New bedsheets for me!

My weekend has been pleasantly idle so far, aside from the much needed workout in the morning :) It's such a luxury to be able to do absolutely nothing, once in a while. However, decided to go check out the IKEA sale with mum in late afternoon; and came home a happy girl with two new sets of bedsheets! (Ok lah, actually more like quilt covers cum pillowcases, cos their bedsheets technically dun have design one) I also wanted to buy some cute bowls and stuff, but had to give up idea 'cos we really dun need more kitchen barang barang :( Have been wanting to check out their bedsheets (I already have two nice ones from there, but still wanted some more hehe... :P) The light blue cum white one is one design (one side blue, the other side white) while the green pacman-ish design one is just a plain print throughout. Yeah, even sleeping on pretty things makes me happy haha.

Tmr after jap class, I shall hunt down a cool art/book/design store casualpoet somewhere near Chinatown :)

The "pjt" I am working on has led me to work closely with one or two colleagues i haven't had that much contact with previously... and it has allowed the usually passive me to somewhat 'hit it off' with one colleague :) Like when talking abt work she would also share awww anecdotes abt her son with me; indeed my motherful unit has given me an advance peek into what mums think/feel/gush about. And funny as it might sound, it appears to me that for many, being a parent in turn brings out the 'child' in otherwise serious and cynical-ish adults :P

This morning tph and I also concluded that under this boss, we are always 'guilty until proven innocent'... I have finally deciphered why it's so stressful to work under him sometimes... it's because the default (when doubts arise) is always that we are in the wrong, unless we prove him otherwise. So even if you think you did everything nice nice already, the way certain clarifications are put forth makes the 'accused' extremely uncomfortable or feel bad about herself.

Today I also scored two black marks with boss... The first one: When questioned why I never included a certain enquiry number in my draft, I bluntly answered, erm... cos it never crossed my mind that I needed to put it in?? It's not like I was careless and left it out... it just didn't occur to me to include it :P (Afterthought: Though my answer prob didn't reflect too well on myself, it was really the truth mah and I suppose I didn't see the need to make up an excuse. Later on when I reflected, I also realised that my mind was stuck in writer-mode and not really reader/enquirer/information seeker-mode) Second work crime of the day was committed when during a site visit, I failed as a site OIC to enlighten boss on which block number was what on the site plan (block numbers were obscured by my coloring)... At that moment, I could sense that he was ready to pull my ear, just that he had excellent self-restraint and let me off.... :P Though I felt a little bad, deep down I was actually not that guilty, cos it's like who in the right mind would memorise position and number of the blocks on the site plan??

Die, who would guess that the guai1-looking me is becoming such a rebel at heart :P

Today I this blur OIC was chased left, right and centre from various ppl but surprisingly it made me more amused rather than annoyed or really stressed. Amused because I am really not a good follower worker bee who religiously finds out and ensures that I've done everything I need to do in the SOP. And only when ppl chase me to do this/that then I panic (not for everything though, things i like i do first :P...); deep down I know that my ensure-everything-goes-well boss disapproves of such short-sightedness. Hmm perhaps every good boss will lah. And if I were in the "old era" I would have gotten many harsh lectures on such tardiness... so lucky that the new era style of mgmt is like cool and calm style... However these past few days I'm finding that the bulk of my time at work is really spent on multi-tasking/coordinating inputs/stringing bits and pieces of info tog rather than really racking brains. While busyness has generally improved my productivity level, mind doesn't seem to be getting much exercise. Which is not so good....

Japanese class, Ocha Cream and John Stuart Mill

This is a random post on things that made me happy over the weekend.

Today's the beginning of another new 6-wk term and though I reluctantly dragged myself out of bed at 8 something in morning, wondering why I constantly deprive myself of more beauty sleep every Sun, I was reminded why as soon as class began. Though a fellow classmate and I both agreed that we dun really have much time to study before class (actually the truth is probably not disciplined enough :P), classtime itself is just so enjoyable and fun. I suppose that's what keeps me going. And our new topic for the term is 健康ブームの光と影 (which can be roughly translated into the pros and cons of the health boom). So our sensei explained the imagery associated with 光 and 影 and their respective association with good and bad things... Not that the association of light with good and dark with bad is anything new, but I thought it was very interesting how the Japanese frequently formalise words that conjure up certain images or sounds into actual usable terms for their own language. But it's fun, cos it's easy to imagine when your language has descriptive terms that try to paint reality :P The trouble is that only the Japanese really understand what their thousand and one onomatopoeic words mean...

Ocha Cream is a talented local jewellery designer, and her necklaces/earrings are all so quirky and cute. Imagine wearing a necklace with a Tiger Brand label on it...! Well, though not all of them are nice and that wearable, there are quite a few really nice ones... And I would say all of them are so creative, with so many neat little details. She makes me so want to set up shop and make all these jewellery on my own... (ok lah, say only) Unfortunately, her merchandise is so overpriced... :(

Someone reminded me of my PEIS 100 class in an email and I nostalgically dug up my class notes and rediscovered my favorite John Stuart Mill... Hai, looking back at all the assignments I did that summer, feel like my brain has indeed deteriorated. Anyway, here's to share a cool excerpt from Mill's 'On Liberty' that I will try to always bear in mind:

He who lets the world, or his own portion of it, choose his plan of life for him, has no need of any other faculty than the ape-like one of imitation. He who chooses his plan for himself, employs all his faculties. He must use observation to see, reasoning and judgment to foresee, activity to gather materials for decision, discrimination to decide, and when he has decided, firmness and self-control to hold to his deliberate decision. And these qualities he requires and exercises exactly in proportion as the part of his conduct which he determines according to his own judgment and feelings is a large one. It is possible that he might be guided in some good path, and kept out of harm's way, without any of these things. But what will be his comparative worth as a human being?

Ah, 2 hrs to the end of my lovely weekend and start of another tiring work week... I need to read The 4-hour Workweek some day.