RAMBLINGS: My fellow interns.

In-between my hacking, blowing of nose and slightly raging fever, Sydney almost feels like it didn't happen at all.

This time, last week, I was lounging on the bed, watching MasterChef or The Voice with the guys. YW would make some really random and strange comment, to which KM would always reply to, though with slight 'annoyance'. And I would be sitting there laughing till my sides ache.

I imagine that that is what it is like to have two older brothers.



Thank you guys for making Sydney so awesome! :D

RAMBLINGS: Breathe.

Whoo boy. Things have been coming up one after another that I haven't had time to collect my thoughts. I have completely given up on my one-photo-an-internship-day project. Well, not entirely. I update once in a long, long, long while on my Instagram.

Today, we met up with C, J and two other fellow interns for lunch-cum-feedback session. For me, I feel that I'm learning quite a bit (Even if it's brainless work.) as compared with my other friends, who are on internship and doing nothing. Doing nothing is the worst. I don't ever want to do nothing and get paid. My brains will go the dumps and I'll degenerate as a human being.

But whatever it is, I feel extremely fortunate to be in this program. Really, truly grateful. Even though I'm doing another semester to make up for it (And will most certainly complain like there's no tomorrow when term starts.). My fellow interns have been nothing but the best! They are all really nice and funny (Especially YW, who makes me laugh till my stomach hurts so bad. I'm convinced that at the end of my internship, my abs will make Victoria Secret's models weep.). The new guy, KM, fits in perfectly!

Ahhh! Can't wait till YW, KM and I get our butts to Down Under! I'm fretting about sleeping alone and winter work clothes but OH. SO. EAGER!!! :DDD
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I guess the most exciting thing so far is that I now have my very own DSLR!!! It's a Canon EOS 600D. Very, very cool and I'm so pleased with it. Only that I feel like I'm holding a time bomb. And I handle it only over my bed. Which means that I'm never ever going to bring it out.

This is exactly why I do not bother with branded stuff. I'll just hole everything up in their original packaging and just admire them from time to time. *shrugs*
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I'm still trying to figure things out. But I thank God that I found the most amazing boyfriend/ best guy friend (Just because Chua will FOREVER be my best girl friend.). Our personalities are the complete opposite so we fit like a puzzle.

I laid out all my cards one day and he still loves me like before. I can't get any luckier. xoxo

RAMBLINGS: Day 6.

Egg Benny for breakfast.

This is what I had for breakfast today. And I think I will be having it for the rest of my internship. Haha. It's small, cheap and probably the healthiest out of all the unhealthy (But very tasty.) food.
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We had a briefing that lasted for 3.5 hours today. And enough sleep meant that I was pretty attentive. Though my eyelids started to carry weights at some points, I managed to pull myself back. WOOT!

H went through the home, health and travel insurance policies and he was incredibly detailed. It was a long briefing but I thought it was very helpful. For the past week, YW and I pored over home policies from the various insurance companies. Now, they aren't strangers but acquaintances, maybe even friends.


Sandy's victory sign.

Headed down to City Hall after work to meet up with dear S. She's leaving this Friday and won't be back till a month later. ):

But before I met up with S, I spotted B at the station! He was on his way for a haircut, which was pretty random to me. Haha. Like I would leave haircuts for a lazy Sunday afternoon but I guess guys don't need too long for their hair. Anyway, it was really cool because just this morning we were wondering how he should return me my cab fare money. And TADAHHH! There he was, like RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME!

B's an atheist or a freethinker, depending on your religion. Very diplomatic. And oh!!! From day 1 of the training, I thought he look like a Hong Kong actor but I couldn't figure out the name of the actor until Friday, when I told S about it. He reminds me of Nick Cheung! Super duper!!!
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Anyway, I got a few minutes with MY after that. He thinks I'm trying to buy tons of clothes so that I needn't repeat any of them. He can't be MORE wrong. It's just that I'm really fussy, especially when it comes to office wear. So I won't hesitate to buy anything that I like. Which hmmm... Seems to happen with every LP's launch (TOMORROW!!!). Haha. But see? I don't spend money on Zara, Topshop and the ilk! My clothes are all below 40 bucks!
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And then, I finally met up with S! Went to my favourite Chopsticks by Asian Kitchen! HAHA. It won't be long till I hit my 20th trip to an Asian Kitchen outlet. Anyway, for the FIRST TIME since I got to know S, I saw her actually eat! So much!!! Haha. But it was quite possibly one of my longest dinners... 7/8 of the time, we were laughing so much! My cheeks and sides hurt so badly! Walked around Suntec after that and laughed some more! Hahaha. Gonna miss her so much when she leaves. ):
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My ramblings are pretty mundane but someday, I will want to read all this and miss internship so bad.

And oh!!! I signed up for Hatha Yoga class 3 weeks back (C told me during my interview that running was back for the knees. And I think she does Yoga or Pilates.) but am gonna get a refund because classes have been shifted to July and I'll be away. ): Was looking forward to it so much! ):

RAMBLINGS: A (Boring) Internship Quickie.

Day 2

Breakfast lane at International Plaza.

I like making my way through International Plaza before I head to work. It's like a night market lane, except that this happens in the morning. Big humans gather around here to grab hearty breakfasts and make morning chitchats. I haven't bought any breakfast here though because the food's oily and really sinful. And when work consumes you, exercise becomes a thing of the past. So I can't afford such evil in my life now. BIG SIGH.

BUT umm... I have Burger King for breakfast? HAHA. It's less oily. *nods head seriously*


Amoy for lunch.

CK brought us to Amoy for lunch. Here you see umbrellas stretch across seats and tissues strategically placed. I ordered dry fishball noodles, hoping that the sauce didn't come out from a bottle. Alas, it did. And the fishballs weren't from the markets so they had this plastic taste. Oh wells. I wasn't really in the mood for queuing.

And it was really warm!


Marriott Hotel.


FICS Annual Conference 2012.


Main course.


Dessert.

Late in the morning, I received a call from C. She had an extra seat at GIA's table and I was available so my night was spent at FICS Annual Conference 2012. This event recognized the smart big humans in the banking and insurance industry. Everyone was clad in stern black and white. I was a little embarrassed to be in my casual waterfall dress and green cardigan so I made my first M.A.C purchase of a pencil eyeliner (WHICH TOTALLY STINKS. LOUSY. USE K-PALETTE. I SWEAR BY IT.) since a year ago?

The dinner was a great experience and M and C are incredibly nice people. I'm really glad that I'm in this internship and they are like the 'parents' (J is the 'older brother'.). I shared a cab with B and we talked about tons of stuff. Thank goodness. I was really afraid of 'awkward silences'.

And I'm never forgetting my cheap pearl earrings. Ever.

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Day 3

7.40am crowd.

This is the crowd I deal with every morning. My alarm rings at 6.30am and I laze in bed till around 6.40am, making up a plethora of reasons why I should go to work. I go down and down my cup of water and have my banana leisurely and then, it's a race against time to reach the station by 7.40am.

After 7.40am, I will have to smell strangers' carbon dioxide and body scents and feel their perspiration on my skin.


Anson Road.

A group of ladies from the Brokers department brought us to Anson for lunch. It was less crowded there and I had chicken rice... I think. The memory's a little hazy. Haha. The place is less crowded but just as warm.


SK-II event.

At night, I made my way down to Jetquay for a SK-II event (This will NOT be the last time that I am there.). It was a fabulous event and I was really glad to meet Romona, Fidah, Shirley, Fel and Juliet! :DDD

Fel, Juliet and I headed to Terminal 3 for a littler dinner after that and I was telling them about 'Fifty Shades of Grey'. Fel gobbled up the book.
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Day 4

Wet market.

I'll walk along the fringe of the wet market every morning. It reeks of fish and raw meat but I love the sight. Someday when I am a big human, I shall get all my groceries from here. They don't have plastic tastes.

On Thursday, I woke up feeling really sick. And I made plans the night before to take MC, so when the alarm rang at 6.30am, I shut it off and was transported into a Japanese ghost story setting. My Japanese friend and I, wearing Japanese school uniforms, were in an old, derelict building. My friend had her DSLR with her and she insisted on going into a vault to take photos, even though I told her it was haunted and dangerous. So she went in and I stood outside, waiting nervously for her. All of a sudden, something sinister zoomed past me and my friend appeared right beside me, her eyes empty and staring straight ahead (She died.). And she whispered that the password to the vault wasn't 'waibility' but 'liability'.

I got up, made my way to work and nearly nodded off during a talk.
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Day 5

View from the train.

One of the rare days when I beat time and reach the station early. The train was pretty empty. YAY ME!


11 stories.

We had a fire drill exercise at around 9am and had to take the stuffy and congested route down 22 flights of steps. I was feeling really claustrophobic but managed to calm myself down.


Assembly area.

Followed the crowd and had to step on yucky grass. SQ and I weren't aware that we had to take our attendance so I think we were reported as student casualties or something like that.


Desk buddies.

My dear friends who accompany me through the drought that the artificial winter has brought upon my skin. I no longer have pillow-soft and kissable lips.

But umm... I never had them in the first place. Haha.


Mini cupcakes.

YW and CK went on an excursion, SQ had an appointment so I was on my own for lunch. I decided to seek refuge from the scorching sun at Gloria Jean' with a al-dente-NOT spaghetti beef bolognese. Lousy, lousy, lousy!!! But I think I will have it again. Until I find another pasta joint. I LOVE PASTA, XOXO!!!

And then, I found a shop that sells mini cupcakes!!! *screams with joy* I shall buy them till I get sick of these bite-sized darlings!
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And that was my boring account of the week. I perused home insurance policies, checked wordings, edited the format of a document. And I think my future supervisor hates me.

This weekend made up for the weekdays though. I attended a sweet, princess-y event on Saturday morning. Elfaine is always so awesome with her events! Had a nice time sharing a table with Eliza and Yvette. (:

I met MY after that for an entire day at Orchard! We had dim sum, walked from one end to the other, had western food for dinner... I'll blog about it soon! And ugh! I bought a portable charge and I think it corrupted my phone. And now, I'm afraid both will blow up in my face, thanks to MY. *rolls eyes*

MY doesn't do much at work but still managed to tire himself so much that he was over an hour late. But I love my ah beng anyway. :DDD We will be taking little Nigel out next week to... Orchard. HAHA. Even little Nigel guessed it. Hahaha. But it's just that Orchard has tons of stuff... And umm, well... GSS is happening! Heh.

Oh! I completed a massive post when I got back.

Today, I jogged, baked and ironed. I burnt my first piece of clothing. Oh wells. There's a new launch on Tuesday. Tee hee.

Alrighty. Thanks for reading this grandmama, lengthy essay of nothingness. Gonna take a shower now, edit Vincent's essay and end the night with policies. SIGH.

But anywway, awesome weekend! :DDD

RAMBLINGS: Day 1.

This was the lovely sky I woke up to in the morn. Though I'm not sure if I should be trembling instead because it isn't normal, is it?!?
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I really like the concept of insurance; an exchange of a promise to protect (Though the presence of money taints it a little.).

But hmm... A desk-bound job is one hell of a mountain to climb for me. Nevertheless, the perusing of brochures today made me feel like a big human.
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Whilst showering, I thought I would rather spend my summer making, serving and smelling coffee, attending casting calls, tutoring or promoting beauty products. But those days are over. I think I have done everything that I wanted to do (Except being a waitress for a fine-dining restaurant.).

And now, it's time to grow up (I know I took an incredibly long time. Don't judge.), do big human stuff and work on my future.

RAMBLINGS: The end is the beginning.

Today closed the curtains on my one week of training and marked the start of the actual internship.

RAMBLING: The I word (Part II).

As my training days draw to an end, my level of stupidity/ ignorance seems to be shooting through the layers of atmosphere rapidly. It's like the tangent curve from 0° to 90°. It's like the upward slope of Mount Everest. It's like when a child releases his helium-filled balloon.

When business jargon is flung around the room viciously and everyone seems to be absorbing like a sponge, I find myself turning into a rock of hollowness.
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Whilst berating myself for not reading up during the last two weeks as initially planned (My plans usually fail. But I still do tons of mental planning.) seems like an easier option, I can be wiser by stepping on the first rung of the ladder. And I think, I would get it all in the end. Slowly, but surely.

Hopefully.

I just need to tell myself that 'insurance' is just another language. 'Deductibles', 'KPI', 'captive insurance' are just like 'benzoyl peroxide', 'BHA (salicylic acid)' and 'tranexamic acid'.

Slowly but surely.

(Do NOT panic.)

RAMBLINGS: The I word.

Right after my first day of training ended, retail therapy was ALL that I could think about. My bones are tired and my flesh has turned into melted jelly. And all that I did today was sit and listen. AND you have no idea how mentally draining it was. I still have no idea what deductibles are.

Oh, hang on. I'd better ask Mum.

Okay. Yay! I know what they are now. Haha.
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I made a friend S. Well, technically, I made friends with her during the briefing in April. And she is sooo awesome! She loves Sammi Cheng so she bought a DSLR and learnt how to use it just so that she could take gorgeous photos of the starlet. And she mastered Cantonese in 3 months! Just because. She keeps scrapbooks of Sammi and flew to Kuala Lumpur for her concert. Her passion is unrelentingly awesome!

The only passion that I ever had was graphic/web-designing. Even then, my skills were really amateurish. But when I had an idea, I worked tirelessly at it. I still remember the night when I was on my bed, thinking of layout ideas and I had the most fabulous idea ever! I couldn't sleep a wink and at 3am, I jumped out of bed, opened up PaintShop Pro (Back then, PSP was THE thing. Okay, now I feel tired AND old.) and spent the next 3 days translating my idea into pixels and codes. The end product was exactly what was in my head and I was just so incredibly pleased and proud of my work!

In retrospect, that piece was nothing more than a child's scribbles but I miss having that sort of passion and drive.

And I wonder if I will ever find it again.