A place where all your troubles are forgotten

U: Are you going home for keeps?

Me: Yes..for keeps, after four years here. (smiles)

U: Before you go, I have something to say. You mark my words. (chin resting on his single cupped hand, deep in thought). IC will open doors for you.

Me: (laughs pleasantly)

U: It really will! (with more emphasis)

Me: Thank you for saying that. I really hope it will.

U: IC is even better than O and C. During my student days, one of the students in my year went on the be the CEO of a xxx company. Another guy, he lives just across the street came up with the xxx Equation. Have you heard of the xxx Equation? I'm telling you it will open doors, your degree.

Me: Wow! I hope I'll invent something someday!

U: A CE degree from IC certainly puts a lot of things into your head. I myself have a lot of junk in my head, all these things, which I still remember to this day. (mentions again the xxx Equation etc.)

A: Are you coming back for graduation?

Me: I certainly hope so.

A: Then I will see you again! Make sure you come back to More House too. People always return and they always say that they feel so welcome everytime they come back and that people here still recognize them!

U: Certainly! More House is a place where you forget all your worries and troubles as soon as you step in.

Me: What you've just said is so true (beams)

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Sometimes, strangers make us smile more than the people we see everyday. Random, honest exchanges like these get etched into one's memory simply because so much cheer and genuineness flew across three little hearts, after a beautiful Mass on a sunny Sunday. A safety jacket with yellow strips of highlight, a bicycle being carried out of narrow doors, a staircase where conversation was made about a scientific conversation, wandering thoughts about lunch and summer fruits, a kind face decorated with a moustache and spectacles, a one-armed hug for a keepsakes photograph. Such were the bits and pieces that I try hard not to cling on to, wishing that there would be more repeats because of the ominous feeling I have because I'm aware that the clock is ticking. My time here is numbered, in this foreign land. Home, here I come.

My Strange Bits

Every time someone asks me to share something interesting about myself, I find myself at a loss for words. Since I am not a very spontaneous person, I want to prepare myself with a list of my own quirkiness, in case someone would like to know in the future. Recently, I realised quite a few weird things about myself:

1. I study better in the dark, under dim light. In fact, it is not just a matter of how conducive it is for me, I actually find myself really liking studying with minimal exposure to light. I prefer orange light too. 

2. I must have a stack of scrap paper with me when I'm revising. I've loved scrap paper ever since I was a little girl. Also, paper products make me happy. You name it, diaries, empty notebooks, stick-ons. However, if they are too cute, I usually just keep or hoard them until the pages turn yellow. How queer of me. 

3. I like my tea without any sugar or milk, just pure tea. In my books, tea is better than coffee. 

4. Although it is recommended that we drink at least 8 glasses of water a day, I usually drink much less than that. Sometimes, I even forget to drink water. Whenever I travel, I refrain from drinking water for fear of being without toilets. 

5. I've never done anything permanently unnatural to my hair. The closest I've come to it is by making temporary curls in my hair using an electric hair curler. 

6. My hands are always extremely dry, except when I am in a tropical country.

7. On the outset, I might seem like a friendly person, but I always thought of myself as a shy person who would rather spend as much of her time just being by herself. 

8. I can eat the same dish for a prolonged duration without getting bored.

9. Pictures of food, in all their bright colours are enough to make me happy and cheerful. Yes, it's that easy. 

10. One of my shoulders is slightly higher than the other. 

11. People don't usually comment that I look like either my mum or dad. But everyone says my sister and I look alike. Some people say my sister looks like my dad. I find this very strange. 

12. Once, in a Chemistry class in high school, my teacher told me that at her age, she dislikes sweets. I was utterly amazed and told her that there is no way one can stop liking sweets. However, I think I've made the transition from sweeties to savories sometime during my university life. I still love desserts but I crave more savory food these days. 

13. I love sandwiches. Egg mayo, smoked salmon and cheese, tuna mayo, chicken and bacon, ham and cheese are just a few of my favourites. The whole sandwich assembly with different colours are just so enticing to me. 

14. I tend to squat on my chair sometimes, during long and dreary periods of revision. 

15. I like wearing high heels, but am not a fan of walking for too long in them. 

16. I used to hate dresses and was just so delightful the first time I was allowed to wear jeans. I still like jeans a lot, they are a staple to me, but I've just found a new love affair with dresses. 

17. For some odd reason, I like the colour brown when it comes to clothing and bags. Everything brown looks very appealing to me and I just feel like a princess being wrapped in a brown brown brown dress or top. Maybe I should revert to gunny sacks.

I'll probably add to this list once I discover even weirder things about myself. This is fun! 

Strong and Constant

I can't stop trembling from disbelieve. My whole body is literally shaking right now, straight after checking my email. God has blessed me with an opportunity I never thought I would get, or even deserve. More than anything, I feel humble and scared and frightened. Strong and constant is God's love for me. He takes such good care of me, that I am in awe of the way in which He works. I don't deserve His kindness, not one bit. 

Up In the Clouds

..was where my head was today.  I washed my hair using body shampoo and only came to realise my silliness after catching a whiff of ginger from my head whilst blow-drying my hair. This is just another one of my many blonde, or to be more accurate, brunette moments. Oh yeah!! 

OOPPSS! 

Another time, I vacuumed a single sock of mine while engaging in therapeutic room-cleaning, very much to my chagrin, because I had to admit it later to J and he kept calling me blonde. Another time, I tried to push my way through an a card-swipe door when there was a perfectly working automatic revolving door next to it. Once, I walloped my way through some tau-fu-fah, something I've been happily eating for 17 years and finally noticed that it tasted like soy bean.  Ironically, I was a soy-bean hater at that time. At least I finally got to appreciate the possibility of preferring different forms of the same thing.  

I can certainly be such an idiot at times. 

Some Questions to Think About

1. Describe to me a time when you exceeded someone else's expectations.
2. Describe to me a time when you had to persuade or influence others to accept your idea.
3. Tell me about a time when you had to implement a change to normal working procedures.
4. Why do you think client service is important? Give me and example of a time when you had to use effective    communication to interact with others.
5. Tell me about a time when you had to build a new relationship or make a new connection. How did you maintain the network?

Irony

Usually, one should be happy when presented with a good opportunity. However, and ironically so, I have been unhappy all day even after hearing something good, because I have been bogged down with serious life questions in my head, concerning the quality of my life and the meaning of my existence. The whole day today, I have just been slacking around instead of revising for my exams, scouring the Internet for bad and negative things that I could find about the good news I've heard, anything at all that would tarnish it. People say that humans can easily be convoluted with money talk, and I agree with that. If I would put my life on the line, there is a certain amount of compensation that I expect. And I know that I won't get be compensated the way I want if I were to say hello to this opportunity. Sigh.. 

In the end, I couldn't take it anymore and gave mom a call. The sound of her voice calmed me and made me happy, in a way only a mother's soothing and genuine voice can. Surprisingly, she did not try to hold me back at all, in fact, she encouraged me to take up the challenge. Doubts still linger above my head, but that affirmation from mom made all the difference, because I know who I'm fighting for. 

I'm sorry to say..

..that I had the misfortune of meeting an interloper and keeping up with that person for a very long time. 

On a brighter note, London town had bright blue skies yesterday in what seemed like an unexpected departure from the dreary rainy sheets.