I was desperately searching for a piece of local news on the internet last week.  I had never been so keen on such news before. I lost my interest to work and ran several search engine in one go. Was not too successful at the beginning but found what I was looking for eventually. To my dismay, it confirm the hearsay about my ex colleague.

This ex colleague of mine was actually quite close to me. We sat next to each other for nearly a year. We both love the lemon sherbets from Marks & Spencer and often have sour session together. My impression of him was a family man with a sense of humour in his own rights. After his resignation, we kept in contact via sms occasionally.

He had committed a crime and was sentenced to 8 weeks jail term. I felt disturbed and strangely remote with this knowledge. I came up with 2 possible causes for this feeling.

1.       I doubt the way that I judge others and perhaps my trusting nature is not that applicable in this world. But I still want to believe that there is goodness even in the most horrible person.

2.       Didn’t like the way others talk about him, no matter what we had being colleagues for so long. It like when one is down, others makes him sink deeper by stepping on him. Guess it say a lot about the character of that person.

Perhaps he is serving his jail term right now but he will always be my friend.  I trust he had learned his lessons and will try over a new leaf. Hope he will have the support of his family and friends. I will do my mini part in the whole scheme of things. All the best my friend, you have a rough road ahead.

Didn’t have much luck with holiday plans these few months. First was Tibet in July and then Redang in September.

Was planning to go for a holiday with my family in July, I was the one who had insisted Tibet as the destination. For once my dad was in favor for my chosen destination as he is really hard to please in this category. Everything was arranged and deposit was made for the holiday. My sister then drop the bomb shell as she was not able to get leave during the chosen period. So there goes plan number one. I ended up spending my whole month of July in Vietnam anyway.

Redang and my open water course was cancelled as YF's granny was unwell and subsequently passed away. Luckily he knows the resort quite well and we manage to get refund on our booking. Would really be in a dilemma if we had gone for the trip. Guess this is call a Wise Choice.

At this moment, I do not have any travel plans but hopefully something good will come up soon. Keeping my fingers and toes crossed and my mind tuned.

My Camau key designers had abandoned me and I was left to fight alone today.

Thanks goodness that things are still manageable and under control. I have always appreciated their contribution and importance as the major drivers for the design work. I had figured out long ago that life will be tough without them. My piping designers are a special breed as compare to the general concept of "draftsperson". Most are well trained and have lots of experience. Generally it comes with an attitude and lots of pride. I had my woes and wounds about this for as long as I work. Ha ha… but still will not be able to undermind the stuff they had taught me in direct or indirect ways. Or I can say that working life will be rather plain without them.

One of them had some personal and urgent matters to attend to and had return back to Philippines. Even though he didn't informed me on the details and was missing from work since last Thursday. I hope his problems will be resolve quickly and successfully. And will report back to work very soon.

Working on some mission impossible tender at the moment, so far everything is assumed. The tender first cut deadline is end of this week. Trying my best to come out with something acceptable as soon  as possible. I am quite far from it at the moment. Sigh ...

Mr. Brown had sent me this link to an article from the Bangkok post. See this link for more information.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/breaking_news/breakingnews.php?id=122347

Singaporeans are Asia's gloomiest

Singapore (dpa) - Singaporeans are the gloomiest in Asia when it comes to their futures while Indians are the most optimistic, a study found Friday.

Although they purchased the most insurance in the region, the city-state's residents have the lowest level of confidence and satisfaction about life among 2,400 respondents from eight economies.

The findings of the study conducted by AXA Life Insurance were published in The Straits Times.

Singapore emerged with the lowest score of 59.2 on AXA's Life Outlook Index, compared with the regional average of 71.6.

India topped the list with 87.2, followed by the Philippines at 85, China at 75.1, Thailand at 74.3, Indonesia at 69.9, Hong Kong at 67.7 and Malaysia at 66.2.

Personally I felt a little unjust with this finding as I really wish I was different. But I am a Singaporean after all and there some truth to it. Can all fellow country men do something together to improve this rating?

Actually think all this gloomiest and pessimism is self inflicted. This could be averted with some gratefulness and lightness in ones heart. To be honest, I have to admit that I have friends that are pretty gloomy and pessimistic. Talking about this, I shall share something had been bugging me for a while.

It was about my colleague that I had mentioned sometime ago turning to be more open minded and optimistic, he had U-turn for the worst. I wanted to show concern for him but I could feel his resistance and hostility towards me.  Thus I have been avoiding him for the past month and thus losing the only candidate for heart talk in my office. By mere coincident, had a chance to talk to him yesterday. I grab the chance to inform him what I felt about his attitude and his strange behavior towards me. I don’t expect him to answer me at all, though I really love answers to my questions. But I was delighted, just being able to get that off my chest. Ask LGG to cross her fingers and toes for my colleague then.

Refer to http://leely38.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!13A22D9CEAC28504!2118.entry for pervious entry on my colleague.