jean starts gardening!!! =)))

since we shifted in, i've been telling vin that i would love to grow some plants. and always elicit the same response from him - *huh look*

later on it changed to the *exasperated look* and recently it became the *haha you say so long liao, dont believe you really will do it - look*

so when i told him one day that my colleague is giving me aloe vera so that i can plant it, he almost fell off the chair. hehehehehe... then he asked me, ' you ask or tell me? your home or our home?' (of course not in a fierce tone la) but too bad!!! i was so going to do it loh!!!!! my mum had an extra flower pot and alot of soil at her place, ready for me anytime i wanted to start on my garden project =)))

so here's introducing... my aloe vera!!!!!! ^_^

above: fresh from my colleague's garden =)

below: me digging the soil with my bare hands as i didnt have a spade =Pp

welcome to the family!!!!!! the baby one on the left, is for my mum =)

posing with my new plant (and my soiled hands)

guess what the husband was doing all along? you guessed it. taking pictures ONLY =Pp

Lights, Camera, ... ACTION!

Recently, I volunteered my services to act in one of the educational videos that my company is embarking in. Interesting experience! Below is a short article that I contributed on my company intranet. :)

Audition
It was with much apprehension and doubt that I went to my first audition for the GIC videos - as far as I can remember, I've never acted before in my entire life!

As I went through the scripts during the audition, I was praying hard that someone would tell me - "Vincent, I'm sorry, you can't act. We'll be pulling you out of the video..." Unfortunately, that moment never came (even though I have ZERO acting skills to speak off. Maybe they were trying to be "nice"... )

Training
When that fateful email came in and it dawned upon me that I landed a role in one of the videos, I knew that I needed to pull up my socks. When the final scripts and castings were confirmed, I promptly printed out my lines and brought it home for my wife to review. Being the drama-mama that she is, she has acted in numerous TCS drama serials (unfortunately she's not Fann Wong - just a part-time actress) and many lead roles for musicals in church and varsity. Of course, it helped that she learnt speech and drama since young.

That one night going through the script with her was the turning point. I learnt so much! Every little movement you make has a purpose - from your body right down to your facial expression and even your eyes! I was enlightened on 2 things that night - (1) Acting is tough work (2) Acting is not for me. Nevertheless, that night of training gave me more confidence. I memorised my lines and was finally able to at least produce the expressions that the director was looking for.

And... the rubber hits the road!
On the actual day of fiming, I went to office and saw all the sophisticated fiming equipment. Cool! It actually feels quite weird with all the lights and camera (and all eyes) being focused on me as I acted out my part. And it was also at that point that I realised that making a film is all about teamwork. If any one person (the lighting guy, the camera man, the soundman, the actors/actresses etc.) screwed up, the whole scene had to be done all over again. I told myself that I needed to try my very best - if at any point I forgot any of my lines, I'll be wasting so many peoples' time and effort! (& of course, I wanted to go home early as well)

Looking back, it was actually fun to be part of a set. It was an interesting experience, and I'm glad I was a part of this and was able to learn so much from it! So, to all my fellow GIC colleagues who have (like me) never acted in their entire life, step out and take the next opportunity to be part of the cast! You'll learn incredible lessons from it!

where to go where to go???

through this experience, i realised God is teaching me to give up my rights. these things dont matter. why do i cling on so tightly to things of the world? He gave me a job, which gave me leave benefits and money to spend on holidays, and here i am complaining about all these 'problems' that were actually from all the blessings that He has poured forth on my life!

so therefore, i choose to rejoice that i have leave to clear and make the best out of what i have. after thinking through all alternatives, we decided to try to take leave in oct. sept is out cos there are already so few tours and vin has to rush back for jeff's wedding. nov is out cos you know why. so that leaves us with wondering where we should go!

one idea that we are seriously pondering about: live aboard! which means we go for a dive trip while living on board a ship! ^_^ so fun right!!!!!

at first we decided on the white manta

then we saw the black manta

but for a 3 night trip, the white manta is SGD 950/pax and the black manta is SGD 1,300/pax... do we want to pay that price difference just for the luxury and 'song-ness'? then we realised that we do not need to fret so much cos the oct trips are fully booked! except for 1 last slot during my close. so we still are stuck with the white manta. hmmm should we or should we not...

maybe bali?

sad sad...

this is my 200th post! haha blog for so many years but only wrote 200 posts =Pp for those who have been reading since day 1, wowww impressed at your staying power HAHAHAHA...

been quite sad these past days... in my current work place, my leave entitlement is the lowest in my career and we cannot carryforward any leave. double whammy right? dont seem to be able to accumulate leave to go for a long break right?

so i tried to accumulate as much as i can with my meagre pro-rated leave so that vin and i could bring my parents and his dad to china for a holiday in nov. but when i brought up the subject to my boss last week, she told me that i cannot take leave cos its closing period and there is no one who can do what im doing. the last time i wanted to take leave for my wedding anniversary, she also told me to take it on another day. but that i did cos i pick my battles.

this time, i felt so sad! why can other people in the regional team have people to back them up and they can take 2 weeks leave, anytime during the month, but for me? my close starts from 20th of every month to 10th of the next month... that leaves me with only 1 week per month to plan my leave...

i asked my boss if she would like to think of a contingency plan in case i have an emergency or something happens. she said if its an emergency, she sure can find people to help. but if i take leave to go for a holiday, those who she rope in will complain that they need to do someone's work while the person goes on a holiday...

the selfish me thought to myself: thats how it is in an organization ma?! someone goes on leave, there is a back up! its an ENTITLEMENT to the employee so whether the person takes leave to go on holiday, stay at home and rot, or has some emergency, nobody should complain cos that person has to clear leave... furthermore, i have so limited time to take leave, definitely there will be a time where it just will clash with my extended close?!

my boss even suggested that if i find it hard to clear leave cos of the limitations, just take leave during the period that i can and stay at home. she doesnt understand why people want to take leave to go for a holiday. she thinks that staying home is better. *sigh* why? i just want to bring my parents to china. just want them to be happy. just using my leave. but why cant i even take leave? why do i have no back up? why must i think for my boss and understand her difficulties and yet give up what i would love to do for my parents? and maybe even having to end up clearing leave by staying at home?

sorry this post is not uplifting. usually i try to blog to encourage. but im really down. i dont need anyone to understand me. i just dont need people forcing me to do what they want me to do. 3 more months and all my leave expires...