Sod's Law for Pharmaceutical Sales Rep

You were overjoyed to enter a clinic empty of patients, only to find them streaming in non-stop after you had handed in your business card -_-"'

Chinese - my archilles heel

Thank God for the person who invented handphones with Chinese characters. I sincerely thank him from the bottom of my heart ..........

Everytime Meg sits down to do her Chinese homework, I have to take my handphone with me and sit next to her. That's because there's always this every other word, I don't know how to write or a certain hanyu pinyin (similar to phonics) that I am not sure about :p

I know you guys couldn't agree more when I admitted that I am hopeless with Chinese. When I try to join a group and starts speaking in Mandarin, they will inevitably look at each other then at me, before telling me that they feel a whole lot more comfortable if I spoke in English again -_-"". (I think it was only a couple of weeks ago that Kelly just told me that!) Although I would think that my command of spoken Chinese had improved tremendously over the years (or at least that's what I like to think :p).

So today while reviewing Meg's homework, I told her that 1 character and 1 hanyu pinyin was wrong. She adamantly insisted that she's right and told me to check my phone instead. And if I am wrong, she scores 2 points against me. And guess what ........ she's right on both counts! GEEZ .............

I told her that give it a while more and we would have to trade places. She should be the one coaching me instead. Meg was highly amused when she heard this and nonetheless brightened by this prospect :D

My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult

SYNOPSIS
Anna is not sick, but she might as well be. By age thirteen, she has undergone countless surgeries, transfusions, and shots so that her older sister, Kate, can somehow fight the leukemia that has plagued her since childhood. The product of preimplantation genetic diagnosis, Anna was conceived as a bone marrow match for Kate - a life and a role that she has never questioned… until now. Like most teenagers, Anna is beginning to question who she truly is. But unlike most teenagers, she has always been defined in terms of her sister - and so Anna makes a decision that for most would be unthinkable… a decision that will tear her family apart and have perhaps fatal consequences for the sister she loves. My Sister's Keeper examines what it means to be a good parent, a good sister, a good person. Is it morally correct to do whatever it takes to save a child's life… even if that means infringing upon the rights of another? Is it worth trying to discover who you really are, if that quest makes you like yourself less?




MY RATING (4 OUT OF 5 STARS)
This book is just so freaking sad! I think I had never cried like that for a book or a film in a long time.

The thing I love about Jodi Picoult is that her novels are mostly about some of the most controversial topics in life. The whites, the greys and the blacks; I would debate within myself and then try decide which is which. Most of my attempts are usually futile though.

The book starts a tad too slowly for my liking but it builds up towards the end and more than makes up for it. The twist at the end was totally unexpected and I applaud her for it. Gosh ..... the ending had me gutted. It brought heart-wrenching sobs from me as I devoured the last few chapters. I wish I had a little more time to cry for the characters after I put down the book but a pity, situation doesn't allow. How I wish at times, I can dictate my own timing, live life at a leisurely pace and pause when I want to. *wistful* (oops, going out of point here.)

A definite tear jerker.

Happy Birthday Ju!

It's Juliana's actual birthday today. And I wish this precious darling friend of mine, a most wonderful birthday and a beautiful life ahead! *muacks*

Taken at Ju's chalet last weekend - stole this pic from Andrew's blog as I didn't bring my cam.

Weekend getaway

These photos had been with me for a while now but as usual I can never blog as fast as the speed my life is going :p

Brought Liz, Jon & Meg out on 1 of the weekends in March. All deeply engrossed in the DS Lite.

Prawn fishing in Pasir Ris Farmway

All got terribly bored as no one caught anything. At the end of it, we got only 3 prawns. 1 courtesy of Meg & 2 from me! (Meg caught the 1st one.) But we gave it away cos it's kinda pathetic bringing home only 3. We swear never to go back again & stick out our usual fishing haunt instead. To make up for it, we brought them to Timezone (& we know it couldn't go wrong there :p) But all in all, it was a great day & I'm looking forward to the next one as much as Meg is!

Decided on an impromptu weekend getaway in Batam with my darlings in end of March. Disappointed that Ju couldn't make it though.

Thanks to Kelly's connections, we paid minimal for this trip.

Our 1st stopover in Batam - A&W! And guess what our last meal in Batam is? A&W again of course!

Next stop (You won't believe it) - Hypermart! Wahahaha! We bought many toiletries to cart back to Singapore because it's too cheap to resist! Cheapos! :p

Took a tour around the largest temple in Batam. I wrapped my most trusted, never-leave-home-without-it accessory (shawl/ blanket/ sarong) around me cos I felt inappropriate to be in a temple with a pair of shorts.

Headed for seafood at the famous Golden Prawn Restaurant

Gorgeous babes :D

A guy was really nice & offered to take a pic for all of us without us even asking

Our hotel - Pacific Palace. It's very new & some areas are still under renovation. You can't see it from here but the exterior is shaped like a cruise.

The grand interior

All of us still full of energy at the end of the day even after a full day of shopping & massages. I think all of us makes very good travelling companions to each other. We always look out for each other & gives in to one another. And the whole trip was about having good fun! (so unlike my other trip :p) I cherish Mar & Kelly much more after this trip & not forgetting Ed who was such a great travelling mate as well :)

Breakfast, the next morning

So early & all already making funny faces

Bless Kelly for taking care of Meg this entire trip. She single-handedly brought Meg to the pool so that I have a chance to get ready & give Ken some time to rest.

Mr & Mrs Peck

Trust Meg to come up with all kinds of ideas when taking a photo

Hee~ Meg's sunglasses with Little Mermaid at the side

Busy cam whoring

While Ken chills out

Suppose to act shock but think Ken got influenced by Capt Weihao :p

Testing Meg's acting abilities - acting out the various emotions. Haha ..... she's so cute!

All of us suppose to take an angry shot.

But erm ...... Edmund???

These babes are the closest to my heart

Waiting for the ferry back to Singapore. And I fell in love with that Elle luggage that I simply must lay hands on. Do you know we're already planning our 2nd trip? ;)

Visited Siti & her bundle of joy. Here's Liza holding on to the sweet lil' thing.

Well done, Siti my dear! My heartiest congratulations!

89 down

I have been seeing road accidents everyday for the past week and never once had I expected that my turn was coming up.

A Lexus crashed into us on the ECP after Fort Road while on our way to work this morning around 8am. And so if you were stuck in a jam there, most likely the cause was us :p

That Lexus must have been going fairly fast because we were pushed 4 car lengths ahead. Not only the rear was damaged but both sides of the car as well. The doors on the left were jammed due to the rear crushing inwards and the right banged into the side railings on the road. Poor Ken who was driving the car, felt pain in his neck and wrist. We are scheduled to consult a doctor tomorrow and I hope it's nothing too serious.

Too many accidents recently and it's real scary. So all of you out there, DRIVE SAFE!

The rear

Our ICE (in car entertainment) is most likely not salvageableLeft doors unable to open

Right banged into side railing

Soul Mate

I was sitting in the car pondering ........ when this song came up on the radio. I know it's a fairly old song but I liked it all the same. So I decided to search for it on the net. Kinda give me goosebumps everytime I listen to it.

You should be able to see the arrows (up & down). Scroll down till you see SOUL MATE then double click on it for the MV.

Delete it if you can!

I had been really pissed for a couple of days now but did not have a chance to let it out of my system. I knew the matter is probably over now but I still felt that I needed to address it. So if you're a FJC member, I would suggest you skip this post lest it affects you. There is no way that I will delete my own post and so don't even bother trying to suggest it.

I am sick and tired of having my posts deleted in the Fit Jazz Club Forum, so now I will play by my own terms. I am the boss here and I call the shots. Nobody can tell me what to write and only I can delete my post. So there!

To cut the story short, I wrote a very strong and passionate post in a thread that was attacking the moderator and a member regarding some possible extra-marital thinggy. Okay, I know I was being kaypoh and this is entirely none of my business. But this is a cause that I really fight for. Has anybody thought about the feelings of that woman in the background that had worked really hard to care for the kids and house? The woman that will take the man back regardless of whatever mistakes he had made. You can't imagine the number of women that suffer silently just to keep the family intact. Did anyone fight for their rights or tell them to stand up to it? I am glad that there are more women shoving it back up the men's asses but there are still some that's still trapped in that submissive role. (Note: I am not trying to be the devil's advocate for divorce.)

When this member's family members starting blasting the moderator in the forum, I got furious because no one spared a thought for the wife/mistress (status complicated but has kid with him.) How could they have the nerve to drag the entire thing in public? She or her friends might be reading for God's sake. It is already awful enough to be going through the entire trauma but if I was her, the last thing I want is for the whole world to know and be humiliated completely. Therefore I can't help myself and hence the angry post in the forum. Just in case the moderator didn't know, I was defending his other half, not him. Although he doesn't appreciate it but who knows, maybe she might?

I knew the moderators were trying to pipe the issue down and I had instead created another furore. And so yes, I can understand his anger but I can't agree with the way he's handled this matter. He mass sms the forum members informing them to keep their girlfriends/ wives in check. But duh, he was obviously talking about me, so why not send the sms straight to Ken or to me? As the Chinese saying goes, 'zi sung ma huai'. (Translates = Pointing at A when you are in fact scolding B.) I prefer direct confrontations and don't take well to cowards.

And why does he word it girlfriends/wives? I am a forum member with my own rights and own identity. My identity is Esther, not just someone's girlfriend/wife. I don't think he respects women very much. That post was worded from my own train of thoughts. Why should Ken even be associated with it?

But that's not all. He sent a total of 15 smses to everyone! It had me totally confused. The point was to resolve issue or blow up the issue? He seems a very misguided person. I had no qualms about him complaining, because afterall my post is there for all to see and I have naught to hide. But I have a problem about him not walking his talk. He is the moderator who tells everyone to talk less and create less trouble. But here he is, creating a storm in a teacup. Even if I had not read the forum, after receiving all those smses, you can be sure no matter what, I'll definitely find all ways and means to log into the forum to read that post, isn't it?

You might be tempted to call him brainless but to give him credit, he's actually got more brains than you think. But don't underestimate me either. I am no bimbo. I can see through him easier than anyone does because the members respect him as a leader and follows what he says. So obviously respect I have none because till now, he's done nothing to earn it. He's in actual fact scheming and manipulative. Those 15 smses was a propaganda, he uses his influence as a moderator and made it seem that I am totally at fault. And he also used it to put Ken in a tight spot and exert peer on pressure him.

And the end result is that I ended up quarreling with Ken after he told me to delete my post. (See, his little trickery works, right?) And being the stubborn me, I refused to budge. They can delete it if they want but I will never eat my words. If I am wrong, I will publicly apologise but will not hide my mistake. In order to ease Ken's position, I decided to apologise in the forum based on 3 points.

1. It was none of my business and so I shouldn't interfere.
2. I didn't get the 100% facts.
3. I shouldn't be calling names.

Someone asked me why did I even apologise. That's when I realised a lot of people misinterpreted and thought I had apologised for writing that post. I would like to clarify myself, the apologies were only based on those 3 points listed and nothing more. Definitely not for the message I intended to bring across.

Another thing that had me really crossed was the way he manipulated the order of the postings in the forum. He had that initial thread locked and so I couldn't apologise in it even if I wanted to. Therefore I had to post them in another thread. When I went back to the forum slightly later, he had replied to someone else but not me in that thread. Then an hour after my post, I realised that he had reopened that 1st thread so that both he and that girl could berate my 1st post! Why had he chosen to reply my 1st post and not the apology post? I would feel that it's more appropriate to address the latest post. It was after my apology then he felt it's alright to confront me in the forum. Coward! I tried to type in my reply to their posts but to my horror, found the entire thread deleted. They had managed to tell their side of the story (of course they sounded like saints, I would love to hear the wife's version though.) but I didn't manage to get my last words in. And of course, whoever gets their last words in, wins!

Undaunted, I replied in the 2nd thread and told the moderator to set an example by walking the talk. And then, this thread got deleted too. *fumes*

However I was glad that when I met some members over the weekend, they showed me the support and told me that things were actually way uglier than I had thought it to be.

I am not a trouble maker but just that I have a very rigid set of rights and wrongs. No grey areas nor compromising. I'm no pushover either. I think for myself and do not succumb to peer pressure. For example, I had never touched cigarettes or drugs in my entire life, although I knew of many who had experimented with them while they were young. Now most of my closest friends smoke but it had never occurred to me to join them.

Maybe I am reading into this more than what it should be. But you can hardly blame me because I seriously doubt his character and his integrity. When in doubt, it is never wrong to scrutinize and analyze.

Ching Ming

It's Ching Ming, also known as 'grave sweeping day', is a day for mourning the dead, a day for Chinese families to visit and tend to ancestors' graves.

So early this morning, my parents, Megan & I trooped to visit our grandmother's grave, her 1st Ching Ming ........... It's been a while since I last visited her, I was just thinking about visiting her when my mum tells me it's Ching Ming and we're going to pay respects. It must be grandma telling me not to forget to visit her during Ching Ming :)

I am thankful for the relentless hot sun today, for I kept my shades on, even when indoors. Nobody could tell that I was crying behind those shades. I couldn't help it. The moment I lit the joss sticks and started speaking to her, my tears welled up. And when I saw her picture at the grave, I can't trust myself speaking for fear of giving myself away.

I hadn't known that it would be so difficult to get over her death. I miss grandma ..............