It's National Day!

Dear Diary,

I was just casually trying this personality test and was kinda shocked that the final result / description is quite accurate! It is even more surprising because I was just fumbling through without being really very sure of my answers as the questions are pretty abstract. You can go try them! I will just publish my results below. Not exactly accurate but pretty much I think… ;-)

Your view on yourself:

Other people find you very interesting, but you are really hiding your true self. Your friends love you because you are a good listener. They'll probably still love you if you learn to be yourself with them.

The type of girlfriend/boyfriend you are looking for:

You like serious, smart and determined people. You don't judge a book by its cover, so good-looking people aren't necessarily your style. This makes you an attractive person in many people's eyes.

Your readiness to commit to a relationship:

You are ready to commit as soon as you meet the right person. And you believe you will pretty much know as soon as you might that person.

The seriousness of your love:

You are very serious about relationships and aren't interested in wasting time with people you don't really like. If you meet the right person, you will fall deeply and beautifully in love.

Your views on education

Education is very important in life. You want to study hard and learn as much as you can.

The right job for you:

You're a practical person and will choose a secure job with a steady income. Knowing what you like to do is important. Find a regular job doing just that and you'll be set for life.

How do you view success:

You are confident that you will be successful in your chosen career and nothing will stop you from trying.

What are you most afraid of:

You are afraid of things that you cannot control. Sometimes you show your anger to cover up how you feel.

Who is your true self:

You are mature, reasonable, honest and give good advice. People ask for your comments on all sorts of different issues. Sometimes you might find yourself in a dilemma when trapped with a problem, which your heart rather than your head needs to solve.

Watched the National Day parade earlier. Singapore is 43 years old now! The parade wasn’t that exciting except there was a noticeably increase in the number of fireworks displayed tonight compared to previous years. Maybe the Olympic Opening at Beijing, China yesterday kinda raised the standard a little for me, haha… Was watching that last night and being totally impressed by their spectacular display of culture, technology and showmanship! =)

I am really enjoying the new-found Saturday off! Accompanied dad and mum to help them with the grocery purchases this morning. I saw Fr. John Khoo up-close for the first time and dad seems to be on very friendly terms with this Catholic priest who is in charge of the parish just beside my house. We bumped into him as we were driving out of our carpark. He is indeed a very friendly guy and Mum correctly pointed out that he really doesn’t look his age! He is 68 years old and ordained since 1969! Geezz… He looked like in his 50’s only! He is a funny guy also, always cracking a joke or two, haha… Fr. Khoo was telling that I am so fortunate to taking over my dad’s car! Hee… He told me that he would be setting up a young adult ministry in his church… hmmmm… oh ok… Dad gave him a bottle of Belgian sparkling grape juice and he went, “Hallelujah!” Hahaha… Quite a comical sight, hee… Coincidentally, a former colleague told me the day before that she has taken my suggestion and do community work at the Cannosian Children’s Home which is just beside that said parish! ;-)

As for my job, I was kept busy the whole week. I stayed about 1 hour past my official knock-off time (5pm) most of the days this week. However, it didn’t feel that bad because I can be back home within 15 minutes in my car, haha… Still trying to get used to the processes of my job. My two female colleagues in my division really treat me very well, guiding me along, introducing contacts and colleagues to me. It is going to be hard to know most of the 110 colleagues because unlike my previous job, this is a job which I enter as a newcomer into a established colleague pool. Some of the people worked there for two to three decades! Lots of Japanese expatriates in our midst too! I really appreciate that when my two female colleagues had some lunch appointments with clients or clusters, they arranged lunch buddies to eat with me although I didn’t even know these “lunch buddies” personally, haha… I am trying to be more sociable… trying trying! ;-)

So a typical week at work will include meeting up with clients / foreign contacts, meetings with designers for brochure / handout designing, sales meetings with colleagues and superiors, seminars updating us on foreign import / export regulations… I also did some reading on a couple of medical devices, observed technicians at work, wrote 10 Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) in 2 days for Form A application to the Centre of Drug Administration (CDA)… Yay! Kinda love the more focused environment which I can just concentrate on one task at a time. I realise that I am pretty efficient, hee… My immediate boss won’t be in office for close to 3 weeks but I think I am learning quite well even without her around. ;-) Totally carefree! Yayness.

On Monday (4-8-2008), met up with some of my TTSH pre-registration training colleagues! We had a nice get-together dinner at the Pasta de Waraku (Marina Square). Earlier, I had popped by the nearby pharmacy of my former company to buy loceryl nail lacquer. The locum pharmacist did not recognise me and I did not recognise her also. Until I revealed my name did she know who I was. Apparently, the staff in that outlet recognised my name too! Surprise, surprise! Didn’t know I was that popular, haha… Anyway, the meet-up would have been much better if the table was round instead of an elongated rectangle. Spoke more to just those sitting nearer to me. Our former TTSH Drug Information pharmacist who recently graduated with a PharmD from the US and now teaching pharmacology in NUS Pharmacy department, almost wanted to join us! However, she was held back at work.

Also heard that the pharmacy department in NUS has won the rag day with their float. What makes it more incredible is that it is our third* year participating as a separate group instead of working with the Science faculty. The moral of the story? Never... never ever write off pharmacy students even if we are the new kid in the block. To say that we are perfectionists and over-achievers is an understatement. We are more than that. It is hard to describe in words. Our achilles' heel is that we like to whine. That's all, haha... So proud of the students who did the float and made even us alumni so impressed!

Very glad to learn that a former-VJC, former-Pharmacy classmate has converted to Christianity! He used to be an atheist. His girlfriend or rather his fiancé, converted him eventually. The power of love, yeah? Hahaha… Thank God for his conversion. Recently, I had those nagging “what if” thoughts after I browsed through some photos of the past… What if I got into Duke-NUS GMS last year? What if I got together that girl whom I used to like? Sigh… I am striving not to entertain those postulating thoughts. It is the future I should concentrate on and lay the past to rest.

Thank God for everything indeed. I can really see His providence in my life and I should be reminded that as much as I am made steward of many blessings, I should share with my neighbours around. Okay, that’s all for now. Happy birthday, Singapore!

God Bless,

Andrew

* amended on 15 Aug 2008 (Fri) at 11.10pm upon correction by Constance.