Two Unconventional Days

Dear Diary,

Actually, there is so much to say… that I don’t know how to start, haha… My youngest sister just left the room and told me to try using that “Guardian” house-brand collagen hydration facemask. One piece in that purple pack beckoning at me… Maybe I will try it tomorrow instead. I don’t mind having a smoother face, haha… We just had some “Lou Hei” or what they call “Yusheng”. I think it is a Cantonese tradition of eating this plate of raw fish and vegetables… oh… there were clams too. I contributed that Yusheng dish, ok? Haha… My sisters and parents brought home fried rice, noodles, cheese, ham, bread, otak otak… we had quite a spread if you ask me. Today is, after all, the last day of the 15-day Chinese New Year. Glad to be home after a pretty unconventional day.

Woke up in the morning today and then proceeded to NUS. I was supposed to accompany a friend to the career fair since he is about to graduate with a Masters degree and is looking for a job. Eventually, that sleepyhead came so late that I only met him after I went through the fair myself. I was surprisingly not annoyed with his perennially morbid punctuality problem. I realised that the fair had possibly some relevance to my life after all. Anyway, later… I proceeded to Science Canteen to meet up with a former pharmacy classmate doing a doctorate. She was with another girl (doing PhD in pharmacy) who introduced herself to me and said that she knew I am and she was my sister’s friend. Kinda momentarily taken aback because she knew me although I never seen her before. She left my classmate and I after awhile. We wanted to eat in that new café in the canteen but it was packed so I just went back to the good old economic rice and was pleasantly surprised with the price, $1.90. Oh…. How sweet the sound… haha… Chatted with my friend for over an hour. She sounded disillusioned with studying actually… but I wasn’t too good in shape myself, haha… I rushed off to Orchard to work there for 2 hours before another pharmacist came along to take over my duty. She got me some delicious pastries and a pearl tea drink which I had not taken for ages. That’s about how my day went, haha…

Yesterday was also a rather incredible day. I reached the airport before 8am. Ate breakfast at Terminal 1. Tried to watch the A380 take off at Terminal 3 viewing gallery but kept falling asleep. Eventually, I managed to persevere and watched one flew off. Yay! Went off to the Airport police station to make my pass. Then I visited the transit areas in the terminal with the new pass and paid a visit to a colleague. I also paid a visit to a locum who was working outside the transit area. I then rushed down to Raffles City to work for 4 hours there. I managed to complete reading the book “Next” by Michael Crichton! Yay! Met up with two former classmates last night for dinner at Menotti. I took this $40+ dinner set which had a dessert wine, a starter, a soup, a main dish of veal, ice-cream and tea. It was indeed satisfying! Among the chatters we had, there was one particularly sad discussion of a pharmacist who died recently. Sigh…. One of them and myself were attached to this late pharmacist when we were doing our hospital attachment as a year 3 student. My friend was kinda apologetic that she did not inform me earlier so that I could attend the funeral wake at Church of the Holy Trinity. I knew it too late when I chanced upon it on the obituary on Wednesday morning. At least, she died a Christian. A Catholic. Although there is understandably sorrow among those who know her, we can take heart that she is a redeemed child of God. I am quite sure that the priest administered last rites and the viaticum. She wasn’t alone when she went off to eternity to be with God. It just reminded me how vulnerable life is and how we must thank God for a Christian faith that gives us a real hope of salvation.

God Bless,

Andrew