haha… will tell you later. Then I went to collect a homemade cheesecake from a friend and she even included disposable fork, serviettes and a can of limited edition Sapporo beer! How sweet! ;-) Enjoyed that dessert indeed. Had a short evening run and realised that my stamina seemed to have dropped drastically before returning home to watch Star Awards 2007… Wanted to catch Asian Idol for Vietnam Idol Phuong Vy but decided not to because I was exhausted. Could not wake up to watch Juventus vs Lazio either… Oh well… anyway, the joke… hope I can relate the joke just as funny as that priest did.

The Joke

A man decided to bring his wife and his mother-in-law for a pilgrimage to visit the Holy Lands in Israel. While they were there touring, his mother-in-law died. The man called the undertaker and the undertaker told him that he had only two choices. He could either fly his mother-in-law home to the United States to be buried but it would be very expensive or he could bury her in Israel and after all… it is cheaper and on holy land! The man thought for a moment and decided that he would send his mother-in-law back to US for the burial. The undertaker was surprised and pestered for an answer. The man replied, “Two thousand years ago, you guys buried a man in the Holy Lands and he came back alive. I cannot take that risk for my mother-in-law.” Haha… =P

God Bless,

Andrew