sigh. when i was younger, i never thought i'd one day be a victim of myopia. i had such a fine pair of eyes. i'd swim without goggles, take little peeks at the sun, stare into computer screens for hours, watch television from just a few steps away, et cetera. maturing to the age of 17, and still boasting a perfect record of 6/6 eyesight tests then, i thought i'd never have a chance to wear spectacles.

in fact, back then, i thought wearing spectacles was kinda cool. i even contemplated purchasing a pair of spectacles w/o visual correction for the fun of it. soon after that thought left my mind, visibility of my surroundings began to take on a permanent blur. now, no matter how religiously i stick to resting my eyes periodically, i'll never see with the same clarity (w/o visual aids) again.

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so what spurred this post? to commemorate the death of my perfect eyesight. not that today's the 'death anniversary', but it will be more interesting if it is. :P nah seriously, because it appears that my eyesight may be getting worse. i have a bad feeling that the next time i head out, it'll have to be with the specs on. :(

bah, how inconvenient.

i was calling a few MDs from different companies, one of whom was a Japanese. he wasn't in his office, so i left a note for him to call back. about 30 minutes later, i received a call.

"Good morning, SMF (Singapore Maritime Foundation)"

"Hello, may I speak to Je-la-mo san? Je-li-mo san?"

"Huh?"

"Uh, je-la-mo... je-le-mo san?"

"Oh hi! I'm Jeremy speaking."

"Oh, je-le-mi san..."

and then normal conversation resumed. his english wasn't bad at all, he just couldn't enunciate my name properly. i thought that was super funny, and he's very polite, considering i'm just a temporary admin worker. granted, he couldn't have possibly known that.

that's not to say Singapore, Chinese, or Indian MDs aren't polite, don't get me wrong!

i guess there must be a certain good in a person's character for him to make it to the position of a managing director.

before i begin, i must say that i've been robbed of my computer at home. sis's laptop spoilt, and she dominated my desktop instead. so i won't be online. i can't be online.

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i recently came across a motivational book titled "eat that frog" by brian tracy (courtesy of dad), an acclaimed speaker and best-selling author. it teaches '21 great ways to stop procrastinating and get more done in less time'... great, just what i need! now, i have yet to finish (in fact, i've only flipped a few pages. procrastinating again, darn.) the book, but i thought i'd share it with fellow procrastinators first.

there's an old saying that if the first thing you do each morning is to eat a live frog, you'll have the satisfaction of knowing that it's probably the worst thing you'll do all day.

who's down for frog leg porridge at geylang, first thing in the morning?!

the office just shook! paintings swung rebelliously on the wall, flower pots threatened to roll over, and water turbulence was observed in the tiny cup of mine. i swear the table was going to collapse, taking both my legs with it... good thing it didn't.

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the aftermath was rather entertaining.

1. the important people adjourned their meeting and vacated the building. actually no, the meeting ended, but it would've been funny if that really happened.

2. an announcement - "if you feel uncomfortable, please relocate using the nearest staircase!"

3. an auditor doing her job came to me with a very frightened face and asked if i just felt that.

4. toby (a very nice foreigner) came out his solitary office and said "i was typing an email, and i wondered if that was the last thing i was going to write. if so, i'd better make it a good one!" with his accent, he made that sound super funny, and he was being funny anyway.

5. the Exec Director and GM, upon exiting from the meeting room, commented chirpily that it was a good time to go for lunch.

6. the Exec Director muttering something about walking down 19 storeys worth of stairs. HAHA i'm so skipping lunch today, at least until the lifts are up.

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while an earthquake of this scale is exciting, i don't want to get hit by a destructive one. hmm, i wonder where's the epicenter. earthquake's never a good thing, really.

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crap, now they're asking everyone to vacate the building. -mutters- ciao.

A good friend bails you out from jail , but a true friend will be sitting beside you saying 'Man.. we fu*ked up!

i've seen this countless times, but i can never stop laughing when i see it again for some weird reason! so who wants to rob the bank with me? :D

so it's almost 11am, and i haven't done anything to earn my keep here in this quiet office!

lazy i may be, but i hate having nothing to do for a number of reasons, namely...

1. it doesn't reflect well on myself when the big guys see me doing nothing.
solved by appearing busy. i believe i've done a good job thus far!

2. time passes slowly. i wish it's lunch time, tummy's protesting.
hence i'm here, blogging nonsense. oh, and that chocolate from the fridge was good, hee.

3. at the end of the day, i will have learnt nothing
contrary to popular beliefs, i do have 上(originally typo'ed as尚, corrected thanks to ms goh)进心, and wish to learn more than sitting around looking pretty, surfing the forums, stealing from the fridge etc.

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ok scrape that, halfway through this entry, i got hit by multiple air strikes. i am earning my keep, after all. back to the bomb shelter.

a little bit of background information... for those who don't know i've gotten a job (which is uh, almost everyone), i've gotten one! go me! so, there's this career fair in suntec convention hall (or was it centre) that my company, Singapore Maritime Foundation, is involved in, and late yesterday night, my friend and i had to work OT to bring over something from office.

miracle one

time was 7.30pm. we were expecting to cab down to suntec, and dismiss from there latest by 9pm, all 'accidents' considered. but alas, things never go according to plan. as we were desperately waiting for a cab, we saw everyone along the road on their mobile phone, yet not uttering a single word. we guessed it right, they were all booking a cab. frantically, i dialled comfort's number to reserve a rightfully-mine taxi, which got through after a few attempts. i was thinking 'hah, i must be luckier than the rest, i got through easily!' but i couldn't be more wrong. after jubilantly reporting my location to the call operator, i was told to wait for my taxi number... and that's when the sky fell on me. music played, and looped... played, and looped.

sorry, no taxis are available at the moment. to retry, please press 2, to end call, please press 9.

ah dang, so that's what everyone's probably waiting for on their phone! likewise, i glued the phone to my ear, waited at the taxi stand, and waved at all passing cabs (i was actually first in line =p). then the miracle - a taxi stops in front of me, and a lady alights with an arsenal of plastic carriers. with a grin that stretched from one end of my face to the other, i hopped onto the cab, en route to suntec! the time was 8.45pm. tell me, how often does someone actually head to his/her office that late at night?! and then, how many of them would actually take a cab that stops right where you are. =D ps: there was no residential buildings within a 1km radius at least.

miracle two

so we did our work, and finished by 10pm (i actually did that much of OT $$$). after a challenging meal at carl's junior, we intended to cab home, courtesy of the company. to our horror, people were queueing for taxis as though they were hello kitty dolls, and half of them were busy with their phone. uh oh, same scenario. dialled the same number... network busy. rats! but persistence pays off, with a tad bit of luck. a few more tries and i actually got through. and, taxis were actually available, hah! my eyes twinkled while i (silently) laugh gleefully at the unfortunate people around me. the taxi arrived within 7-10 minutes. my friend and i walked (smugly) out of the ridiculously long queue-line, into our chauffeured toyota crown while all eyes, gleaming with a mixture of envy and hate, were upon us. miracle number two of the day.

note: certain parts of the above narration deviate from actual fact, but purely for entertainment purposes.

bits of fact: chatted with a friendly angmoh behind me while waiting for taxi to go suntec. but when the lucky cab arrived, i got too excited, forgot about her and just hopped in, oops!