HAPPY LEAP YEAR, my friends!

Today has got to be the happiest day of my life. So many delightful things happened and there was an unexpected twist of events.

First and foremost, I finally mustered up enough courage to tell my mum that I received a present from a guy friend. The first time in my life. I had hid the present from my family for almost a week cos I know what will happen if they got to know about this. Mum will nag here nag there, sisters will woo here wah there, make alot of noises and I`ll have no peace. AT ALL. I know I`ll be interrogated like a criminal. Geez. Anyways, after telling them in the most casual tone that I can imitate, my mum was initially stunned, then regained her composure and gave me a pep talk. Asked LOTS of questions and I basically repeated, "He`s just a friend" a thousand times. After which, I was so shocked to see her handing me a bunch of keys. MY HOUSE KEYS!



Do you know what this means?! It means she already have complete faith in me and that I have TOTAL control over my freedom now. No more curfews, and I`m allowed to return home late in the night without my dad fetching me. Do you know how much it means to me? For all my close to 19 years of life, I`ve never owned the house keys cos my mum will either set a curfew and stay up to wait for me, or my dad will come fetch me to go home, even if it`s 3 plus 4am in the morning, just like the mahjong session at Ben`s place during New Year.

Now that my mum thinks I`m mature and responsible enough to own a bunch of my house keys, I`m truly touched. Haha. I know it sounds really absurd to not own your own house keys until the age of 19 but who cares? If I`d knew a present would bring me my freedom, I would have asked my male friends to do so long ago. Haha!

Yays, Huimin is officially taking charge of her freedom from now on. Haha!

The next thing worthy to celebrate about has got to do with my job. From the previous posts, you should have realised that today would be my last day at DHL. Needless to say, I`m not that glad to leave my lovely friends and I was feeling down the whole day. Plus, I swear I yawned AT LEAST 10 times in the morning. Why? Cos of my idiotic dad. He shook me early in the morning at 615am, and slapped my face with 2 envelopes from NUS and NTU. Just because the welcome letter stated "Congratulations on your A Level results!", he naively thought I was invited to enrol into NTU's school of engineering. WTH la. He never even finish reading it to realise that it was basically just providing information on the campus` openhouse. And so, I was disturbed from my sleep.

Somemore, early in the morning when I was feeling the most tired, I was actually given billing to do. I can`t even open my eyes and my supervisor had to shove the calculator in my face. Of course I had countless mistakes to correct on. The liquid paper seems to take forever to dry. When I couldn`t take it anymore, I messaged Thor and asked her whether she knows how to make coffee or not.

Voila, she said yes! I immediately went up to the sixth floor secretly via the usage of the stairs and met her at the pantry. Guessed what she told me when she came into the pantry? "Hey, actually this is my first time brewing coffee." =_= WTH. But she reassured me saying that it is super easy. I saw her adding coffee powder, milk powder and some other stuff. When the final product came out, I took a sip. I made a face. She sipped it. And what happened next? The cup of FAILED coffee went straight into the drain. HAHAHA!

So, instead, she made me a cup of her best speciality- MILO. Hmms, I must say that it is not as bad as the coffee la. Passable. And so, I carried that one cup of life-saving, energy-restoring milo back to level 3 and continued with my billing.



During lunchtime, the inevitable came. I was made to treat ALL OF THEM bubbletea from SweetTalk as I believe that has already become the tradition. Haha. When someone leaves, that`s it- bubbletea for everyone. Haha. And, it`s always SweetTalk from Simei.

Back to office. Back to the mundane, lifeless cubicle. I told thor to be the officer in charge to mobilise everyone on level 6 to go take photos with me at level 4 where there are nice backdrop. Great for photo-taking. But she told me they`ll only be free after 530pm. :( Haha. Hello? I will seriously go develop those photos and put them in a scrapbook as memories of my time spent in DHL lor. Should I suffer from amnesia in future, at least these photos will make me believe that all those were once part of what happened to me. LOL. I think I think too much. Haha.

Anyways, a miracle happened at around 530pm. I was blasting music into my ears while filing the documents until my supervisor came to my desk, followed by a middle aged man. My supervisor had to shout "Huimin!" into my ears to get my attention. SO PAISEH. I was flushed with embarrassment and the next thing I knew, my heart almost stopped beating when the guy spoke.

"What`s your name?"

"Huimin."

"Oh. That`s a Huiqi upstairs too."

"Ya, I know. She`s my friend."

"I heard today`s your last day. Are you interested to work level 6, starting from next week?"

STUNNED. SILENCE.

"You mean, the finance department?" At this point of time, I could not believe my ears and I could not stop my heartbeat from accelerating as well.

He said yes and I said yes to whatever he said and the next thing I know, I followed him to level 6 while he introduced me to my "colleagues". "Colleagues" refers to ppl whom I`d already know la- Huiqi, Samuel and Melvin of course! I couldn`t contain my excitement anymore and burst out laughing. LOUD LAUGHTER. Haha.

Later I realised his name was Henry Loke. Nice guy. Haha. He`s my benefactor.

And therefore, in conclusion, I`m HIRED again! Funny that such dramatic things actually happen to me. Who gets hired when they get retrenched on the same day? ME LOR. LOL.

I really do believe in miracles. :)

When you looked up to see this kind of weather, it really does nothing to help keep your spirits up.

I`ll be leaving DHL this Friday when my contract ends. I`m truly saddened by it la. Just when I`ve started developing feelings for this irksome building I once thought it was, I can`t bear to leave it behind now. :(

I initially woke up to a cheerful, bright morning and was in such a good mood until Regine (my RecruitPlus agent) called to break the news to me. My supervisor didn`t even mention a word to me la. Started feeling really fed up and messaged Jo, Thor, Amina and Seet. Thor was busy, so I left her alone. But before that, I was cursing and swearing censoredly like no one`s business and she felt like I was scolding her. Haha. So funny.

Amina was sympathetic. Seet was rational, like always. She helped me analyse the situation and concluded that it is perfectly normal for companies to dump temps when their contract ends. But I really wish to continue... Maybe partly because the security guards will greet me cheerfully in the morning, saying, "Good morning, young lady!" Oh, I feel so pleased whenever I hear that. This morning, one of them asked me, "Feeling refreshed?" I replied "Definitely" and he said, "But dont get fresh with me." Haha! So cheeky. See? Even the security guards are nice.

I was in a foul mood the whole day until Jo`s messages cheered me up. I promised to credit her on my blog. Here`s her gorgeous photo.

She sent me a cliche chain message but it nonetheless kept my spirits up! It said, "Sending you 18000 smiles. Take 1 for now and keep the remaining 17999 under your pillow.Pick 1 out everytime you need it cos I want to see you smiling always. Cheer up! =D"

SO sweet right? She also told me to confront that "ass supervisor" (as quoted from her) to let me extend my assignment. HAHA. She even claimed to want to help me bite her. "Life is too short to be tortured by some monkey-faced supervisors" she says. She`s super cute la. When I expressed my gratitude towards her understanding, she told me she needs a happy clan leader to make her a happy clan member. SO SWEET. Ok, that`s it. Jo is my newly favoured clan member. She shall be exempted from future clan punishments. Haha.

She told me that there`s this guy, a male colleague in her company, who`s wooing her right now! Super cool lor. I saw her that day with the guy at Bedok MRT station. He walked her to the train station leh. And according to her, he not only gave her a belated birthday present, but also folded hearts and roses for Jo! Oh my. But TOO BAD, Jo`s attached to the down-to-earth Iggy. Haha. I asked her whether she was touched by that guy`s gestures and she said yes. I jokingly told her to choose that guy instead since he`s such a romantic but I got snubbed by her. She claimed that Iggy, though not as romantic as that guy, he`s down to earth and even gave her a SK Jewellery necklace for her birthday! Ok, I think Iggy`s better. Haha.

Jo, you`re one blessed woman. Haha. Enjoy your 桃花 ya!

OH MY MY. Kids these days are too bold to be true. Girls, and I really mean girls who are aged 12, are going after my brother. To me, he IS good-looking cos he`s my brother la duh. You all shall judge la ok? Let me post a nice photo of him.

I think he looks hot when he`s sweaty. Haha. And with that medal. He`s a sports achiever by the way. Haha.



One of his female classmates gave him this. It is so freaking cute, I tell you. I was truly touched by that girl`s affection towards my brother.




It may look simple as it seems, but once you press the doggie`s heart, it will say, "I love you". SOOOOO SWEET. OMG. I`ll collapse from diabetes if someone ever gives me that.

It has been raining rather frequently these days. Consequently, there are hardly any chance for me to stare at stars when I feel like stoning. I love looking at the stars. Don't you feel that they resemble diamonds in the sky?! Diamonds are a girl's best friend! PRETTY! Heh. However, there are like SO MANY CLOUDS tonight. Bummer. No stars = Unhappy Huimin. I WANNA SEE THE ORION!!!

And I have so many things to blog about but so little time. Pls pardon me. I will get everything in by this weekend I promise.

I covered for OT today! My first time since I worked in DHL a month ago. First time I did OT leh. By the time I left the office, the sky was like this.





COOL isn't it? I mean, it's like wow, twilight leh.

And, I keep knocking into things at my desk. I'm bruised all over.

I got this bruise unknowingly. I don't even know where, when and how I got it. The only thing I know is that it hurts. And that it suay suay had to be bruised on my pretty legs! ARGH.





This is a drop of my blood. It was splattered onto my office desk due to its excessive volume.



Caused by what? That MONSTROUS thing below.



I dunno why but I'm used to being clumsy already. When I showed my mum the bruise on my leg, she gave me a hard scolding. She was ranting on something like, "Everytime so clumsy so scatterbrain, knock here knock there. The one who eventually suffers is still you."

I also know I'm very clumsy. Don't need the whole world to tell me.

Seet was so amazed at the Orion. LOL. She kept asking me stupid questions like, "WOW, how did you know it`s a trapezium?" Cos the 4 outer stars make it the shape of a trapezium? =_= And half the time she was like, "COOOOOL. WOW. GREAT!" which really amuses me. Haha. And she claimed that she is very interested in the outerspace, as well as things that are deep under the sea and that things on land do not amaze her as much. So funny! And she said I was always singing praises of everyone. Where got?! I only told her she is knowledgable and she told me not to be humble. LOL. Hais, this Seet ar. Nice talking to her online although we have not met for ages. The only time we will meet soon is probably on TABOO day as she calls it.

She said something like, "actually funny that we dun meet but we are still on good talking terms hor?" And I replied, "this is the true essence of friendship."

I miss you clannies. Do you miss your clan leader too? Heh.

There was a heavy downpour yesterday. It was the first rain since....god knows when.

And, thursday was 元宵节， also known as 华人情人节 (Chinese Valentine`s Day)! I`ve lived for 19 years already and I only realised that 元宵节 is also 华人的情人节 this year.

I remember Huiqi sent me a rather meaningful Valentine`s Day message to me.
It says, "Love sought is good but given unsought is better. Don`t worry if you have not found your partner. Yours will come soon. Happy Valentine`s Day. Remember you still have me."

Aww. So sweet right. My BFF leh. Haha.

Anyways, the past week had been well, like a roller coaster ride.

I went to work, not feeling too good, especially since it was the day after attending my gran`s memorial service at the Church of Our Saviour. The whole morning before lunch, I literally resembled a walking corpse. I was close to tears, recollecting everything about my gran as I did my work. Perhaps it was due to the atmosphere in the office. I was dumb-no one talked to me or anything and I felt lonely.

When lunch came, I was glad I had Huiqi and the laughable clan to make me forget about the pain. I believe one doesn`t need to show how he or she feels in front of everyone and that was what I really thought.

I saw the Orion on Tuesday and Wednesday night. It was almost surreal cos I suddenly wanted to catch the Orion and when I raised my head and looked up at the sky on both occasions, I saw it immediately. SO COOL right.

Visible at latitudes between +85° and −75°

Best visible at 21:00 (9 p.m.) during the month of January (as adapted from Wikipedia). This piece of information is so true. I saw the Orion clearly at around that timing too.

I was knocked out yesterday. The day before too. I NEVER had such a good sleep since ages. When I reached home on Thursday evening after work, I told my mum I would probably be skipping dinner and went to lie on the sofa. Who knows I`ll only wake up at 2am to take out my contacts and went back to sleep until 6.30am in the morning when it was time for work?! Ha.

It was the same situation yesterday too. I reached home, and was so touched to see my bed being so nicely and neatly done by my mum that I can`t bear to sleep on it.

Went to lie on the sofa instead. AGAIN, I skipped my dinner and was oblivous to the surroundings although I could feel my youngest sister prodding me awake several times. Woke up at 6.35am to take out my contacts. CAN YOU BELIEVE IT? I actually slept with contacts again. I can feel myself going blind soon.

And, I`ve been having accidents for the past week too. I knocked my head against the table and chair 3 times, knocked my waist twice and got a blue-black, as well as suffer from paper cuts. BAH! I`m cursed at DHL. :(

Oops. I need to run. Sister fighting for com. Will update tonight again. :)

Met Jo and Jinshu at Eastpoint today. It was a coincidence. I was having lunch with my DHL colleagues. Was queueing up at the bubbletea shop when I heard my name. HUIMIN! I spun around and went into a state of hysteria. The three of us jumped and screamed. Anyone of you can imagine the scenario la huh. We were undoubtedly the centre of attention. LOL.

They told me results will be out this friday. I thought they were kidding and I laughed it off until they looked at me with serious faces and repeated, RESULTS WILL BE OUT THIS FRI. I dunno whether to believe them or not. :( They claimed the news will report it by tomorrow. Fingers crossed.

Earlier on, Huiqi was cursing Cambridge that their computer base 'tio' virus and all the exam papers kena shred. It`s damn funny la.

After I got the news from Jo and Jinshu, I went back to the office with a sunken face. Messaged Huiqi to break the news to her. She was absent from work cos she kena stomach flu. HAHAHA. Anyways, we had the MOST INTERESTING sms conversation ever. Here is the dialogue:

'ME' for me. 'HQ' for HUIQI.

Note: Every word is maintained in its original flavour.

The following texts are uncensored. Enjoy!

ME: Results out this friday.

HQ: Faints. I give up. I go die.

ME: I should be the one saying that dude. And lydia sum passed away. Heard it over the radio.

HQ: Really? Wah. Haha. Sian. No mood le.

ME: Saw Jo and Shu at Simei just now. They gg to take results only after work leh. They say they no face see teachers.

HQ: Really? But can meh? You nei?

ME: I DUNNO! I think I should just go to your office and jump down.

HQ: Let`s do that together.

ME: Ok. When you come tmr k.

HQ: Alrights.

ME: LAME LA.

HQ: Haha. I damn scared now.

ME: I having butterflies and dragonflies in my stomach now la. Argh. I wanna cry. :'( eh you scared what sia, smart alec!

HQ: No lor. Hais. Sian. If I smart den my prelims wont be shit le lor.

ME: You shit den I what sia! Idiot. Maybe I`ll join Jiayu in Australia. :'( or maybe I go find a rich man and get married can alr.

HQ: I will just go tekong secretly den get found out den shoot to death. Haha

ME: Den no more romancing with Kin Lung alr. You want ar?

HQ: Ya. Just die. Hais.

ME: Why so pessimistic? Go become paralysed la. Can still benefit your family with insurance money leh. You kena shoot no insurance cover de.

HQ: Lol. Haha. Have lor. Heehee.

ME: I`m so gonna blog abt this when I get home. Our conversation is too funny alr.

HQ: Lol. Is stupid can. Zzz. Why not we try bombing the schol? Al our results gone.

ME: Huiqi... WAKE UP! Are you too sick to speak logic? Hais. This is really affecting our moods.

HQ: Ya la. Damn sian.

ME: Looks like my prediction is going to come true- I`m gonna go sell bubbletea with Amina.

HQ: Lol. Do I have a share?

ME: SURE! Then we`ll have more capital to buy more pearls. And nata! Oh my. This is getting interesting.

HQ: Lol. So Baichi we all.

ME: Eh this is not being idiotic. It`s knowing how to plan for one`s future. One profitable future that is.

HQ: Lol. Okay okay.

-End of conversation-

Sighs.

I never knew witnessing a cremation would be so painful.
But I also know that gran`s now enjoying himself in paradise and I should feel consoled.

In loving memory of my beloved 爷爷...

"I am the Resurrection and the Life.

He who believes in me will live even though he dies."

John, 11:25

My grandpa left us yesterday morning. His passing was expected since he was admitted into A&E for difficulty in breathing last Sunday morning. He contracted pnemonia, said the doctor. Survival rates less than 20%.

All was fine when we went to visit him on Day 1 of CNY. He can still smile, speak a few words though unable to eat cos of his feeding tube. My mum even praised him for having such radiant skin. I naively thought he could get past this year.

Not until I went to see him in his ward. The isolation ward. He was given 100% oxygen saturation and normal people only need 20% to breathe. If taken off, he will be gone instantly. His breaths were so heavy I know he was trying his best to live each second. Though he was in an unconscious state, his body oblivious to the surroundings, we believed he could hear us talking to him. And that was when I saw my dad cry the first time. The first time in all my 19 years of life. He was calling, "A-pa! A-pa! A-pa, wake up!" which made everyone in the room tear. Grandpa did not wake up.

In fact, he did not wake up ever since he slipped into the unconscious state. Not even when he left us. He left at about 3 something in the morning. Only my dad witnessed his passing. He saw gran gradually heaving slower breaths, slower and then no more. Just like that. No one saw his last, except dad. He was saying how much regretful he felt that Gran cannot come home for CNY this year because of his feeding tube and that will scar his heart forever.

When Gran arrived at the wake yesterday afternoon, all the relatives present were thrown into a pool of tears. You can imagine my state la huh. I was the eldest granchild, the one who enjoyed the longest time with him, with the best memories when he piggy-backed me and doted me with all the candies and toys. I was the blessed with the most amount of love from him. And now, I can only see him lying there, with no heartbeats and breathless. How upset can I get? And I know I will get even more upset when he gets cremated this friday.

Actually children can be as mature as adults. My brother`s friend came to the wake yesterday. Though he was notorious, always teaching my brother vulgarities and stuff, his ill deeds are all forgiven for being such an understanding boy to come share our grief.

I understand that this is a natural thing. 生， 老， 病， 死。Birth, Old age, Illness and then Death. And, it is even more natural to grief over one`s passing. I believe, given time, I will recover.

And to friends whom I`ve talked to because you`ve asked or informed by others, I`m terribly sorry to have spoilt your new year festive mood as we are currently still enjoying CNY.

Lastly, 爷爷， 你安心走吧! I believe you`ll be happier up there. You`re finally released from all the pain and illnesses. 你终于解脱了。

I met up with Amina last saturday at Bugis to catch 27 dresses!



From the producer of "The Devil Wears Prada"!




The movie was great in my opinion. It was sweet and nice, anything a hopeless romantic like me would go for. I pity Amina who was constantly harrassed by my "woos" and "ahs" throughout the movie when Katherine Heigl and James Marsden looked so cute together. I said cute, not compatible. Marsden was a tad too sloppy for the elegant Heigl, I feel. Haha. Nevertheless, I love happy endings! And then, we went to Bugis Street to shop. Man, it was crowded cos there were so many youths shopping for CNY clothes over there. I wasn`t too bad either. I bought a red dress, a pair of red open-toed pumps and white pointed pumps. Amina, on the other hand, bought NOTHING! I guess she was too intimidated by the crowd. And the best part comes when we start to cam-whore. No choice. She came prepared with her digicam. And the fun got started...



















We caught up on each other's lives and I haven`t seen for for about 3 months before we met each other that day. You all should know that I hadn`t had a decent social life since I started working barely 5 days after the A`s. Man, do I qualify as a workaholic? Ha.

Amina`s one of my BESTEST friend I got to know in TP. She`s a great pal. Do take care, Maisara!

新年快乐，恭喜发财，

万事如意， 事事顺心！

祝贺各界鼠年行大运！

I`m supposed to 守夜 cos I wanna my parents to live a long life。See how fillial I am? However, I`m sooo freaking full from the reunion dinner that I think no amount of exercise is gonna get me back in shape again. Perhaps blogging may help. Ha.

Anyways, I had a clan outing last friday. Wheee, it was a nice catch-up session kays!

We went to eat at the high class kopitiam in TM. I was so HUNGRY I ordered 2 bowls of rice. The guy queueing behind me threw me a disgusted look. WEI, 本小姐肚子很饿 ok! I was literally STARVING.



We caught up on each other`s lives over dinner and man, I missed those monstrous laughter! Quoted from Rebecca was this classic phrase, "I`m living a life with no life!" Ha. That was the first thing she told me when she saw me. Aiya, the working life is like that de lor. BORING. NO LIFE. Can`t help it. Anyone wants me to be their 太太？I`m available! =)

After dinner, we went to play at the ARCADE! I tell you, you`ll be a fool not to enjoy air hockey. We had SOOOO much fun we literally SHOUTED and SCREAMED ourselves hoarse while playing, and apparently, the joined voices of 4 ladies were the centre of attention. And, can you believe it? Yiwen actually lost her voice after that game. Oh my. You see? The prowess of us women! Our shrill voices can really break glasses.

And, Yiwen pulled Rebecca over to play this stupid game in my opinion- shooting gigantic spiders and dragonflies.







The onlookers.



After which we were so beat we went to Mac and took a breather. Ordered desserts. :)



And a reunion photo!



I guess the next time we meet is probably soon cos it is rumoured that the 15th of February is gonna be the day our results get released. I`m trying my best not to think of it and spend the rest of my life until that very day in the best possible mood ever.

Last thursday was Janice`s last day at work. I was the replacement for her and she was my ONLY friend in the department. We crapped loads and it felt as if we already knew each other ages ago. She`s a cute little sweetie. How I miss her at work now...