Dog's life

Last night, i visited Junting's blog and read the latest post there (at the time of visitation.) about his dog, and it brought back the memories of my own late dog. later on, kinda coincidentally, i went exploring around my comp's files and fcame across a file containing old pics that i never seen b4. they were probably taken by joel and he stored the pics in the comp b4 he got his laptop. And the pics included those of my dog. This stirred the memories further.

My dog's name is Ricky. Departed: 2 september 2003. 10 years of age. Unsure of cause of death. sth like heart failure but prolly caused by old age. Here's a pic of him i found. adorable, right? gee... im starting to miss him now. -.-

Ricky was with me since i was 5. he was 2 years old then... rescued from a nasty previous owner. im still unsure of his species. any1 can tell? he used to bully me when i was young. then later i bully him instead. i sometimes use him as a pillow and i liked to hug him real tight, squeezing him breathless. haha. he used to play catch with tiger tails too.

My dog also had his history of violence. When he was about 5, he fatally assaulted a neighbour's poodle, leaving holes in the poodle's stomach. the poor thing died not long after. When he was about 8, i was taking him for a walk and didnt leash him. he walked ahead of me, and encountered another dog. i was too late to stop him; he charged forward and got bitten on the neck. the dog, wich was abt 50% bigger, managed to grip the neck skin, carried him up in the air, and flung him aside. if not for the owner's restraining, Ricky may have ended up like angelo. he suffered 3 deep holes in the neck skin but recovered fully.

Ok. heres some differences and similarities between the deaths of mine & ting ting's dog.
- ricky died of old age sickness. angelo died from murder.

- ricky died with body intact. angelo's was mutilated.

- no owner witnessed angelo's death. but ricky died before my eyes.

- angelo died quickly. ricky had to suffer a few hours before death.

- angelo's death could be avoided if he was kept properly. but i couldnt do anything to save ricky

- both died very quickly and unexpectedly. (ricky still seemed healthy the day before. there was a few seizures, though.)

- both were buried. but ricky at a nearby desolate place, while angelo in the backyard. eeks.

Anyways... whats taken place cant be reversed. we just gotta accept that getting a pet would one day result in losing the pet.

No play time

Sicne i joined serve, i have difficulty finding time to blog. on weekdays im in SAV from 9 to 1, and until 4 on tue n wed. Sat got youth alpha gotta help do stuff. Sun im in church from morning till evening, as always. In the last week we gotta do some kind of CIP work in a hospital and the st andrews home for eldaerly.

I joined serve partly to kill the time i have till jc starts. Serve has really killed lots of my time, almost too much time. But at least it beats rotting at home. Wish i could have sth in the middle.

On one hand, i can train myself and get retuned to school lifestyle, but on the other i wont have anymore chances to relax and be totally free & easy. No more sleeping late. No more dota on weekdays. No time to study the jc notes i was given. And when i return im quite tired so cant really do stuff. sheesh.

Anyways, serve is definitely better than school. no homework, except for devotions. no exams, so no need to memorize the speeches. no cca. got some time reserved for group bonding. And the lectures touch on christian stuff instead of academics. Plus i get a little token of appreciation. $$$

Road To Serve

For more than a month, i have been making countless futile attempts to secure a job to last me till school starts again. somehow evrytime i failed i had the impression that God didnt let me get that job cos i was about to get a better one. But it never came.
Instead, i found out that i could go for SERVE, cos it doesn clash with my schedules nor school. I may only need a day off to collect O results. So maybe this is where He wants me to be...

Serve is not a job... but i still do get a little bit of money as allowance.
I do encourage this giving of allowance to servers, even though its not necessary. Cos if its not given, some of the youths would not go serve and instead take up a job in fear of having an empty wallet during the year ahead.
During this period, its also very normal for everyone to be doing jobs and earning $$. So if during the whole time i havent earned any money while all my peers are having hundeds and maybe thousands of dollars added to their name, id feel like a failure.

These are my failed attempts of securing a job.

1. Just after my sec school ended, i immediately searched for job alr. I got a job as a telesaler working for starhub. the office was sumwhere near the new national library. I even attended the 2 training sessions and was ready to start work. Then my boss suddenly told me im not suitable for the job cos he can tell that im sum1 who do not talk alot. So i dun have the personality required for the job. Stupid guy wasted my time at training.

2. Went for interview for job as waiter at some restaurant at club street. It was a very nice place in a quiet but not desolate location, nicely furnished and decorated. Got direct bus to go there summore. I was excited to work there. Then during the interview, his first question was: 'how old are you?' 1st question fail alr. he said i was too young cos theres a bar in the restaurant, so age limit is 18. Forgot to ask him that over the phone. wasted my travel time.

3. Got a part time temp job as a christmas card seller. i got the job, but its a very irregular job and wont last for long cos ppl wil only buy card during a short period of time before christmas. Can be quite lucrative if i sell alot. 40% commission but no hourly rate. i was lazy and doubted the card's sellability, so i only took 10 packs of cards and sold it at church, used the remaining 2 packets for myself and then quit the job.

4. Apprached Pastor Henry to ask for job in church. But he cant grant me that cos he would be busy with serve so he cant be there to supervise me and make sure i dont slack.

5. Asked my friend working in fullerton hotel to recommend me a job there. (cant do the same job as her cos its female-only.) She gave me the number and email add for the HR dept. I called and they said theres vacancy (but din say for what job.) So i wrote in a resume applying for whatever position i qualify for. it took 2 weeks for them to reply: no available position.

6. Found a job nearby - at holland road. Caltex petrol station. Me n my fren went for interview... and same as the 2nd job... too young! Also limit 18. I applied for either cashier or pump attendant. I tot.. i surely qualify n no alcohol, drugs n stuff. The manager explained: Cashier - have to sell cigarets. so i have to be of smoking-legal age too. Pump attendant - petrol is potentially hazardous, so i cant be trusted to handle it. Wth....

Between these 6 instances where i went personally to the workplace, theres many failed attempts over the phone, where i found out some stuff about the job that put me off, or i tell them stuff n they say i dun qualify, or no more vacancy. The jobs include - hamper packing, hospital assistant, banquet waiter, bellboy, stock counter and floor staff.

Ah well... my next 2 months is occupied now and i need not worry about getting bored at home, wasting time, or having an empty wallet. Hehe.

DID YOU SEE THE RAINBOW??
If you looked at the skies between 5.30 to 7pm yesterday, you would have witnessed a spectacular sight. During that period, it was drizzling slightly all over singapore, but it never developed into a shower.
The intense sunlight of the setting evening sun combined with the falling rain created a clear beautiful spectrum which appeared as a perfect huge arch spanning across the horizon.
I remember it was already drizzling when i met team Swatch having some wet games during their reunion yesterday... but i didnt look at the skies until later when i was going for dinner.
It is the first time i have ever seen such a clear rainbow. While the usual ones are translucent, that one was almost opaque, and simply wonderful. What an amazing sign God sent us on new year's day! Perhaps tha could signify more wonderous things to come during this year.
Brace Yourselves!

The old has gone, The new has come!

A very happy new year to all! Only this year did i notice how terribly close Christmas is to the new year. Good or bad thing?i dunno. Its kinda cool that the beginning and the end occurs at the same time. That is, the end of the past year and the beginning of tHe new year.

Whenever it comes to the last half an hour of the year, i always get super sentimental... i spend the whole time flashing back on the events & experiences during the year; how i have changed during the year or how those events have changed me, and getting myself mentaly prepared to put whatever undesirable things onto the departing train and welcome the new year with a fresh start.

Last night i experienced what it was like to have a year passed in the blink of an eye. And it came so swiftly i was caught unprepared. Since there was no nightwatch service so i spent the last hours of the year at home. I thought there were a few minutes more, so i went about doing my own stuff. And when i was peeing halfway, i suddenly heard lotsa screams and the host on TV shouted "HAPPY NEW YEAR SINGAPORE!!" So of course i knew what that meant and i was like "what? the year has passed already? so fast? hey, im not ready yet!!" I had this kind of feeling like as if the train left without me. Haha. Anyway... what a place to spend the first second of the new year - in front of a toilet bowl! Lucky im not some superstitious person, if not it may signify bad luck of some sort.

Just after the new year began, the first thing i did was to bring the new year greeting to all my online contacts on msn. But there were only about 15 of them, and less than 10 responded. So i extended the greetings to those who werent online or responsive by a tag on their blogs. For those who dint have blogs... 2bad! haha. And thats where i 'lost' to a 'competitor'! Nadine Foo was about 10 minutes earlier than me to go around to ppl's blogs to tag. And then i realised... SHE WISHED HAPPY NEW YEAR ON EVERYONE'S BLOG EXCEPT MINE!!! Thats so saddening la. not that im jealous but... it feels like im the odd one out.

Anyway, as commonly practiced, a new year comes with new year resolutions! So what r everyone's resolutions? As for me, right now the biggest wish is to be filled with joy and satisfaction when i collect my O lvl results in 1+ months time. Other resolutions can be made further in the year, cant it? haha =)