invisalign, be gone

just 1 more week until i see the dentist again!!! currently on refinement aligner 8 of 8, yay :) teeth are not perfect, but probably as good as they would be... then follows the removal of those horrible attachments (which actually makes invisalign NOT invisible), and then the free teeth whitening treatment! of course the retainers will come, but wearing them to sleep is a piece of cake after wearing mouth guard equivalents day in and day out! in any case it's probably a good protection against night time teeth grinding, which i allegedly (used to) do. 

when everything is done and dusted, i will have to write a full review of the experience and results, if only to make my money's worth. 

gone also, will be my no snacking in the day rule, because it was simply too troublesome to eat more then 3 meals a day. this is not bode well for my general diet, health or size, but there is always the option of healthy snacking, maybe? 

the countdown begins, and the end is nigh, 3 cheers! 

four years and counting

took me a while to figure out the actual date i stepped off the boat. turned out that it was july 13, 2009, which makes it 4 years and 2 days. now long past my initial 2-3 year horizon, i'm kinda in no man's land - not quite a newbie in this vast city anymore, but also not quite a proper resident (that comes after 5 years, as all immigrants know). 

i must have mentioned this before, but a little over 4 years ago, as I was lingering around the family home, i thought to myself that i might never return to this same home the same way again. and how true that turned out to be. now married, fat(ter) and on my second job, i have inevitably moved on. in fact, i will never be the same person i was again. of course, everyone grows up and is shaped by the circumstances around. people learn different things in different ways.

for some reason, i have always deliberately chosen to learn things the hard way. i wouldn't dare go as far as to say that my life has been a difficult one. nay, far from it, and i must not take for granted the multitude of privileges i have enjoyed. yet, for some reason, it's almost as if i love putting myself in complicated situations. case in point is this recent job move - it seemed as if all the signs were pointing to the fact that i should not take it, but in my heart of hearts, i knew that it would be more of a life choice than a career choice. now safely on the other side (not even safe because i haven't even received my first pay cheque!), i still cannot decide if it was the best thing to do. But the wonderful thing about these situations is that I know that i would have fallen into a trap at some point if not for the fact that there is One who covers these dangers and makes the path straight (in a rather crooked way, if you know what i mean).

anyway, so event after event, year after year, people come and people go, family grow up and older and home, all your friends get married and have kids, and I am well and truly disconnected. whatsapp is only good to a small extent and facetime, forget it there is no appropriate time difference. but these are all excuses, underneath it all the judge of all these relationships is effort. and i have fallen terribly short in that department. perhaps i'm now paying the price, or perhaps it will also be a measure of how deep friendships run (they say the best kind of friendships are the kind where you can pick up right where you left off, anytime.... but i might be pushing the "anytime" factor a bit here).     

right now, i quite miss home, and i can't wait to be back in september, after a whole 21 months. i need to brace myself for some shocks and changes (well all my colleagues have been to singapore more recently than i have and i have no idea what they are talking about with all the new developments). but somewhere somehow, i know that london has now become such an integral part of me, something i'm not sure i can give up easily. but one more important thing i've learnt, is something that i've always known from the cross-stitch that hung at home in singapore - that home, is where the heart is. can the heart be in more than one place at a time? i believe so, and i think the 4 years have made me feel at home in london where my life and immediate family are, whilst my upbringing will always make me feel at home in singapore where my roots, family, friends and affections lie. 

what confused thoughts... 

a new chapter

tomorrow, i start a new job. 

i never thought i'd say this while still in London. once again i'm reminded how divine providence has led me to my first job, new city, new life et al. i had assumed that i would eventually move back home still in the same job, having settled in comfortably. too comfortably, perhaps. 

then came the numerous interviews, both for practice and for exploration purposes. many doors were closed because of many reasons. again, it was divine providence that has led me through the next open door. it was not the easiest of decisions and it had not gone all smoothly, but I believe that God's timing is perfect and He will see everything through perfectly. the husband has been incredibly supportive through the process and it was partially his firm conviction that it was the right move that also convinced me that this was a step in the right direction.

we shall see starting tomorrow.

obviously i leave the old shop with many fond memories, some not-so-fond ones, many good people met (in the professional sense) and some not-so-good ones. i hope i had made a positive impact on the job and the people around me. I hope that I have kept up my testimony and that it had a positive impact on the lives i have interacted with. 

a new challenge to build up a christian testimony in another un-christian workplace starts imminently. 

so much has happened in the last couple of months, absolutely hectic days and nights, as well as a 2 week break in which i had grand plans but small accomplishments. 

i had planned to become all domesticated, but in reality, all i had achieved were: (1) cook lasagna, which is super hard work (2) bake a victoria sponge, which is almost impossible without a proper mixing bowl  (3) attended a funeral and ventured in the car alone to enfield (4) some small household chores which i could have done in any normal weekend anyway (5) go to billingsgate market early in the morning and bought some fresh seafood, returning home before D even woke up for work (6) met new colleagues, old colleagues and friends for meals (7) visited N and kids on a weekday afternoon (8) brought aunt and uncle around (9) went to the V&A museum, finally (10) watched a lot of tennis on TV (11) went to paris for the Roland Garros. 

time to snap out of the holiday mode and get down to plenty of hard work!!! please help me, God.

Breaking point

Another horrible Sunday on the London Transport network. As if a normal 4 hour journey is not enough, everything had to go wrong today.

1st journey was too good to be true. Trains arrived when I got to stations, ran for the bus and caught it. Was only 2 mins late for choir practice.

2nd journey was a disaster before I could get on the bus. Road was jam-packed and the bus could not even get to the bus stop. Took about 30 mins just to travel the distance of 3 bus stops. Missed the jubilee line and only got home at 2pm.

3rd journey. This is always the most depressing. Trains and buses are always packed with people on the home bound journey, after a day of shopping and other miscellaneous activities, and every step I take takes me further from home. In any case the bus was going to take 8mins. When it finally arrived of course it was packed and every stop took an eternity. Halfway through the journey, the driver announced that it was the last stop and everyone has to get off. The next bus was going to take 11 mins, so I decided to walk the rest of the way in the freezing cold.

4th and final journey. Another 11 min wait for the bus, but it was all as fine as it could be until Stratford. To my horror the jubilee line was closed. Reason - person under train at canning town. So I head to the DLR station, 9 mins was the wait. Grrr. And a longer journey home.

Fed up! I need this car, been putting it off for 3 years now and from the looks of it it's not going to happen. Or I need a new church, as much as i love this one. When will it go past breaking point and snap?

is that alright?

(in a british accent)

it's amazing how the brits always manage to talk their way out of anything. 

last night i was telling d about a conversation in the office. my brit boss was on the phone with the bankers. he was about to reject a transaction. he starts off really friendly, "you alright? have you fallen off the roof yet?" (no idea what that means but it was friendly banter). and then he goes on to qualify how he has not been as close to the deal as his colleagues (i.e. juniors) but in the nutshell it is pretty rubbish deal. after about a minute spent breaking the bad news, he goes, "is that alright?" as if nothing bad happened. poor banker on the phone had no choice but to agree. of course i've heard this many times before, usually after you've been given some negative feedback, or some complicated task, but never quite thought about the power of these magic words. 

today, it was my turn to get tricked. i was trying to arrange a temporary blackberry for when i work in singapore later in the year. but somehow, the conversation deteriorated very quickly, and the subject became getting a permanent device. the flattery begins... you work so hard anywya, always in the office waiting for emails, logging in from home, a bb would be good for you, you can reply emails from home, work harder, clear emails on your way to work, etc etc.... IS THAT ALRIGHT? and what could i say. 

magic words, those. only if said in a brit accent. i need to learn. for now, goodbye life. up until now, i could completely erase everything work related as i walked through the main doors. walking through the doors again the next morning everything would suddenly come rushing back to me, just minutes before i plonk myself in front of my computer and open my inbox. i guess that's no more to be. owell.