Busy but fulfilling day

Today I had appointments from noon all the way till night. I was quite tired because I stay up every night to play Mousehunt on Facebook. I say it's fulfilling because at least I'm doing productive things and I always feel happy whenever I do things that I like and it makes me busy, or at least look busy.

During noon, I went to CZ's place for her son's one-year old birthday party. CZ was my senior in Secondary school prefects and girl guides. After she graduated, we have not met up at all, but I send her birthday cards or wishes every year on her birthday. Thus, she always feels very touched by me. We actually lost touch some time back but she found me on Friendster while I was in USA. We have always promised to meet up when I came back to Singapore but never found the time to do so. Last year, when she gave birth, she invited me to her son's full month party but it happened to fall during the week that I was away in Japan. So this time, when she invited me again for the birthday, I had to go. Much as I love children, I have to say that my main purpose in going was to meet up with CZ, rather than to celebrate her son's birthday. Being single and unattached, there's always this situation that I have to attend some social functions alone. Take this time for example. I have not seen CZ for so long. We are bound to have some sort of distance. CZ tried her best to entertain me but she has other guests to attend to too. Also, the more she tried to make me feel at home, the more I feel bad. I did not feel very awkward, since I was there for a little more than an hour only. I just felt that if I'm to remain single, this would happen for the rest of my life. I have to get used to it, I guess

After the party, I left for my tuition. It was a back-to-back tuition session lasting three hours since I'm tutoring a pair of brothers of different levels. That was quite fine actually since I've decided not to flare up at the slightest mistakes. I've learnt to let it go and see them as children who needs my guidance. Instead of raising my voice at them and making them frightened, I should try to be gentle and help them remember their mistakes.

Then, I had to attend a meeting with the Character Building members to prepare for our next semester's programmes. Since I had an hour to spare between tuition and the meeting, I went to the library to look up information for Switzerland. Yishun had a new library and their travel guides are so much more extensive than the AMK branch. I've actually found quite a few books and intend to photocopy them just like what I did at AMK. However, I found that this Yishun branch does not have any photocopying machines! I was quite miffed by it. Left with no choice, I had to choose two books out of my many choices and borrow them home. It was so heavy to carry them home!

Anyway, the character building programme was easy to plan for, with MT's help. MT asked me today how old I am. She is quite new to church and was just beginning to know us. I just said I'm very old, much older than her (she's 17, btw). Well, she said I do not look like I'm old. She said I look more like her and her friends' age. Haha! This means that I look like a teenager. Actually, I'm not sure if MT said this out of compliments or out of insult, because I've realised that she is mature for her age. If she thinks that I do not behave like my age, does she think that I'm childish or immature? Hmm....maybe I shouldn't read too much into it. When someone says something nice, accept it graciously. Ha!

Wish I can use my brain

I know I have not been writing much. I hate this. Actually I go online almost everyday and everytime I wish to blog. The only problem is I don't have anything to blog about. Usually if I don't have interesting events happening in my life to blog about, I will have some thoughts to share. My lack of topics to blog about means that I've not been thinking or using my brain! *gasps* I have been so addicted to facebook recently that the only thing I wanted to go online is to go Mousehunt and catch mice. Of course, since I've already booked tickets for London, I've been doing a little of research online too. Looking for places to stay and go in Switzerland. Now that I realised that Switzerland is quite an expensive place. It didn't go with the rest of Europe in converting to Euro and while it's currency rate is not sky high, it's standard of living is still high enough for me. I've been trying to look for cheap or affordable hostel online but I guess those really cheap ones do not have websites. Maybe I should look harder.

Ok, I'm rambling now. I hate that I do not have a fixed blogging pattern. When I read others' blogs, they are able to present their thoughts into such nice and interesting reads. I wish I can do that too, but when I start blogging, I just sort of write whatever comes to mind without any pattern. This makes it very confusing to read and seems that my blog has no point to it. I hope I can blog more. Should use my brain more often.

Vacation planning!

The recent economy downturn has made air tickets more affordable. I have been saving up and wanting to visit my host family in London and finally I'm going! Yes! I'm so happy! There's a promotion going on with SIA and the tickets are really quite reduced from the original prices. However, the stipulation is that it's a two-to-go offer, so I had to ask around to get someone to go with me. Actually, I didn't have that much difficulty looking for someone. The other day, the best friends and I met up for a meal and I just sort of asked WJ casually if she wants to go. I was surprised that she gave a positive reply to me immediately. So, when I got back, I went into serious thinking and planning and find that I should really go!

This is a good time to go not only because of the low cost of air tickets, but also my host family maybe moving back to the States. If they go back, flying to USA would be more expensive than flying to Europe. Also, I have friends in other parts of Europe and this trip to London would be also to meet my friends. So, if my host family move back to USA, it would be a long time before I go to Europe again.

So, today WJ and I made some initial plans and we're confirmed going. We're going to be there for two weeks as WJ says it makes sense to stay longer since we've already flown all the way there. Other than visiting my host family in London, we're going to Germany so I can visit a friend of mine who's German. We were au pairs together in USA and our children used to have playdates together. I really miss her and it's great that we get to catch up in her hometown. After Germany, we're going to go to Switzerland. I have a friend there too, although it's not confirmed that we're meeting up. I met this friend while on tour to Scotland. She's a very sweet girl, very young but mature. We've been keeping in touch. I'm not really that close to this friend but I'm hoping that we can meet up.

Well, there's a bad side to taking this Europe trip. I have to give up going to church camp. It's not really a matter of clash of timings and affordability. Most of the fellowship people are going and I really hate to miss all these memories with them. All the children there for me to play with! But again, I'm giving them up for my little girls, K and B. Although I can afford to go, I don't want to spend all my money and end up being left with nothing for a rainy day. Sigh...you can't always have the best of both worlds.