my home is in empty spaces.

Yesterday I was airily informed by my father that he would take a certain monthly sum as his household allowance, amounting to 33% of my take-home pay.

My dream of paying off my undergrad loan in 2 years has just vanished before my eyes.

So much for being shellshocked this morning.

This evening, I mentioned the 33% to my sister, and she said, "Who asked you to get such a low-paying job?"

thanks.

might there be anything else they all would be wanting to say ...

Today we spent a great deal of time laughing, the sun was out, and I got my first "selamat pagi", thereby discovering my colleague can speak Malay. Today I resolved a case. Today is my sister's birthday. Today I am home early.

Today someone called me lovely. I saw someone else who was lovely today, and who clearly thought the same of me too. Today there were no idiots.

It was a beautiful day, with a wonderful view of clear blue sky from my window.

Smiling. I was talking with C about smiling, more specifically in the series of photos that are now lurking somewhere (ahem) on the Net. And we realised I don't smile naturally in pics.

I used to.

*lightbulb*

Used to know things about the joy of the world. In my mature age it's become more dry humour than anything else. And dry humour doesn't capture well in a smile that holds for three seconds.

;-) Now other things compensate for it.....

Public Service Announcement:

If you are using your EzLink card to pay at McDonald's, 7-11, Coffee Bean, anywhere except the bus and MRT,

and the staff have to scan your card repeatedly to make the deduction,

please do yourself a favour and check your card balance shortly after, to ensure that multiple deductions have not occurred.

Claims can be filed by calling QB Pte Ltd at 6824 6999.

As for bus and MRT wrong deductions, call the TransitLink Hotline at 1800 2255 663.

Both operate from 8 am to 6 pm, all days of the week except public holidays.

It's only today that the realization spontaneously hit me, after drinks out with J and B and our train ride home:

"the lovers, the dreamers, and me".

Maximum edge of the song.

A touching story on how the top schools in the rest of the world selects their students.

The social logic of Ivy League admissions.

So, academic idiots are not idiots after all. And you should catch the part on "manliness"....... that reminds me of someone I used to know. *snickers*

Whoever offered me the idea of keeping a hot water flask at my workstation is absolutely brilliant. I seem to recall it being N.

With gloves, flask, socks, and the ever-present sweater, I actually survived today without getting sicker.

Thank you! =)

The week that has just passed was the first week I was allocated my present workstation.

It is freezing cold.

I need to wear stockings under my jeans, that should tell you something.

The office jacket provided, which is some kind of super-warm fleece, is ineffective! Time to find the thermal underwear.

And I'm now very sick so I can't really approach this with the sense of humour I had during the first few days of the past week.

I wonder if my company will pay me extra to tolerate this Arctic shit. Or if they will shift me back to my original workstation. Or if they will just laugh in my face because I am new staff and thus do not exactly have the lobang to get things done.

Perhaps I should wear a beret cap to reduce heat loss through the head. But nooooooo, that doesn't go with the dress code where I am. *sarcastic*

Perhaps I can get one of the guys with a ladder to place plastic wrap I will bring to the office, to cover the aircon vent that blows directly at my head.

HACKING COUGHS

Am definitely wearing gloves next week.

Dear Reader,

I suppose I could tell you a bit about my jaunt down to Geylang Serai last Sunday evening, with N, RK, KD, and friends. The Super Coconut stuff is really nice; $1 per coconut. K of RK was strongly reminiscent of someone; N you know about this. But as the evening passed K's presence became less evocative, which was good. In that sense, it helped me to see things from a much more balanced and objective view.

/paragraph of vagueness.

I also bought a $13 satchel, $8 slippers, and $0.95 hairpins. Very good. Joo Chiat Complex has great shoes!

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So I've been working there for about three weeks now. Today my aunt just asked me again when I'm going to use my LS knowledge to get a proper LS job. Sigh.

Sigh.

The only thing about this job that's not so great is the pay lah. Hope that goes up soon. Although this is nothing more than a faint hope. Ercks..

*restless* Can't seem to sleep more than 6 hours a day during the work week - never had this much trouble getting enough sleep since JC.... I still feel as rotten as I did then on that amount of sleep =p Luckily it's not affecting my work performance, prob because I make sure it doesn't. Then I just zonk out after going off work each day. This is not good.

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I want to read. I want the energy to read after work each day. To read real stuff, good stuff. To learn. To have something to say beyond "oh work was okay today".

To make that ranty statement a bit more real, let me add that I spent two whole weeks reading a book I normally would have finished reading in four hours flat. And it wasn't even something I needed to reflect upon.

And I still haven't finished my megalin stuff, which was supposed to be my leisure Bio reading. Argh. (sidetrack: You! how dare you say that I can't read stuff like this for fun. You think my entire world of knowledge should revolve around what you like to read?)

So many expectations. *growls* Okay I shall not go further here into what kind of expectations.

The evolution of children's playground rhymes. Have children really forgotten how to play? Apparently not =)