My Grey World » 2009

Down with (not swine/H1N1) flu

I am currently down with flu. I started coughing on Thursday afternoon. I thought it’s just a normal coughing, but due to the recent paranoia over H1N1 coming to Singapore shores, I decided to check at the school doctor. I didn’t go travel anywhere over the few weeks so he dismissed the possibility of H1N1. (I was about to tell him that I did go to the airport to see my boyfriend before he flew off to Jakarta, but then I went to the airport after I got my first coughs)

On my way to the doctor, on my way to the airport, on the way back from the airport, I was always afraid to cough. Because I was afraid people will think bad things about me (like OH NOES THE GIRL IS COUGHING I MIGHT GET SWINE FLU HOW HOW HOW???)

Seriously, I think this paranoia thing is a bit too much. I found out that the H1N1 flu’s fatality rate is low (just slightly higher than usual seasonal flu). Even the patient zero in Singapore is recovering well. Oh by the way, just because I’m an SMU student doesn’t mean I have increased risk of H1N1. The SMU girl went to the doctor in Bedok area, I didn’t go on the BSM NY trip, so no. Seriously.

Perhaps in Singapore they were already scared about what happened with SARS several years ago?

And by the way, I’m seriously irked by how a newspaper revealed the patient zero’s name (who has requested not to reveal her name – at least in her statement to SMU). Cut it off, will ya. It’s not like she intentionally wanted to contract the virus.

Anyway, I’m quite contained in home right now. I only went out to eat (at the famous Whampoa makan place no less!), then went back to home to gulp down my medicine. It’s a partial home quarantine, I guess.

Hope I get well soon. I’ll need to shop for some stuff for my impending trip to Russia!

Oh and by the way, contact me or e-mail the choir at chamberchoir@smu.edu.sg to get your tickets for the choir’s fundraising concert! $15 each! (details at picture below)

Preludiya - Fund raising concert by SMU Chamber Choir

To Be Thankful pt 2

Part 1

I stared at this boring “Write Post” page for so long, not knowing what to write. So I killed time by talking to my friends via MSN (something I rarely do after Plurk came, but then Plurk is getting boring nowadays). Then my friend Owen gave me this idea to write about how thankful I should feel.

I feel thankful that I still got an internship.

My internship time is not an easy one. I work in an agency where clients keep coming with new work (via my supervisors) and tons of other things to do. Of course, I bitched and moaned, I broke down, I felt like giving up. Seriously I feel physically and emotionally tired everytime I go home. (speaking of home, I have already moved to a spanking new place!)

But Owen told me a number of our friends who still don’t have an internship. And let me tell you, they are the fabulous ones, the ones with high GPA, the highflyers. Me, I’m a mere neither-here-nor-there SMU student, with pathetic GPA. (and please don’t say “Oh come on, you say it’s pathetic but it’s 3.+++ right?”. No it’s not.)

And so I’m blogging this. To remind you. If you are the ones who have jobs but hating every single minute of it. That your job is something you have to treasure, to be thankful of. And also to the ones who are still struggling to find jobs. It’s ok, there will be a fit for you somewhere. Probably not in an MNC, probably not in a big bank with fat check, probably not with a super cool package and long leave days. Don’t stop trying.

Remember to say the simple word. Thank You.

What’s inside your Bible? (or any holy scriptures)

I remember years ago when I was in junior high school, I borrowed a book from the library titled (if I’m not wrong) “Kisah-kisah yang Menyentuh Hati”/ “Touching Stories”. It is said to be a book that compiles stories that are frequently referenced by priests/preachers/basically any religious leaders.

I remember years ago I chanced upon this particular story. It was titled “What’s Inside Your Bible?”. So inside the story was a little boy who was asked by his Sunday School teacher about, well, what’s inside your bible. The answer should have been obvious. Words of GOD. Or perhaps rather 66 books of scriptures (with 1189 chapters and 31101 verses in King James version. I’m pretty sure the Indonesian version has loads more than that). The boy answered “There’s my Mom’s shopping list, a picture of my sister’s boyfriend, Dad’s stuff, Grandma’s stuff” (can’t remember what the other stuff was).

As I’m going through my stuff to pack them up (I’m going to move out in a week), I found my bible. Somebody (I think it was one of my parents – Dad or Mom, I’m not sure. It could have been my then already-Catholic uncles too) bought me this Bible on February 12th 2000 (yes I wrote it in the Bible along with my name, my address, and my phone number). As per Catholic tradition, the Bible was supposed to be blessed by a priest. To anticipate that the 11-year-old me wrote “Date of blessing:” just below the “Date given:”. To cut my “lost period” stories short, I never got the bible blessed.

When I was in junior high school too, there were always daily bible and reflection readings everyday. It was a Christian school so yeah. Students took turns everyday. Everyday there would be a group of students that are responsible for that day’s daily tasks, including cleaning up the whiteboard and the readings. One student will do the opening prayer, one student will read the bible, one student will read the reflection (we read Saat Teduh, Indonesian version of The Upper Room), then one student will do the closing prayer.

Everyday, there would always be one highlighted verse of the Bible. Each day, for about 2 or 3 years (I think I stopped after a while but I can’t remember), I would highlight those verses in my Bible. As the result, the pages of my Bible now are gleaming in different shades : blue, pink, yellow, orange, etc. depends on what colour of the highlighter I owned at that time (or the highlighter I borrowed from a friend).

I attempted to read the Bible from front to back once but failed. I think I stopped at Genesis 27. Really low motivation that time, I guess. As I was reading, I highlighted a lot of verses along the way too.

Not only highlighted verses, I also found a lot of bookmarks. Bookmarks that were given to me in Sunday School, a bookmark that I made myself at an arts and crafts class (I guess), and some handmade bookmarks I made from scrap papers – containing mostly mushy messages about my love for my boyfriend that time.

My point -and the story’s point is : a Bible is not only a book containing words by GOD or a collection of 66 scriptures. It’s a part of your life. Too often a bible is seen as the holy book, decorated nicely and left untouched. Or it is only used at special events. What good can unheard words of GOD do to you then?

Take your Bible and make it yours.

So what’s inside your Bible? (Or Koran, Tripitaka, Weda, etc.?)

Photo by nyello8 available under CC BY License