The Magnificat

Dear Diary,

Visited the HospiMedica Fair 2008 at the Suntec City in the afternoon. My counterpart from KL was here and so I took this opportunity to extend hospitality to him. Met up with him at noon after he flew in from KL in the morning. We ate at the Kenny Rogers restaurant at basement one (I suggested that, haha). It was really nice catching up with him since the last time we met in KL. He told me that Singaporean girls are very beautiful… ohhhh ok, haha… The medical device exhibition was quite extensive and I was surprised by the huge representation from China. I usually think of Germany, France, Italy, the US, the UK and Japan when manufacturers of medical devices are concerned. I was wrong because there were many companies from Korea, India and even less popular European countries like Austria and Spain. It was quite an eye-opener and indeed nice to be casually walking from booth to booth, browsing brochures and leaflets on an afternoon of one’s work day! Yeah! Haha… I insisted on bringing him to check out the Esplanade. I am secretly proud of my own country, ok? ;-)

There are many of those metal fences and powerful street lights set up along the roads in the vicinity because of the upcoming F1 race. The sky garden above the Esplanade looks much more beautiful than I remembered from the past although the sun was pretty merciless this afternoon, hmmm… I gave a brief and concise introduction of the city area to him on top of that Durian-shaped theatre facility. “Behold!” I said. =P The Esplanade brought back many memories. It had been quite a long while since I last visited it… I may just contemplate popping by again in the evening soon and admire the night scene. The outdoor theatre still looks uncompleted. It will be good to sit around and having a live band belting out love ballads under the starry sky at night.

The passing of the first two days of this week gave me increased confidence. Initially, the boss of my boss was shocked that I would be manning the matters of the medical division alone! After all, I have just worked slightly more than a month. Two of my colleagues (including my boss) were on overseas vacation leave. The third one went on a 2-day medical leave. So I held the fort and I thought I did pretty well, haha! Sometimes, I hate the mind of a guy. I kept thinking of this particular clinical research associate whom we had some dealings with. She looks really sophisticated, sounds really nice over the phone, wears a pair of cool black spectacles and has a Masters degree. She is probably my age… hmmm… can’t remember if I saw any ring on her finger the last time we met… hee… just a joke! Sigh… remember… Girls, please appreciate. It is not easy being a guy. We are not very good at noticing people’s mannerisms or dressings but yet we have to do detective work to ascertain if a particular girl is available or if she has just the slightest interest in us… oh well…

The only worse thing is probably trying to stay interested in a regulatory feedback session when participants kept asking the same old questions and that government official kept being so long-winded over, what I would say, just simple straight-forward questions! So yesterday, I sat there in amazement that after the regulatory official asked if the participants had any “last words” to add before he closed the session, we actually stayed an additional 40 minutes!!!! Talk about “last words”. =S

I am probably going to take public transport for the first time since 1st August this coming Saturday! I am kinda looking forward to attending this policy forum “Arrival of the Stork – Bliss or Woe?” organised by youth committees from the AMK GRC. Hope I can learn a little more on civil service’s decision making and planning processes. Next Monday, I will probably help out to man a booth at the medical faculty in NUS because of a student symposium there. I sure hope I can pop by the pharmacy department and pay Prof Go a visit! We will see how it goes.

Leave you with this song whose lyrics were adapted from the “The Magnificat” that the Virgin Mary, full of grace, sang (St Luke 1:46 – 55):

My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord
And my spirit exalts in God my saviour
For he has looked with mercy on my lowliness
And my name will be forever exalted.
For the mighty God has done great things for me
And his mercy will reach from age to age

And holy, holy, holy is His name.

He has mercy in every generation
He has revealed His power and His glory
He has cast down the mighty in their arrogance
And has lifted up the meek and the lowly
He has come to help His servant Israel
He remembered His promise to our fathers

And holy, holy, holy is His name.
And holy, holy, holy is His name.

Love this song. Goodnight.

God Bless,

Andrew