reunions

end of the year / start of the year is always reunion season.. i dunno why.. it's like suddenly everyone gets nostalgic or maybe it's like everyone wants to check in.. to see how far they themselves have come in the past year and wants to see how they fare against their old classmates.. haha

so i had 2 reunions over the last week : 1st one for my 2nd/3rd year poly class and the 2nd for my primary 6 class.

but.. it's always interesting to meet up with old friends.. you get to see how some of they have changed. some have decided to bury themselves in their work in pursuit of a better life. others have or are preparing to move on to another stage of their lives - marriage and children. while some.. just don't seem to have changed at all - in terms of either appearance or character.. haha

well, this brings to mind the question of whether and how much *i* have changed in their eyes, doesn't it? hm.. am i still that joker from p6? or that nerd from poly? haha.. some food for thought there..

wins & losses

badminton tournament on thursday..

oh well.. we lost in the preliminary round of the badminton tournament 3 to 2. didn't get to play since i was one of the reserves. but i hear the "best" loser of this round gets to advance to the next round too, so there's still a slim chance of me getting that second sporting trophy.. haha

so anyway, we got a treat from the big boss for all our efforts in the competition. and we were coming out of the restaurant when i heard someone running after us shouting "excuse me! excuse me!".

i thought he was calling to someone else who had forgotten his belongings or something when he suddenly stopped in front of me. he introduced himself as a journalist from some NTUC magazine.

"we're doing a feature on good-looking young men who choose to go bald. we're trying to put a positive spin on hair loss. uh.. not that i'm saying you're suffering from hair loss, of course... and i think you'd be someone who we can feature. so.. are you interested? can i have your name card or contact?"

wow.. ok.. i sure didn't see that one coming.. haha.. so i said ok and handed him one of my name cards. hm.. so will i make into a magazine? haha.. who knows.. maybe this will make up for the horrible picture in the last publication that i was in..

wisdom

been feeling this pain in the back of my mouth for the past few days. dammit.. wonder if it's my wisdom tooth causing it..

so went to the dentist's and got it checked out. sucks cos i just went to the dentist like 3 weeks ago and this problem didn't show up then and now i'm back there again.

long story short - the doc says my right lower wisdom tooth is pushing my gums up while the upper one is biting into it, causing it bleed and swell. so his advice is to remove the upper tooth - that get me relief from the pain. time will tell if the lower one will give me problems in the future.

so i said, if removing the upper one will relieve the pain immediately, then do it. and so i present to you...




hm.. it's surprising how long the damn bugger is. the exposed portion looks so small. even the dentist was like "oh, you have a cute little wisdom tooth on top that's biting down the gum below." well, that cute little thing has been causing me a world of pain these past few days.. looks can be so deceiving.. haha

well, that little adventure is over and done with. let's hope the lower ones don't cause me any trouble in the future.

anyway, the trip to the dentist was pretty cool. the one which i went to today had a quite a few fancy gadgets sia.. first of all, there was a huge massage chair in the waiting area. then i was in the dentist chair, he wanted to show me my wisdom teeth, so he took out his super big nikon digital camera to take photos of my teeth. after taking the photos, he took out the compact flash card and put them into his apple computer running Mac OS X to show me the pictures. and the x-ray machine they have is super cool too. put your head on the chin rest, bite down on this rod. and robotic arms extend to hold your head in place and the x-ray camera spins from left to right in front of your face. so futuristic sia! haha

anyway, the x-ray shows that i only have 3 wisdom teeth. seems there isn't any top left wisdom tooth at all.. hm.. weird.. so i guess after removing this one, i'm only 2/3 as wise as i used to be? haha

2006

okie.. time to review the year that has passed as always..

2006.. 2006.. well, i guess it hasn't been a bad year..

work-wise, i think i've more or less settled into a comfortable place in the project. i think slowly with experience, i've grown to be more confident in my abilities to do the tasks assigned to me. i've also grown closer to the people i work with. shifting office from the 22nd floor to the 8th floor meant a big change in working environment - still trying to adjust to it, i think. end of the development phase of the project means we're currently in the operations phase. that will bring it another set of challenges - a new boss and many new processes.. but who knows? it could turn out for the better.

i think as a person, i've grown too. maybe it's the spillover effect from getting confident at my job, but i think i've become more self-confident. i've also developed a stronger sense of self - in the sense that i've become more self aware now. i know what i stand and don't stand for. i understand why i behave in certain ways. i learnt to stand up against things more when last time i would just accept wat the situation hands me.

i've also learnt to let certain things go. certain stuff and issues that i've been hanging on to for a while now that i've decided to let go and move on. painful at first because i think somehow having these things around breeds a certain sense of familiarity and safety? and that's why ppl find it hard to let go sometimes. they become addicted to the emotions that these things trigger. watever the case is, it always feels good to let go of these excess baggage and move on.

and i rediscovered my passion! my passion for badminton, that is.. hehe. forgotten just how much i miss playing badminton.. really glad that i found a like-minded group of people who plays badminton every week. altho i do rue the fact that people more than 20 years older than me can still kick my ass at the game.. haha. goes to show i still have a long way to go..

faith-wise.. well, i still go to church on sundays! most of the time.. haha.. have to confess there was a while there when i found excuses not to go - not sure why too, but i'm more or less over that. still no intentions of being involved in a church group - still no interest watsoever.

had a few chances to travel a few times this past year.. got to see wat a real beach with clear waters looks like in Bintan. got lost on the way to K, lol.. and got to experience the crazy traffic of Manila. hoping to see the amazing scenery of NZ in 2007.. hope it can happen.


hm.. speaking of 2007.. wat to expect from it..

1. hope to be able to go to NZ : sky diving and bungee! yea!

2. dsta inter-division badminton tournament : hope can win something.. that would bring up the number of sporting awards i have up to a grand total of 2! haha..

3. microsoft certified system admin : man, this certification course will take up mondays, wednesdays and fridays of my time for 6 months! not to mention the hours i need to study for the tests... sigh.. super a lot of effort needed. i know i need to do it, but it doesn't make it any easier to do.. haha.. still have to get my boss's approval to go ahead tho..




okie.. for that's it for my review of 2006. here's hoping 2007 will be an even better year!