Home is where the heart is

Its been a while since I last wrote. Its been a long while. So much has happened in the span of these 30 days. July 2007 indeed has been the longest month of my life, so far at least.

But its true what people say. What does not kill you makes you stronger. Through the pain, sorrow, worries, I would like to believe I have emerged a stronger person, more aware of myself, my loved ones, and much more thankful for everything and everyone around me. Its easy to take things for granted when your life is all hunky-dory, but it is only during times of tubulence that you make sense of who you really are.

But it was not all bad during the past month. Many wonderful things also did happen, as the following photos will show.

Lovely Andrea's wedding. Andrea's my NTU friend with whom I worked closely in an AIESEC project in 1998. Good pal and ex-colleague Junhui's wedding. Melvin (extreme left) and I were emcees. Junhui and his wife Junming in their cocktail outfits prior to the start of the dinner. During the dinner, Junhui did an impromptu rendition of "Liu San Jie", which made Junming gag and made Melvin and I laugh! (nah, just kidding, you did great Junhui!)

During the month, I was also sent to our KL office for a short recruitment visit. And it was during this visit that my "lovely" voice became an awful "croak". Nevertheless, the trip was fruitful as I managed to achieve my objectives and at the same time, meet up with an old friend who I have not met for 10 years! The view from my 30th storey room at the Westin. Despite all the eerie stories, I would not mind staying there again if I were to visit the KL office again coz the hotel is right next to my office building! You can't beat that for convenience!
Kok Keong and I met 10 years ago through the NUS Leonis chat! We haven't seen each other since, and today, we're both married, and he is the proud daddy of a little girl!

And just last Friday, my company had our annual summer party at Bora Bora beach bar. Everyone had tonnes of fun in our beach shirts, flip flops, and tequila shots!

Sharing some laughs before the guests arrive!

My toilet buddy Huizhi. Somehow we keep bumping into each other at the restroom so we decided we might as well go together - something that the boys in the office can't fathom...Some of the Catlin babes - can't help but feel old when standing amongst these 22 yr old fresh graduates!

Some of the boys from the office

We girls were tasked to welcome guests with colourful flower lays........
......while the boys mingled over beers at the bar....i guess some things just don't change ya?
For the rest of the day, we just lazed by the beach, played volleyball, played pool....
ate....
check out the yummy chicken on the grill...and of course, what's a beach party without alcohol! It was a lovely party, wonderful company, and I hope we do this more often!

Oh well, its August now and today is National Day! Incidentally, National Day is my favourite Public Holiday. :) You may laugh at me, since most people favour jolly Christmas or fatt choi CNY, and to many of you, National Day is just another day that you don't need to work. But to me, this is the day that unites us as Singaporeans, regardless of race and religion (oops, do I sound like i'm reciting our national pledge?) Every year when I see an entire stadium filled with people in Red & White, singing Majulah Singapura, my tear ducts just go into overdrive!

Call me patriotic, call me nationalistic, call me whatever you want. I love my country and I am proud to be Singaporean (despite all the little and not so little flaws that I can't stand about my many fellow countrymen e.g being kiasu, inconsiderate and generally just being plain selfish!)

anyways, happy birthday, Singapore! :)