aDrenais' Book of Shadows

Yet another post from the office, on a lazy Sunday evening. I'm watching the Singapore Hit Awards on TV right now, and I'm either imagining things or Derrick Ho (He Wei Jian) is purposely slurring his words to sound more ang-moh. He also looks suspiciously like Jay Chou, which irritates the hell out of me. I know imitation is the best form of flattery, but Jay is unique, Jay is special and Jay is not to look like every Tom, Dick or Derrick on the street.

Tanya Chua had her mother collect her prize on her behalf. I think it's an awesome gift to your mother - the chance to appear on national TV. Her mother handled the speech giving with finesse, thanking God then everyone else. I'm impressed.

These 2 weeks are pure madness for me. Worked Mon-Thurs, went on a Habitat for Humanity Batam Build Fri-Sat, back at work today. Working Mon-Wed next week, emceeing a wedding on Thursday, working Friday, attending 2 weddings on Sat, Dad's birthday Sun, then working Mon-Fri the following week. My next breather will literally be on 8 Nov, ugh.

I enjoyed the Batam Build immensely. It was like a scaled down version of the 1 month I spent in Chiang Mai building a house for the children of Nam Bao Luang school. There was plenty of digging, cement mixing, and moving debris from point A to B. The 5 men of our team dug a septic tank in record time, creating a hole in the ground measuring 1.6m by 1m by 1m in approximately 4 hours. The girls were left to do the wiring, which entailed tying metal rods together with wires to form the foundation of the house. We didn't manage to do any brick-laying or plastering, but it was back-breaking enough for 2 days.

I had a 1 hour massage on the first (and only) night at the hotel, followed by a 30min body wrap and a Ratus treatment. I've read about ratus online and in magazines before, and have heard countless crew members grilling Indonesian colleagues about its efficacy, hence I couldn't resist giving it a go. It was disappointingly normal; I didn't even have to squat. All I did was sit over this incense burning thing, and wait. Totally unmemorable.

It was a good opportunity to meet colleagues from other departments of the bank, and for me to gain a better understanding of different functions of each department. I'm optimistic about staying on for a long, long time.