Linking the Past

Dear Diary,

Spent the afternoon tidying up my bedroom. I dug out lots of old stuff and discarded them. It was tedious to pack indeed and I only managed to tidy just half of my bedroom shelves and cabinets. Among the numerous things I discarded, there were two copies of The Straits Times… yes, I am almost a rag-and-bone man, haha… I thought I wanted to keep a piece of history but realised that these copies are probably electronically archived in Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) anyway. So I gave up and chucked those two copies down the bin. One of them was dated 1st Jan 2000, the millennial edition. The other one was dated 3rd October 2001, which was on my 21st birthday. Oh well… the Dow Jones was down on 3rd October 2001 as reported in an article just top right hand of the front page, hee… seems like the case now recently too.

I catalogued some old correspondence letters into my archives of diaries. Some of the letters include appeal letters to NUS medical faculty dated in March 2001 and even a member-of-parliament’s appeal letter on my behalf. It did not work obviously, haha… It is such coincidence that an ex-college classmate chatted with me for 2 hours till 1.30am this morning and spoke about the Duke-NUS GMS again. I used to think that the doctor-wannabes are probably the only people who will be fixated to that desire after numerous rejections… but I was surprised when a colleague told me that when her father came down from Malaysia, she took him to visit Nanyang Technological University (NTU) because he wanted to visit the university which he wanted to study in as a youth but could not qualify for. Her father is probably almost 60 years old? Geessshhhh… I hope my friend isn’t going to carry this burden for such a long time!

As I rummaged through my files, I was very surprised to find a full draft copy of the Enterobacteriaceae. presentation which I did as a year 1 student for microbiology! That presentation was kinda the turning point in my life because before that, I had little confidence in oral presentation. I guess the university days did change me a little. =) I made a trip to University Health Services (UHS) at Yusoff Ishak House (YIH) recently and somehow could only find a parking lot at Science faculty carpark. So I decided to hop on the internal shuttle “A1” for the first time in more than 3 years. I realised that the frequency of the bus service is better now but the sloppiness of the students’ outfits remains a perennial time-transcending phenomenon, hahaha… That feeling on the bus, mingling with the students and walking around YIH didn’t seem too foreign and it did not feel too long ago either. However, I had to remind myself that even my first batch of preceptorship students are already in their final year in NUS and on the way out of the university soon. My experience in that place is more ancient than I could feel.

I am beginning to get a slight hang of my new job. Kinda glad that I am on a steep learning curve and company seems willing to invest in training me with numerous seminars, some of which required fees. I am seeing different aspects of the industry including sales, marketing, educating, sourcing and regulatory. I can’t imagine doing regulatory work full-time actually, hahaha… I find it stifling! ;-) There should be quite a bit of catching up with some friends next week. I am also wondering if I should enrol in some dance school just to loosen my stiff joints and “loosen” my social life a little, haha! We will see…

God Bless,

Andrew