A Range of Emotions

Dear Diary,

Just came back from meeting up with a former pharmacy classmate. It had been possibly up to a year since I last met him. Much skinnier than before and definitely needing more calories and even fats! We had a pretty long dinner at the “Wongkok Char Chan Teng” restaurant in Bugis Junction. The set meals were pretty affordable and I thought the drinks that came with them were exotic. We were trying to get updates from each other but something seemed to “nag” in the background... no matter what we think, we are not as young as we love to believe. In his institution, those around our age are basically anchoring major pharmacies and role-models for newer pharmacists. However, this friend of mine in his Bermudas and t-shirt looked as if he was still a student in NUS! I l also learnt that at least 6 of our ex-classmates are now doing their Masters in Clinical Pharmacy by the University of South Australia through NHG college. Another 2 more doing it abroad in University of Queensland.

I was pretty amused when he started “gossiping” about other guys and wondering if they are “attached” now. So typical of him even after all these years! =P Haha... He used to say that all roads lead to Andrew; implying that I had extensive sources of class gossip information. Oops! Not anymore... my “antennae” is now just as short as mini-me. It was a great evening just laughing and letting “loose” in our conversation, before I dropped him off at Boon Keng MRT station. Appreciate some of these friendships which go a long way. My advice is to cherish your friendships as much as possible, especially those of the same gender. Friends in the workplace is quite different if you get what I mean... and of course, when you eventually get married, don’t even think you can get away with hanging out with your opposite gender friends without getting your spouse in a heated temper.

Life seems busy for many of my ex-classmates! Many of them are taking post-graduate studies. Personally, I have tonnes of work to do, lots of notes to read for the upcoming MBA exam, a couple of books which I had read and abandoned midway (eg. “Men are waffles, women are spaghetti” by Bill & Pam Farrel and “Orthodoxy” by GK Chesterton) and recently attended a course in church which got me speechless. Not speechless because I was astounded by the “revelation” but rather speechless because I was amazed how lopsided the view was presented! Furthermore, some of the facts were given wrongly!

So yesterday evening, I sat in for the first lesson of this course which had four lessons over four weeks... I was so tempted to just raise my hands to challenge the speaker. Trust me, I actually felt unbearable urge. With my Tiber-leaning friend sitting on my right, kept wailing injustice. I thought this course was just the right thing to ruin my tired day. Last night, I had insomnia... which is as rare as finding pearl in the oysters on your dinner plate. I had to apply lavender-scented moisturiser on my face to get myself asleep. Sigh... I don’t know if I am blind or the fundamentalist reformed theology guys are. Don’t they ever see what I see? Don’t they ever see that their arguments go in circles and they are hanging onto straws? To top it all, the speaker gave us each 8 sets of biased notes for our reading pleasure. The speaker was getting on my nerves, my own heart was yelling at me to protest, and my friend sitting on my right was paradoxically more convinced now of swimming the Tiber. What an excellent “mood-boosting” experience, haha... I told myself that I am open to ideas challenging to my own and any discomfort will be good for character-building. But... oh well...

Just an analogy... We have salvation by the grace of God (through Christ Jesus), isn’t it? However, these people seem to tell me that we are saved by “believing that we are saved by the grace of God alone”... duh???? See the difference? Okay, that’s all for tonight. Lots of things to do but I have to sleep now because need to wake up early in the morning at 6.45am to fetch someone to go Bukit Timah Hill for hiking! ;-) Goodnight!

God Bless,

Andrew