Mulan

This was what happened during the presentation for work yesterday.

When we went for the LG presentation, I was simply accompanying my boss, but the thing is, the people at LG didn’t know that. So they all thought I’m actually ‘working’ for the company I’m in, and as a result, I benefited as much as she did!

This is what happened. They showed us around, presenting their new Home Theatre models and DVD players. That was all cool. What wasn’t cool was when their people starting asking me questions like, “So what kinda DVD player are you looking for?” Because my boss explained earlier that I was researching for a certain type of DVD Combo set for a client. (but in actual fact, I was simply taking my time, scrolling through the features, not paying attention to much detail. The only thing I remember about the Combo set is that it is a DVD Mini-Home Theatre system. Besides that, I knew nothing.) When they asked me stuff like that, I’d usually bluff my way through with either a lot of nodding accompanied with an “I understand” hum (even though it’s more an “I’m confused and I don’t have a clue what you’re talking about” ‘hum’), or, I would be looking up to my boss to cover me. Fortunately, nothing too embarrassing has occurred… yet.

Anyway, back to the story. When the presentation was over, our ‘guide’ scurried across to another part of the room and picked up a sentimental gift. Well, it was quite sentimental to me at least! He went and had brought over a complimentary DVD player for the both of us. The first thought in my head when he handed it to me was, “Is this mine!?” Like far out! You’re GIVING me a DVD player!?
As soon as I came to my senses, I remembered that in our company policy pamphlet, it said that we weren’t allowed to have the gifts given to us by our clients and must have it handed over to the company. I felt disappointed when I remembered this because in all honesty, I really wanted one. I didn’t have access to a DVD player of some sort here in Singapore, so having a DVD player would have been awesome!
As my boss and I went out, I asked her, “Are we actually allowed to keep these gifts?”
She replied, “Yeah. If you want it, you can have it.” I was so happy when I heard this. It was actually an ‘unsaid’ prayer that I had answered! Amazing! Truly God knows what we want even though we don’t ask for them! Thank you God!

My boss then told me, “Actually we’d usually get gifts like a notebook, or a pen. There was this one time when I was given a nice black coat with [name of company]’s name on it, but nothing ever this expensive before. So you are very lucky.”
It’s great to know that God pours His blessings on us, even though we don’t deserve or expect it. I think this really was the highlight of my day. In all honesty, it was a wonderful gift. I couldn’t have asked for more at the time. ^^


In other news, I have been told my enlistment date for NS. It was verbally informed over the phone so it’s not a formal indication that this is actually the exact date that I’m going in. But in any case, I am pretty sure that this is the date that I will be enlisted. My auntie called them as few days ago and found out that my enlistment date is on the 10th of April. So much for being enlisted in March, yet alone coming here to Singapore early hoping to get enlisted in January. Nevertheless, it’s all in God’s hands, and since I’m going in later than expected, I’m looking at this as positively as I can.

Firstly, I will have a bit more time as a civilian. Amoz tells me stories of how it sucks to be in the military and how your entire civilian life is basically at the mercy of the officials. This is where the cruise, the sleeping in and the spontaneous desire to eat come in. For every day when I finish working, I will cherish my freedom by doing what I see fit. This might mean me going back to my relaxing lifestyle before I started working which included me watching movies and comedy sit coms on peekvid dot com. Surely I can do that for a month or so. Easy.
Secondly, I will prepare myself for the army by training again. This probably means afternoon runs in the sun because Amoz told me that I should start training by running in the sun to get used to it for long runs in the army. I don’t think I’ve ever ran more than 4km, so doing long runs will certainly be new to me. A ‘long’ run in the army is around 7-15km, roughly. On top of which, you’ll be carrying your army backpack and rifle.
At the moment, I’m still swimming every Wednesday and Saturday mornings at 6:30am before work. I’m still doing 20 laps but I really have to push myself to do them as quickly as possible because I have to get to work! Once work is over, I think I will be able to take it a lot easier and perhaps get a few more laps in the overall 20. It’ll be nice to relax in the pool and swim underwater like a little fish again. Oh well, just a few more weeks till I can do that! XD


Chinese New Year is coming up. This means that my revenue for being unmarried will increase as the aunties all start pouring in beautiful ‘ang pow’ packets. The other beautiful thing is that I am staying with my grandma on my dad’s side, so all the aunties and uncles will come and visit her. And when they do, I will be there as they start handing out ang pow to all the unmarried nieces and nephews. I think that’s how it works. All I know is that I will be getting them. XP
It’s gotta be terrible for all the aunties and uncles though. Each year they will lose, who knows how many hundreds of dollars, just because of tradition. Some really sneaky aunties will actually leave the country just so they could escape the tradition for that period. But then, how many times can they do that in a decade?

I haven’t been back for Chinese New Year since I left Singapore at the age of 6. So after 11 years, I am back for my first Chinese New Year in over a decade. I can vaguely remember what we do in Chinese New Year. The only thing my eyes were on was the red-packets so every thing else was pretty much a blur. Terrible, I know.