It's all about PERSPECTIVE

How great is our God.....indeed. He has given me so much, and I am so thankful for His overflowing blessings. Like for instance, my current job. True, there are moments when things can get to me, which happens rather often, but on the other hand, I count my blessings that I have a great boss and work with a bunch of swell colleagues I can chill out with. So yeah, decided that it ain't that bad a deal after all. I was also praying, over the weekend, to get something straightened out, and hey, He answered my prayers. So indeed, He is GREAT!!! .

On a more flippant note, one of my good friends blogged about this 'once-in-a-blue-moon' occurrence that involved me (his blog is linked to mine), and I was rather tickled by it. Anyway, the long and short of it was he holds a credit card that I've been wanting to get, but had not. So the look on his face was like, whoa.....and he promised me he'd blog about it. True enough, he did. I got down to it, cos that's the card that I figured would be useful to have. Having said that, it's high time I consolidate my cards into a few key ones, and cancel the ones I hardly ever use. There was this card, that came with a rather snobbish tagline when it was first launched. It portrayed an exclusive image, and I got hit by their campaign. However, I have come to realise that I hardly use it, so I am thinking of cancelling it. Along with another from a bank that issues you both a Visa and MasterCard at one shot. You know what? I think Citibank has it down pat where credit cards are concerned. So yeah, I'd advocate that people own at least one card from Citibank, and one from UOB. And one other for good measure.....then that should suffice and cover all ground. Ok, will embark on a credit card cancelling attempt soon...once I get down to calling the customer service hotlines. After all, why spend so much future money?? For a Finance grad, I think I need to fall back on my training more, otherwise it'll be a waste of my degree. Then again, my line of work now is geared towards regulations and what-not, and not exactly Finance per se .

Amazing Amazon

For the longest time ever, I've not 'dared' to actually do an online purchase, as I was most distrustful of the credit card security and all. This has extended to Internet banking. Although I have ventured into Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com and was pretty impressed by the plethora of goods they sell, I have never really quite felt comfortable making an online purchase, or any online transaction for that matter. That was, until last night.....

This past weekend, I was trawling the major bookstores trying to find the 4th book in a series of fantasy fiction I've grown to be a fan of. This was inspired, in no small part, to the fact that I know the 4th book will be out sometime this month, and also due to this 30% discount voucher that was splashed in the papers for Borders. So I went a book-hunting at Kinokuniya and Borders on a wet and squelchy Saturday evening. The book I wanted was not in yet, and both bookstores do not have a reservation policy. Earlier in the afternoon, I had surfed the Net and know for a fact that the 'Noble Dead' series I wanted is already available. You can imagine how disappointed I was when I was told the book's not in yet and no reservations are entertained. Hence, I consoled myself by getting 2 other books. So was happily ploughing through the books and realised then that I'd set myself up, in a way. Not only was I searching for the 4th book in the 'Noble Dead' series by J.C. and Barb Hendee, I realised I was also drawn by this other book that was the second book by Andrew Fox. So now, I had to get the first book as well.

Decided to trawl Amazon.com to see if I could get both books, and lo and behold, Amazon.com carried both of them. There and then, I decided I'll make an online purchase for the 2 books...so set up my account and all, and was preparing to wait for a while. This afternoon, while at work, I received an e-mail from Amazon.com updating the status of the book, and it'd been shipped. This means I might possibly get it before Chinese New Year....YESSS!!! Was planning to use the break (since I left it too late to buy an air ticket to go travelling) to catch up on my reading, so it all falls into place nicely.

If We Hold On Together....

Came back home after work, and was sorting through some items on my home workstation....there it was, staring back at me. I held the small CD in my hands, and decided to play it. As it started to play, the gentle strains of Diana Ross' 'If We Hold On Together' emitted from my speakers.

It had been a while since I had last viewed this CD, which was a 'first anniversary' memento of my first-ever department back in my previous office. The photos that were put together in the form of a slide show contained many familiar faces....former colleagues whose friendship I had come to cherish a lot. As the tune played on, it struck me how much I really missed working and having fun with them. It was at Claims (the name of my department) that I had a first-hand grasp of what it means to be working in a closely-knit team. The camaraderie, the laughter, the grumpy moods, the makan sessions, the synergy.....really amazing.

Of course, everything is transient. Nothing is permanent. The first anniversary of the formation of the department was in September 2004, which means it's more than 2 years old now. There are people who have left the bank (myself included) and though some of the others have stayed on, they are now working in different roles and functional areas. But even as the lilting strains of the song wafted out, I am glad and thankful that I was so blessed to have the opportunity to work with this group of people who, in their own ways, have each taught me something valuable. As a fresh-faced graduate then about to sink my teeth into a banking role, they have taught me a lot. Even till today, some of the skills I have acquired from the learning back then have helped me in my current role in my current bank.

To all of you guys: Ravi, Li, Veron, Noel, Estee, Jess, Afaaf, Emma, Ata, Nick, Sharon, Esther and Augustine...thank you for so many things and more. 'Twas really swell working, playing and 'pigging out' with you all. Now you have spoilt it, cos there's a 'benchmark' set in that I will 'compare' whichever team I am in with what we had back then.

But really, thank you.

Counting....

New Year, new aspirations...or so it goes. The first week of the year is also the first week of the work year, and the first week had been a stretch. Was a li'l overwhelmed initially. But one thing I am slowly starting to learn is to look at things on a positive note. If there are more things to do, it actually means I have more things to learn. And on a more upbeat note, my boss realised how stretched it had been, so the workload has kind of eased off quite a bit. Whew. And I am really quite happy to go to work these days. I mean, it makes a whole lot of difference with an understanding boss who is concerned about the welfare of her team and who makes an effort to do so. Makes the whole working process more bearable, knowing you have your boss behind you.

There's this thing about New Year's resolutions that I don't really dig. But there are a few things I know I will do this year:

(1) Be more positive....look at things from a more cheerful perspective

(2) Always count my blessings and be thankful for all that He has blessed me with

(3) Focus on Him, and listen and obey Him more.

Ok that shouldn't be too far-fetched, nor too hard to accomplish either. So this is it....into 2006 we go...