Goodbye 2009, Hello 2010.

2009 marked a very important year in my life.

It was the year I finally graduated . It was a year I finally had time to spend with the friends far away from home, and was allowed the chance to open my eyes to the world out of Singapore. (Thank you, Christopher, Manuel and Tony for hosting me and my friends in Germany. Thank you, Shelleys, for the best Irish hospitality one could ask for, time and time again.) It was also the year parents of both sides finally met. :)

It was the year I felt new found hope for my future. A year of painful lessons and revelations, of beautiful experiences of love and joy - A story of growth.

I've made a couple more new great friends, little surprises along the way, and kept the old ones close at heart. (Thank you, facebook)

By the end of 2009, I can finally see what I've been working towards - I can see my future with much more clarity now.

2009 is a year I will continue to hold close to my heart. So thanks all for being a part of it, big or small, they've impacted my life in one way or another. I shall use these experiences to keep improving myself as a person through the next decade.

Thank you for always believing in me, you guys know who you are. Love each and every one of you reading this and I wish you guys the best for the new decade. Let us remind one another in darker times that Life is not for the weak, that we have to keep battling on through the bad times, to earn the good. Never give up. That's the only way we learn to appreciate what we have earned. We all know this deep down inside, we just need to be reminded once in awhile. So keep reminding me when necessary, and I hope to return the favour.

I've got so many things to say, I'm on a roll here. But I'm sure you guys already know what's in my heart. ;) I shall end the monotony with a cliche: Happy New Year, and have a blast! More love, less hate!

Lovelovelove,
Nura

Happy Xmas & a Merry New Year!

Happy Xmas & a Merry New Year!

I've got loads of beautiful town Xmas photos but obviously I'm lazy at uploading photos especially after my macbook died. Sigh.

Here's to a refreshing better year ahead!

This amuses me to no end

٩(-̮̮̃•̃)۶ ٩(̾●̮̮̃̾•̃̾)۶ ٩(͡๏̯͡๏)۶ ٩͡[๏̯͡๏]۶ ٩๏̯͡๏)۶ ٩(●̮̮̃●̃)۶ ٩(•̮̮̃•̃)۶ ٩(-̮̮̃-̃)۶

(◡‿◡✿) (｡◕.◕｡) (◕‿◕✿) ƸӜƷ

God

Everybody, pray for me!
But I'm Atheist.
Then pray to your Atheist God!
Oh alright, I guess that's myself.

Micro-blogging

Twitter is seriously making it difficult to blog long thoughtful coherent posts anymore.

I never knew I could ever talk in short sentences online. I'm all for the details, I lap it all up, but lately, with the existence of Facebook statuses, Twitter and the equivalent, it seems like the attention span of people on the internet is decreasing, including mine.

In the first place, lots of people are resorting to internet journalism instead of the good old print newspaper and the articles online are always encouraged to be as succinct as they possibly can be. From "Ireland is losing (insert specific amount) of money and increasing debt due to (insert various reasons), and the few ways they're attempting to deal with it is by (insert solutions)", it's now enough to just say "Ireland's losing lots of money".

At least the message is more accessible with the Internet and micro-blogging but are the information enough material to build your opinions on the particular subject matters? Because most people end up just skimming through the statuses and Twitter updates and not bothering to read up on the issues more, and in the end the only message they get is "Russia causing problems" and have that little thought lingering in their minds, and forming unjust opinions on Russians. Just another example.

That's a whole long thought process I totally typed out as I speak (in my mind). I hope it makes sense to you anyway. You can catch my random spurts of little thoughts on Twitter (link on the right).

Decisions

I'm slowly realising how scary decisions can be. I'm petrified at making a decision, simply because I know how every big decision has the ability to make your life completely change its course.

And how could we tell which is the right path to take so early in life? Suddenly, I feel as though I've been making a series of mistakes in making choices in the past year. I was offered a job right after my graduation but I've already pre-booked my tickets to Ireland and Europe for 3 months, to spend time with my friends and my loved ones there. Afterall, I've been studying all my life, I thought I deserved that break and I really do miss them. The job though, wasn't willing to wait for me, which I totally understand. I went on for my break and came back jobless. Back then, I thought it was a good choice, but was it really?

Then I got offered a couple of interviews. One of which was a good organisation recommended to me by a friend. The bosses seemed to like me, even explicitly said they wanted to hire me, only to have things screwed up when they lost my portfolio (which they've found only recently), and the upper management suddenly decided not to hire anyone and even retrenched people in the company due to the lack of funds.

So I was left hanging again. Finally, I had another job offer from this very big organisation, which would definitely add a lot of weight in my resume. After going through a series of interviews with them, and tests, they claimed I was hired. Claimed. I've yet to see a single contract yet. When they told me I was hired, I was estatic of course. I even rejected two temporary positions at a well known production company and radio statio (because I figured, a permanent position is better, and the benefits of this permanent position outweighed all others.) only to be left hanging on a thin thread again, seeing they keep delaying my 'deployment' with no exact estimate of time I have to wait. You can say, it's just my luck, but the fact that I've rejected two temporary positions, and now seemingly left with nothing again, doesn't make me feel very good about myself. It's been making me feel terrible. It's almost getting tougher and tougher to be positive but I know drowning in self pity will not get me anywhere. At times like this, it's so tempting and so easy to give up. But I shall not be tempted, and I shall be easy. So I've started sending out cover letters and resume to companies again but I'm losing hope of coming across 'real professionalism' in huge corporations.

I don't have the luxury of depending on my parents or anyone while waiting for a job. Money is depleting or should I say, have depleted if not for some kind souls still giving me money on Hari Raya. You can only imagine how it will affect my self esteem if my luck doesn't pick up any sooner. I'm someone who hates the dependency of people in welfare states. So you could only imagine how I'd hate having to live off anyone. And it's quite amazing how the new year is silently creeping up on us and is only a month away. What a complete waste of time.

Money isn't everything but it will buy me a plane ticket to be with my partner again. Money has been the reason I've always come closest to ending the relationship in the last 3 years. Which is why sometimes I wonder - Have we succeeded in this long distance relationship so far? Or have we failed in giving it up? I could never have done any of this if it was with anyone else. He's been so patient and understanding, I've come to realise it'll be very selfish of me to even spare a thought of ending this beautiful relationship... I'm sidetracking again. :(

It'll be his turn to come down next year. I wish things will be different then and my 21st year will turn out to be something worth remembering.

Work culture

What I've noticed in the Central Business District in the evenings - Mondays to Thursdays, from 5-6pm, the Western expats would form the majority of the people in the MRT stations. Basically, most of them leave promptly at the end of their shift. You'll see more Asians casually strolling out of their offices at 8.30pm.

On Fridays though, the Asian workers tend to rush off for family end-of-week gatherings etc, while the majority of the Western expats would linger around a little longer, crowding the pubs in the area by 8.30pm.

Amusing differences in work cultures.