final day, birthday dinner
Today was the long-awaited final day of work. It came sweetly enough. The associates, for some strange reason, decided to back off today and gave us almost negligible work, leaving the day free and lovely for our own activities. I spent the rest of the afternoon clicking photos at my fellow interns and capturing some of our favourite associates too. ;p Took a couple of hilarious videos as well. This is what we get up to when we're extremely bored. ;)
Birthday dinner with parents at greenwood, my maiden trip there. Coq 'n' bull was purely a beef place. And to satisfy my curiosity, I ordered the famous wagyu beef. It was, sadly, not up to my expectations. I guess my standard of a good beef is one which is thick, slightly soft and extremely juicy. Wagyu beef certainly doesn't fulfil any of those descriptions. It was grilled and the meat tasted normal. There were bits of fatty parts which were just soft and mushy, which just isn't something a beef ought to taste like. Oh well. It's a pity it was so expensive too. Nevertheless, the dessert made up for it. I ordered yam flavoured ice-cream at estivo gelateria, which was in the same area. And gosh, the sweet smell of yam coupled with the creamiest texture ever made the taste absolutely tantalising. My mom and I simply exclaimed squeals of delight spontaneously after having just one mouthful. Lovely, lovely. :)
Yep, this is the australian wagyu beef sirloin, medium rare.
Look at the mountainous estivo ice-cream! It tastes even better than it looks. ;p
Mission trip from tomorrow till wednesday. Pray for safety yeah, with flash floods and all, and hopefully an experience worth savouring and remembering will be taken away from this trip.
life update
The wait is over. The suspense disappears. That, I'm glad.
Results came and went. Was more or less what I expected. Thankful that the paper I screwed up real bad turned out alright (in my opinion), and slightly disappointed that the other two papers which I worked hard for was okay only. Oh well. At least I can rest easy.
Last day of internship tomorrow, and the associates are gearing up on their workload for us. There's seldom a moment's rest.
Had a chance to attend my first EGM ever. It was quick and painless as there was only one resolution to pass. Thereafter, a range of catered food was laid outside the meeting room for the shareholders. It looked absolutely tempting, with mee siam, wanton, shui jing bao, spring rolls, samosas, chicken wings, sandwiches and various puffs just waiting to be devoured. It's a pity it was held in the middle of the morning, around 11am, and not wanting to spoil my appetite for lunch, I only took one sandwich and one shui jing bao. The rest were purely food-candy for my eyes. :p There was this particular old lady who kept coming back and taking platefuls of food. It must've been at least 5 times or more. And each time, it was not merely one or two items, but a whole mountain! For her size, she sure can eat. And probably because the food's free anyway, heh.
I've figured out my invaluable skill - reading road maps. The lawyer who brought me along to the EGM didn't know how to get to the place we were going because it was in the east. So I whipped out his street directory, mapped out a route and directed him while he was driving. We expected ourselves to be late, but because of his superb driving speed and my equally superb reading skills (heh heh), we were there on the dot, in 20 minutes flat. Who says women can't read road maps? ;)
work, interns, food
Midweek. Sorta.
The associates are mad. I suspect they're making us work twice as hard knowing how soon their invaluable cheap help will come to an end. Piles of files just stack themselves up, and endless work gets thrown at us repeatedly, so much so they drive us interns insane, literally. Halfway through the day, we started horsing around, waging war and firing tabs at each other. It eased the growing numbness in our minds, albeit displaying a childish aspect of ourselves. Yep, I must fight against the "staid and boring" image of working adults. ;p
My fellow interns are nuts. Having discovered my blog, they're forever bugging me to blog about the little mundane details of what I do at work. I think they're becoming far crazier now, believing that if they're extreme enough, they earn themselves their one mention of fame on this page, ha. ;p There you go, guys! ;)
One must really try the dim sum place at lau pa sat. It's a newly renovated place which alone occupies at least 8 stall spaces. One of the associates treated the interns to lunch there yesterday. Of particular interest is the
ha kao. It's huge, and inside are many many small prawns. When bit into one, the prawns just suddenly spill out (actually it feels more like the
ha kao giving birth to a litter of jumping prawns), giving the person eating it a pleasant surprise. At least, that's what happened to me. ;) Too bad, no pictures.
And today, my tongue was fixated on satisfying itself with a dessert of some sort. So after work, I popped down to cedele at level 1 of my office building, with initial plans to just feast my eyes on the cakes. But seeing led to salivating and ended up with me willingly handing money over to the lady in exchange for a slice of chocolate walnut cheesecake. Heh.
Pity it doesn't taste as good as it looks. Perhaps it was the end of the day, which made the cheese slightly sourish. And the cheese wasn't as thick either. I've tried the all-famous hilton american cheesecake, and that was pretty authentic, although it does not look as alluring. Full, rich cheese. :) The oreo cheesecake at the Tea Party along Bukit Timah Road deserves my thumbs-up too.
Sudoku is highly addictive. I chanced upon it while taking breaks in between work. And I realised once I start on a puzzle, I just have to finish it, no matter how long it takes. It's precisely because there's a definite answer at the end of it that pushes me to continue. It's pure mathematical logic, something which I'm all too familiar with. My fellow interns have railed at me for playing and leaving them in the lurch. Haha.
gently does it
sigh. so many things going through my mind, so many things dwelling deep within my heart, i don't know where the ache truly emanates from. i wish i could cry to ease the pain.
sigh, yet another heavy day
The weekend came and went. The drudgery of work faces me for yet another week; I'm so thankful this is the last.
Yesterday was pleasant enough. Met a friend and had dinner at two rochester park. Heh. Decided to check out what the fuss was all about. Indeed, it was an immensely beautiful place. Hidden beneath the natural green surroundings, the alfresco dining was relaxing and peaceful. We went early and manage to get a seat even without prior reservation. Contrary to what today's Lifestyle article featured, the waiters, although young, were willing to do their best and serve us. Obliging and courteous, they were. :) Between us, we shared an appetiser (hot spicy buffalo wings) and a main course (tenderloin steak with mushroom sauce). The appetizer was spanking hot! My friend and I were busy wiping our sweat after just one wing. Heh. The steak, however, in my opinion, could not compare to the one at black angus. It was slightly on the tough side and less juicy.
Yup, those are the "kick yo' ass" hot wings. And it was only level 2 spicyness. Heh.
Oh well, it does look good. ;p
After the dinner, we headed down to UCC to meet up with the rest of my sc friends to watch the play Man of Letters, written by Jean Tay and the music and lyrics composed by Dick Lee. It's a love story intertwined with the political unrest of the 1950s. The more hilarious parts and moving parts were in act 2. It was an overall okay performance.
The play had a hidden agenda - we wanted to see the new boyfriend of one of our friends, heh. So we asked her to drag him along, and another friend of mine brought hers as well, so as not to make the new guy feel too weird. ;p My gut instinct tells me that some reservations should be made about this new guy, but oh well, it's hard to say anything anyway, especially when my close friend looks so happy.
happily alone
Work has begun to take its toll on me. Hm. Let me rephrase that. Work only seems to have taken its toll on me because of other simultaneous activities in my life. I overestimate my ability to handle everything at one shot once exams were over, and am now suffering the brunt of my over-enthusiasm. :( I don't even feel like I'm having a holiday at the moment. Sigh. Perhaps once all this craziness has died down, and the activities sort themselves out one by one, then the peace I've been searching for will naturally come. :)
It's the weekend I've been waiting for. All alone in my corner now; the rest of the interns have gone out of office to do their respective work. I'm glad for the chance to be alone, actually. Immerse myself in a reflective mood and enjoy eating what I truly want for lunch, heh. Yami yoghurt, here I come! :)
heart is heavy
I didn't realised I had been surviving on something very important all along - a word from afar. Sigh.
understanding
I finally realised why working people lack the time and energy to regularly update blogs. After spending a whole day at the office mulling over work, the last thing they want to do is to blog about their oh-so-boring day. It's really a committment to keep writing, and stay in a reflective mode when so many things are going through their minds. The thousand and one things that need to be done never cease to hound them. I'm living the reality, and I'm just an intern.
best news ever
A draft of my testimony for the mission trip has led me to reflect once again how real God has been in my life. Truly, His love is immense and boundless, and completely unfathomable. We often look at ourselves and think how God can forgive and accept a person as filthy as us, but through the blood of Christ, He can and He did. We don't have to question how such an amazing thing is possible, but simply bask in the knowledge that He's forgiven us and we're reconciled to Him. Now, isn't that the most wonderful news ever? :)
retention of me
Sigh. It's been such a lovely week...
I've heard of all the pitfalls about working, about being tired out at the end of the day, not having enough time to exercise, not having enough time to do anything else but crash, no social life, growing fat due to constant munching in between meals, etc. I know it's way too early to tell, but the perfectionist streak in me tells me that I need to fight against all these tendencies. I will first need to train my mind to be energetic even after a long day. I will need the will to keep a consistent regime of exercise. I must make time for my friends. I must make time for my regular readings. I must fight the urge to snack. It's all sounds way easy to say, but I know it's so much harder to sustain it. For me, it's only 4 days, and I'm only doing intern work. So of course I would have lots of energy leftover. But at least I'm made aware of these potential potholes I may fall into, and hopefully try my very best to avoid them.
All the interns work for the pool of directors and associates; we're not individually attached to any lawyer. So we're given work on an ad-hoc basis. So far, though, I've been working for a particular director, and he's very nice. On tuesday and wednesday, he asked me to accompany a client alone to take down notes, the nature of which is not my perogative to disclose. Yesterday, the same boss asked me along to a corporate meeting to take down any remarks the directors of the client company might make. But seriously, I think he just wanted to expose me more to the real working world and the kind of work that the lawyers really do. It's truly an eye-opener. These big companies really live it up in style. The interior design of the client boardroom was magnificent. The chairs had movable backrests, the table was made from silky smooth wood (so smooth that I couldn't help caressing my hand gently across it repeatedly), and there were heavy, sliding wooden doors which added an exotic japanese-oriental feel to it. Superb craftsmanship, superb aesthetics.
The CEO of the client company commanded a formidable presence. He was an old man, around late 50s to early 60s, hair was slickly gelled backwards, with huge square-framed glasses perched on his bridge, at least 1.8m tall, and had a wide frame to top it off. Sitting at the head of the table and speaking in his loud, booming voice, he portrays the image of a CEO only found in chinese serials. When he speaks, everyone gives him their utmost attention. I do admire that kind of power, although I doubt I'm the sort who can command it. I neither possess the personality nor the voice for it.
And I realised, too, that directors are just human beings, like myself. They may seem like bigshots in their spiffy suits and chunky cufflinks, but really, deep down, when they start speaking within their comfort zone outside the restrictions of a formal meeting, it's then their true nature show. They may still appear serious when dwelling on important issues, but the occasional smile and the little slips of hokkien makes them appear very real indeed. And I like that. :) It gives me the assurance that I will still retain myself even if I may engage in their kind of work in the future.
work's fun!
The morning of my fourth day of work.
It's been pretty exciting so far, not quite what I expected internship to be. :p I thought being at the bottom of the rung will mean mundane, meaningless photocopying and faxing. But the work that comes my way far exceeds my personal measure of my capability. Perhaps it's the inherent trust, I don't know. But I'm not complaining. :) Four interns in total, three others are year-two guys. We mix pretty well, considering we're all sitting at the same place and "suffering" together. ;) I realised the workplace is really a testosterone-laden culture. I'm not sure if it means having a tougher time proving oneself if one's a female, though. I'll just take whatever work that comes and do it to the best of my ability. :)
office life
I realised I dislike working. And this is only the first day. Sigh.
No, let me retract that statement. I like working, I don't mind having my mind challenged. But the environment which it is set in reeks of unbearable coldness (literally) and repressiveness. Sigh. I don't understand why central air-conditioning has to be tuned to such an unbearable level, which is simply unconducive for working and entirely comfortable for sleeping. Then comes the working clothes. Argh. Stiff, stuffy, and unbreathable. Lastly, I'm not used to working on non-roller chairs, haha. I like to pamper my butt with more cushion and mobility. All in all, these are the changes I would highly recommend for a more productive working environment. If I had a choice in future, I would pile my office with cushions and pillows, and make sure everyone wears oh-so-soft cotton and have the aircon at 26 degrees celcius, my ideal temperature for optimum efficiency.
Working really sucks the life out of adults. No wonder they are so staid and boring. Oh no. What if office life changes me into that? I can't bear it. :(
peace
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6-7Letting go, letting God. The peace within is immense.
i'm named serena for a reason.
talk, talk
In every conservation I had for the past few days, the topic of elections will inevitably pop up, and every imaginable comment and opinion gleaned from the happenings and the candidates will start to dominate the conversation, and this can go on for a good half hour. It's truly interesting to have such a wide variety of viewpoints where people see the ongoings in different lights and start to proffer all sorts of theories and suggestions. Finding the right people to engage with in such discussions is vital. ;p
Went for my first rally in the afternoon. The lunchtime pap one which, in my opinion, was very good, in the sense, it covered almost every topic quite extensively and comprehensively. lee hsien loong is indeed an impressive speaker and is thorough in analysing the words and actions of the opposition and making sure his point goes through. But whether his analysis is right or not is a different matter altogether, which shall be reserved only for private comment. ;) By the way, I caught myself on tv, specifically a clip of my hair. My friend, on the other hand (whom I chanced upon when I reached there) had his 3-second fame. Haha.
Went to lee & lee recruitment tea thereafter. It changed my perspective of the firm, partly through talking to the person in charge of the corporate department, who was good-looking, charming, and spoke well, heh. ;)
Exams may be over, but I'm merely out of the pan and into the fire. Heh. Okay, not that serious, but I do have loads of planning to do for the mission trip. That's on top of my other agendas for this coming hols. It's going to be busy.
I need prayer. Badly.
sigh
Yay, exams are over... It's the familiar feeling of having nothing to do all of a sudden, after toiling sweat and blood and tears for the past few weeks. It's a surreal feeling. Went out after the paper with a group of my law friends. Ate at brewerkz at clarke quay, played a very challenging interactive game called "Who's the Boss?" at Settler's and finally had dinner at an old coffeeshop around chinatown. It was fun, gathering with my law friends. It helps that this bunch of guys are exceptionally funny and I can just laugh all the time.
There's just so much time now. I feel lost.
And sigh, I feel down too.
angus
Today's my parents' silver anniversary. Long time eh. We celebrated it last night by having dinner at angus opposite one fullerton, just beside the singapore river. The atmosphere was perfect, with the cool night breeze blowing from the waters and the night lights emanating from the shenton way towers in the background. The bunk boats chugging on the river ferrying tourists to and fro added a nostalgic touch to it. All in all, as my dad aptly puts it, it's just like sydney.
It was steak galore that night. Teriyaki top sirloin steak for me, medium rare. Absolutely juicy. Topping it off with english mustard (which, by the way, tastes almost like wasabi), the combination gives one a giddy euphoric rush. And the portions were so huge! They had fantastic desserts like the new york cheesecake and mudpie, but even such tantalising sweets had to be shelved aside due to our burgeoning stomachs. I, for one, am still digesting yesterday's dinner.
Looks are deceiving. ;p It was very good. Yummy. :)
