Wedding Preparation Blog

I am lazy. Period.

So fingers crossed for this wedding blog thingy.
http://sethjoannaourjourney.shutterfly.com/

I am really getting excited about this and I will start my first post on the engagement followed by the preparation details.

In retrospect, getting married young did not cross my mind at all until now. I am truly happy and blessed to have made my decision.

Upcoming checklist:

1. Choose dinner banquet - most likely Crowne Plaza (Changi Airport). Its new and I love the open sky ceiling concept.
2. Church venue booking + marriage pastor
3. Choose wedding bands ! (already chosen) Tiffany channel setting wedding band to match my engagement ring :)

4. Finalise on guest list
5. Wedding Package + Photographer
6. Weight management programme - After the recent gown fitting with Yuying and marie, it dawned on me that size is indeed important. I am going for made to measure. Heck the weight management, I still love my calorie laden food. See how.

and tonnes of other preparation. So one down, many more to go. At least the wedding bands part is finalised.

I am still very much alive

Ok, I need to resurrect my blog. It's been a while and I do get people asking me where the hell I have been...


I don't facebook, msn and blog as often as I did when it was still the good old days of uni life. No words can describe fully how much I miss schooling. I can shop and slack as much as I want to. Now, after earning my own money, I feel that shopping too much is bad. T_T

My parents would be happy to hear this relevation coming from me. Oh well. I save more than I spend now.

Small updates aside, in 2012, I will be having a change of home address plus having made the biggest investment in my life.

The signs of adulthood.

*Not going to blog about Turkey trip - lazy to upload the pictures...*

Till the next time.

Psalm 23 (for the workplace)

Everyone should know Psalm 23 in the bible. It is like the most famous passage in the bible. My mum sent me the following modification of Psalm 23 for the work place. Hah! For those who know Psalm 23, may it encourage and deepen your faith in trusting God to enable us to prosper in your workplace and to bless the work of your hands.

Psalm 23(For the Work Place)

The Lord is my real boss, and I shall not want.
He gives me peace, when chaos is all around me.
He gently reminds me to pray and do all things without murmuring and complaining.

He reminds me that He is my source and not my job.
He restores my sanity everyday and guides my decisions
that I might honor Him in all that I do.
Even though I face absurd amounts of e-mails (that's me!), system crashes,
unrealistic deadlines, budget cutbacks, gossiping co -workers,
discriminating supervisors and an aging body that doesn't cooperate every morning,
I still will not stop---for He is with me!

His presence, His peace, and His power will see me through.
He raises me up, even when they fail to promote me.
He claims me as His own, even when the company threatens to let me go.
His Faithfulness and love is better than any bonus cheque
His retirement plan beats any 401k there is! When it's all said and done,
I'll be working for Him a whole lot longer and for that
I BLESS HIS NAME!!!!!!

******

Work is busy and demanding (!), which is good. I am enjoying what I am doing even though I hardly have time to surf net and slack. I meet people, talk, rush around and the best thing is, my work is not deskbound! :) Really, never a dull moment.

People, if you have super experience IT professional friends (at least 3 years' experience), let me know. I need to recruit 100 plus more people!!!! Yeah, in such times, we are still vigourously employing. I am looking for a junior temp assistant to assist me. So if you are looking or have friends who don't mind doing temp work, let me know. :)

Good news and somewhat bad news

Somewhat bad news first. I sprained my left ankle and it's swollen to about the size of a mini balloon. Haha, nah, I am exaggerating. Being the usual klutzy me, I fell down the last row of steps as I came down the stairs. My very first sprain. No worries, I am sure I can be walking as per normal by the end of this week.

Let's move on the good news. Good news are way more fun to tell than bad news. I got a verbal job offer from Singhealth for a HR executive role handling internal recruitment and selection! Actually, I am still in a state of surprise cause I just went for the interview last Monday, 22 December. I didn't expect them to get back to me that quickly.

Yay, goes to show, the job market is still not THAT bad. No doubt, the world is entering or have already entered depressional stage, but there is still hope of a better job.

I'm pondering about accepting though. Package wise, its better than what was. Its just the feeling that what if there is a better offer still out there and yeah, one month break sometimes never seem enough. I am just being greedy. I guess its back to working again.

To those looking for a Human Resource position, there is really a good flow of open jobs looking for fresh graduates. So be positive, there's an offer out there. :)

God is really good all the time! He is so ever faithful and gracious to me.

A Testimony of God's Protection and Faithfulness

As all of you have heard or read by now, the saddening news of the Mumbai attacks. In times like this, you would never ever want to hear a loved one, a friend or an acquaintance being held hostage in such cruel terrorist attacks.

I remembered last Thursday when I met up with my church mate, Ernest for dinner. He looked distraught and he was like, "Yew Ping, our church mate and my cell group friend is being held hostage at Oberoi Hotel as we speak right now and the church leaders and everyone who knows him are praying for him as as well. I was shocked because even though I do not know him personally but I seen him around in church before and was in the same team as him during one of the young adults' bonding events. Prayers was the only way I can help him and we just prayed for his safety. God delivered him from danger after being held hostage in the hotel room for almost 2 days. He just stayed one floor above the Singaporean lady who was being killed. It was that close.

After his ordeal, he sent out a thank you email and testimony recounting his experience to all the church leaders and cell group leaders. The following testimony might be long but, it is a story of how God never ever fails to deliver us from harm's way. A story when the fear of the unknown threatens to overpower all senses, the peace of GOD will and can transcend all fears.

****
Dear all,

It is sobering to read on the newspaper what happened in Mumbai the last few days. Many lives were lost and it was indeed a tragedy of colossal proportion. I was staying in one of the hotels attacked and held by the terrorists and it is a great blessing to be brought back unharmed. Thanks to all of you for your support throughout these very dramatic days. Glad to be back seeing all of you again. Stirred but not shaken (haha as James Bond would say) but all is well now. Looking back, there were many junctions throughout this ordeal that if things had gone the other way, would lead to outcomes very different from my present state. But God is in control all the time and his perfect timing and protection brought me home safely. Just a brief account here to share what happened and how your prayers and support had strengthened and encouraged me, providing me with comfort, hope and peace (yes, peace even when bomb blasts shook the building every now and then and gun fire were exchanged, quite unreservedly at times); and of course how God had lovingly moved to protect and keep me out of harm's way. Amidst the mayhem, divine intervention was clearly at work though the prayers of the faithful people of Christ. Praise be to the Lord!


Wed 1000pm: everything seems normal before bomb blasts were heard. I had just finished dinner with my colleague - TJ (boss actually) and returning to the hotel room on the 20th floor for rest. I took a shower and was lying down on my bed reading, rounding off the end of a hard day at work. Certainly seemed like any other days I had during the past two weeks in Mumbai. Everything was normal, just normal, until at around 1020pm a loud booming noise was heard across the hotel. So loud it didn't seem like anything usual at all. My first thoughts were that there could have been an accidental explosion at maybe one of the kitchens on the ground floor, certainly not a bomb blast? Oberoi Hotel was after all quite a posh hotel with reasonably good security: recalling that each time I walk into the building, a tall, imposing-looking Punjabi doormen (with his characteristic turban no less) would greet me and unfailingly direct me to go through a metal detector; a terrorist attack seems quite distant in my mind. And of course Mumbai has been stable for quite sometime.

But this initial confidence evaporated instantaneously when in quick succession more explosions followed. Boom, boom and many more to come! That lasted for the next 10 minutes or so. Looking through the peephole of my door, there was absolutely no indication as to what was going on, caution kept within my room and I remained as clueless. I would later find out that these would be the early minutes of a bloody siege by the heavily armed terrorists. Had we been just a little slower in getting back into our rooms (30 minutes or so), what was to come would without doubt be much more grave.

Wed 1030pm: thick smoke seeped into room, in real danger of suffocation After the initial blasts (intertwined with gunshots) ended, I went back to my bed and continued with my daily reading. Saying a quick prayer for nothing untoward to happen to TJ and me, I quickly settled back into my normal routine as no more explosions were heard and I summarily concluded that it was probably a suicide bombing attack and the worst was already over. Again, it was not to be so. The next series of blasts came at around 1030pm, 15 minutes after the first. My prayers became more fervent, asking God for his protection and help. The drama didn't end here. For before long, fire from the explosions broke out and smoke found its way into my room. Slowly creeping in, what was initially a pale grayish vapor with the unmistakably burnt smell soon filled up the room and it grew in darkness till it became suffocating and also threatening. Darker and yet darker the room became until it was impossible for me to just sit in the room and wait for help to come. I needed to take action, and fast. Calling up TJ's room, he stayed in a separate room on the 15th floor, we decided we should run out of our rooms and head for the fire exit to safety. Once the phone was down, I immediately put on my shoes and take out my passport from the safe, getting all ready for the escape. But alas, when I bolted to the door and looked through the peephole, I could see no nothing and I hesitated. So I called TJ's room again but this time he did not pick up. He executed the plan. When I finally did managed to reach him on his blackberry phone, I was immediately greeted by a panic-stricken voice yelling: "I am now out of the room, but I cannot see the fire exit, I can't see anything!!¨ "Where are you? where are you, which floor? Come to my room, I go find you? What can I do to help?¡¨ words stammered out of my mouth as I just stood there stunned, not knowing what else to do. "I CAN'T FIND MY ROOM!¡¨ he yelled, more urgently now. "I can't find my room, I am outside now but I can't see anything! I can't see anything, I cannot even see my hand in front of me. I am going back to my room but I can't find my room...Yew Ping, I dun wan to die here..¡¨ My blood froze. It was pure desperation. It was at this very moment that I awoke to the reality that we were staring at death face to face! It was no longer just the inconvenience of having to change hotel and not getting enough sleep for the night. In the very next minute or so, a life could just be snuffed out in an instance. This realization shook me hard and I was very much grieved. In my mind, I prayed for his safety. I pleaded with God to keep him safe; his wife and a newly born six-month-old daughter were waiting for him to be back in Singapore. But I hear no nothing in the next few moments. My heart was in my mouth throughout those longest of seconds in my life. After what seemed like eternity, I was choked with relief when eventually he announced that he managed to find his way back into the room. I could almost hear angels singing in the background as he slowly regained his composure! Praise the Lord!

Wed 1040pm: broken window, bleeding ankle The siren of the smoke detector screamed non-stop and using a heavy object I smashed open the sealed window in the room to let in some fresh air as smoke was fast filling up the room thick and choking. I also put wet towels below the door to keep out the smoke. Minutes earlier I had sent out a desperate prayer request sms to Ernest; wasn't expecting any immediate reply as it was quite late Singapore time. So I was pleasantly surprised when he replied not long after earnestly and prayed for me. Much comforted by his words of prayers, I soon found myself in a very deep sense of hope and peace knowing full well that God is with me would protect me. Very thankful to our beloved Cell Group Leader who happened to be awake at that very hour (was it 1am?). Thank God for Ernest. Anyway, a moment of stupidity on my own part foiled any prospect of me getting out of this ordeal unscathed. This moment of foolishness came when I attempted to kick away a piece of glass about the size of a slice of pizza which was still stuck on the window frame. Though wearing shoes, that piece of glass swiftly caught my ankle as I was kicking it and left its mark: a 3 cm wide cut at slightly above my right inner ankle. It was not exactly a big cut and was not particularly painful except that it was quite deep and the wound was pretty ugly and with flesh protruding out from the gash. I thought nothing of it at that time but as it turned out, attending to this wound came to be a major preoccupation throughout the next 16 hours until I was finally rescued from the hotel.

Thur 0000am: terrorist occupying hotel All these while, electricity was still running and I had the lights on. I turned to Psalms after settling down a little post the initial chaotic hours. Reading David's pleading to God as he fled from Absalom in Psalms 3, I felt totally connected and I was much strengthened. At about 12 plus at night, calls and sms from concerned colleague and friends in Mumbai started streaming in after they watched news of the terrorist attack on TV. And we were plunged back into action again when the TV news reported that two terrorists were holed up in Oberoi hotel and there were many other targets throughout the city. Mumbai was on fire!

I switched off all lights in the room and put barricade at the door; our sole survival strategy was simply to keep low and avoid being held hostage and then waiting for the rescue team to come for us, hopefully soon. With the lights out I wasn't able to continue reading, but by then God's promise to deliver me from this whole episode was already very clear to me and His peace was upon me. Such peace that I was ready to be called home. God is in control and he has perfect plans for me no matter the outcome. The rescue team would eventually come to my rescue some 16 hours after the first explosion rocked the building. And throughout these 16 hours, while there were periods of extended quietness and stillness, sporadic bomb blasts and gun shots were ever present to remind us that it was not yet over. Sms and calls from the CG and pastor Andrew lifted my spirits, sustaining me and allowed me to be calm and collected in these very uncertain times of turmoil.

Thur 3pm: Escape from the hotel. Help finally arrived at around 2.30pm the next day when a team of masked commando dressed in army uniform broke into my room and stormed in to secure the place. The sight of these commandoes brought much allayed my fears me but as the terrorists were still lurking within the building, it was rather pre-mature and presumptuous at that point for any form of celebrations. In fact it was not quite over, at least for me. That one moment of foolishness came back to haunt me when we were making our final escape to safety climbing down the fire exit and out of the hotel. See, I lost some blood from the wound. Throughout the 16 hours since I first sustained the injury, blood was continuously seeping out from the laceration, soaking through the towels which I had meticulously wrapped around as improvised bandages. By Thursday morning, every towel I could find in the room had become drenched in crimson blood and I was tearing out strips from the bed sheet for bandages. Applying direct pressure, bandaging, icing the wound and elevating my leg; I did just about everything ever written in any good first aid textbooks that I had ever read. Though the flow was contained and it would have been worst if nothing was done, the room was by the time I left quite a bloody mess with stained towel, pillows and bed sheet lying all over. I never knew that one could have so much blood to lose and through a small wound no less. By noon time Thursday, I was feeling slightly light headed. Much depleted of strength from the bleeding and with only appetite for a bar of chocolate and some fruit juice in the mini-bar, my fuel tank was near empty. We climbed down one floor and linked up with another group of escapees under the escort of the army guys. After a brief break, we were all ready to complete the remaining of the descend. But for me that exertion was too much for my body to bear and it triggered off my internal alarm. With one floor down and 19 more to go, giddiness seized me as I felt blood draining from my head and rushing down. I struggled to keep my eyes open and soon I became disorientated. Instances later, my mind went blank like a sheet of paper and I collapsed into a heap and sat there on the ground while rescuers poured water into my mouth. For a second or two I zoned out. I lost awareness of what happened and why I was there. My eyes were like flickering lights, about to go off completely anytime. The cold water helped, and I didn't just blackout. I regained consciousness after a while and getting back onto my feet I was then very much carried down the rest of the floors by the two poor rescuers. One on my left and the other on my right, they helped out of the hotel into an waiting ambulance. By the time we reached ground floor, sweat was already pouring down their faces. Haha, guess its time for me to lose weight :) Again looking back, God's perfect timing was at work. I was among the last of the first batch of people to be rescued out from the hotel. The next batch (TJ included) stepped out of the place some 24 hours later on Friday afternoon after all the terrorists have been neutralized. Had I been rescued out only by that time, and with bleeding lasting some 40 hours in all, that would have certainly complicate things quite a fair bit. All thanksto God for He is a God who saves.

Conclusion: All in all, this has been a harrowing experience for me personally. I have been much blessed to be coming out of this ordeal relatively unharmed. I'll carry with me many unforgettable memories and lessons from this and I would just like to share these three things that I learnt:
1. God is faithful and he keep his promises, all the time. He is there with me always throughout this most nerve wrecking event and he moves in powerful ways. Praise God for who God is.
2. it is so good to have you guys around, rallying behind me and supporting me in prayers and supplying me with strength and encouragement in these times of need, thank God for all of you, you have been such a blessing. And finally, for practical application: 3. Never try to kick at broken windows even if you had your shoes on!


Rejoice in the Lord always. I say again: Rejoice!

Yew Ping

****

The email message brought tears to my eyes. God is a faithful God who saves.

Rest

Rest. It is a word, people these days, especially these days, don't associate with. Rest. It is a action, people these days don't practise much.

These days, people do the contrary of resting, they worry. We worry about our wellbeing, physically, mentally and emotionally. We worry about of course, our financial wellbeing as well - our jobs and our paychecks. Especially in such times. We see doom and gloom everyday in papers and on CNN.

Rest seems like it's an obscure word now. But I seek to be different.

As some of you might know by now, I lost my job at Michael Page as of last Friday. Honestly, it was like the worst day of my life. In a sudden moment, I felt the crappiest I've ever felt. I don't remember feeling so crappy before. Oh well, shit happens. The company is not doing well and I am more of a liability than an asset since I am just a management trainee there and I don't bill revenue. I am sure, I did my very best during my time there.

And then, there were the tears. Initially, my mind didn't do well in registering the situation. I was like, more dumbfounded than anything. And then, the shock just set in and I was just pure disappointed.

Anyway, no worries, I am more than alright now. I was pretty alright by Friday evening, the same day I was being told to go. Because I know, God has planned a better job for me. Amidst the tears, a small voice just reminded me, Don't worry, just rest and have faith. I kept on tearing still because I am still pretty shocked and all.

And then Sunday came and I was in church. The worship was great and it took my mind off my current situation and I realised that, no matter how crappy my situation is, I am still very blessed. I am deeply encouraged by the following verses:

"Come to Me, all you who labour and are heavy burden, and I will give you rest." Matthew 11:28

"In this world, you will have trouble but in Christ, you will find peace. John 16:32

"Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you" 1 Peter 5:7

In such times, I ought to worry, but I choose not. I choose to rest in Your promises and Your peace, trusting Christ's finished work on the cross, knowing that God, You will provide. Everything happens for a reason, nothing happens for chance. When I looked back onto this moment, I know that it happened for a good reason.


I remembered the Sunday before I lost my job and amidst financial crisis situation, one of the elders in church said this,

"Remember to give thanks no matter what your circumstances are because, it could have been worse...

"When you get a pay cut, it could have been worse, you could have lost your job. When you lost your job, it could have been worse, you could have lost your life. So be thankful that we are still alive"

It spoke to me for a reason because it was truly words of comfort last friday.

Michael Page International Corporate Outing and Quarterly Bash

FINALLY, a blog post.

7 November, Friday. MPI Corporate outing at Forest Adventures!

On the way there (the trip from the CBD to Bedok Reservoir). We worked for half a day before changing into sport gear. You should see the girls in our tiny 3 cubicle toilet.... The MD actually changed outside the cubicles and she was like, "I realised alot of the girls in the office love black bras." @_@. Pretty spontaneous!

Shradha and May!

Audrey (she always absent-mindedly leave her stuff behind in the office). Sounds like another me, but I am not THAT forgetful (hmmm.)

Sophie, the Aussie-bred chinese babe. She's in the same team as myself and she loves Skittles. She can buy 4 or 5 packets of Skittles at one shot. And she eats Yong Yau Foo for lunch EVERYDAY!

Joyce and Sophie. The party babes of MPI. But they are really nice. During the adventure course, they really took great care of me.

Anyway, to cut the long story short, Forest Adventures (you can go google it if you are keen in trying out some adventure sports in boring ol' singapore) was really an experience. I can now proudly 'boast' that I swung and 'trek' from one tree to another. I would love to do it again when my fitness level is higher. I was like, dead tired halfway through the obstacle course man. But for people like Youie and Wanzhi, I think you girls would love it. =) 30 bucks per pax for 2-3 hours of activity. pretty reasonable price to pay for fun, fitness and team-bonding. We were laughing and cheering a whole lot.

And off we go to House@Dempsey for our evening bash. From sweaty MPI Singlet clad girls to made up dressy babes. We have this corporate culture whereby new consultants who managed to complete their first placements has to come up with a "CREAM CAKE" skit to entertain the rest of the company during the bash. Since there were only 3 full time consultants who bought their first placement cakes (when we placed out first candidates, we have to treat the entire office to cakes, hence the cream cake name), the trainees (aka me and may plus 3 other trainees) were roped in to help out.

The mandatory shots in the toilet. Shradha, one of the full time consultants acting in the skit.

The cream cake folks! Yeaps, we acted as MPI pirates. We actually went to borrow pirate hats from this Halloween-themed costume shop. The skit turned out to be a huge success. We managed to pull it off with just one week of rehearsal. Each of us had to put a show where we portrayed the typical quirks and weird habits of our managers.

May and her manager. Her manager loves brands like MIU MIU and Salvatore Ferragamo. My manager loves Gucci and Kate Spade. So we printed out the brand names and pasted them on our handbags, dresses and shoes. It was so funny, to see Jimmy Choos hanging off the legs of Shradha who acted as our MD who obviously wears her Jimmy Choos to work.



Partners in Crime. They hate but love each other at the same time. Still figuring if its a love-hate relationship between the both of them.

The sales and marketing ladies.

3 Sales & marketing girls + a commerce girl.



The 2 Ms - Matthew and May. Matt is the funniest guy in the office. Sooo dorkishly funny.

I think he looks like Homer Simpson! hahaha.





My manager, Diana. I was 'her' during the skit and I made fun of her brushing teeth habit. She has to brush her teeth everytime after lunch. The thing I was holding is a Darlie's travel toothbrush kit which I plan to give it to her since she needs it more than me. And I am more of a Colgate fan than Darlie.And she drinks alot of coffee....

Nilay and me.


Matt and Steve. Matt played Steve and I loved the line, "I want to see those oars on fire!" Inside joke. Come to think of it, the skit was really funny!


FYI, they are not a couple.

Trainees. Hopefully, we will all be working as consultants soon!

Yin, Another trainee whose laughter can be heard all the way from her end of the office to mine.




No, we were not drunk! By the way, this crazy bunch is my team. There's only one chinese guy in the office and he belongs to our team so he's 'hot' property. We all wanna grab a piece of him. Don't ask why my hand is there. We were all supposed to touch him and it seemed like I was the only one taking it seriously.

This is a creepy shot.


More proper shots.


The commerce team. Missing Rene who was on a flight to Shenzhen for a short vacation.


I am proud of being a part of MPI. And I pray that I will be a full time consultant after the 6 months training program. People there are really nice and friendly. It's always my wish to say this line during my work-life,"I love what I am doing".