coincidence?

this kind of coincidence gives me goose bumps.

my friend was working for an events management company over the past few years and recently, he needed people to work as an usher for a conference event at marina bay sands for 2 days. since i was not working and my exploring machine at loose, i thought it was no harm to try it out, just for the experience.

the goose bumps came when he called me the day before and told me that the conference event was for my ex audit firm. i was stunned when i heard this! such a coincidence! after leaving the firm for 4 years, i got ‘reunited’ with the firm, but in a different role. for a moment, i started to imagine how i should react if i bumped into one audit partner whom i worked with previously. however, since i agreed to work, would just go with it and see what turned out. i might not even bump into him at all.

when i got there the next day, i realized that it was a partners conference where the audit partners in the area pacific region flew in for the conference. the usher role was to be human arrow to direct the audit partners who were staying at the marina bay sands hotel through the underpass to the convention centre for their conference. 10 of us were allocated different spots to stand with our ‘lollipop’ signage.

it was seriously no joke to keep standing for hours. by the 4^th hour, my legs were seriously aching and i was looking forward to my 15 minutes break. it was a great relief on the legs when i could sat down finally.

after my break, i was assigned to stand at the convention centre level. i was present to the increase in likelihood of bumping into my audit partner. indeed! while i was standing at my spot and turning my head towards the conference rooms, i saw that audit partner approaching my direction with another person. my heart jumped for a second! how should i react??? i kept looking at him but he was not really responding back. maybe, he did not recognize me. after all, my hairstyle was different from the last time he saw me. i tried to act busy and avoid direct eye contact with him. luckily he walked past me just like that. how close could this be! speaking of the devil! such luck!

for the last 1.5 hours of my shift, i was walking around the different spots to relieve some of them who needed to take a break. the first day finally ended. i survived 7 hours of standing!

i reported work at 6.45am on the second day as they were having a breakfast session in the morning. so early! in the middle of my shift, i was called to help out with the microphones in the conference room with 3 other friends. i found myself standing inside the conference room. i thought this was a pretty amazing encounter. even if i stayed on in the firm, i would never had a chance to attend such a conference unless i slogged myself to become an audit partner, which obviously would not be my choice. with the unfolding of events, i saw more overseas audit partners than i ever seen and even got to 'attend' the conference, even though in a different role. more goose pumps…

another amazing thing was i managed to spot my audit partner sitting at the end of the row among more than 1,000 audit partners in the conference room. was this what some people say, “the more you avoid something, the more it appears in front of you.”?

adding on to this, i recalled an incident while i was working with the firm. an audit manager asked me if i were not an auditor, what would i rather do? i told her i would want to work in an events management company, to organize events. after 4 years, i was actually working in an events management company, though in a small way, for the firm when i said that. such creepy coincidence...

it was not easy to stand for a long period but this assignment allowed me to experience many things and fulfilled something i said in the past. still worth it. = )

i am starting to believe that life has its way to let you fulfill the things you want to fulfill. you just need to be ready, patient and sharp enough to see the opportunities when they unfold.

waiting for my next coincidence to happen…

inspirational quote by me

when we have the courage to face our past, we have the strength to live our future.

doing something by doing nothing

doing something by doing nothing. this sounds a bit contradicting. how can one be doing something by doing nothing? i am exploring the act of doing nothing, with the intention of doing nothing for a moment, a minute or the next 5 minutes.

often, humans cannot stand doing nothing. once we are not doing something, we begin to feel useless, not productive or not contributing to the society. in the end, we get ourselves busy by doing something, anything, just not letting ourselves to be in a state of doing nothing. do we feel tired from doing all the time? maybe for a moment, but the next moment, we start to get ourselves occupied or distracted. we get so used to doing something all the time that we feel uneasy when we are doing nothing. the question is, where are we heading towards?

some time last year, someone asked me, “what do i want to do now?” during that time, i was overwhelmed by a lot of things, emotionally and mentally, making me feel tired and frustrated. a tiny voice was shouting very loudly inside me, “i want to do nothing!” a sense of rebelliousness was brewing inside me, ready to reject anything that was coming my way. i just wanted to stay still and quiet. i could not understand what the rush was for. i could see nothing. i needed a bigger purpose in front to propel me forward.

this year, i decided to give myself the time and space to deliberately do nothing, to be present to the passing of time. it was like i was on the main path and i took a deliberate detour onto the forest trail. i was taking my time to walk, to feel the forest, to listen to my heart, to reflect in my mind, to be in the moment. there was no rush, only serenity. i felt at peace and happy, a moment to treasure. 

in the busyness of life, we should give ourselves the time and space to experience the moment of doing nothing...

walking on a forest trail

the book café

it was a saturday morning and i was walking from clarke quay mrt station to robertson quay. i was on my way to a morning gathering session with some friends at 9am. we were planning to meet at a café place at robertson quay. i was looking at my watch when i reached liang court and realised it was 8:51am! 9 more minutes to go! estimating the distance and time, i needed to run to make it in time. when i was approaching, i saw the little red car parking outside the café. rare occasion that the rest were there already. =p  i finally stepped into the café at 8:57am, feeling out of breath. phew! just in time!

the name of the café was interesting, it was literally named as “the book café”. the place was not too small, with indoor and outdoor seating area, allowing you to choose, depending on your mood of the day. for the interior, there was the sofa seating area, with big sofas, coffee tables and soft lighting, creating a cozy living room ambience for morning breakfast.

we were sitting at the chair area, which was spacious and comfortable as well. around the café, there were shelves of books and latest magazines, free to pick any for browsing. framed posters were hanged on the walls, giving it a tint of sophisticated feel.

they served a wide variety of food, including all day breakfast. the service of the staff was warm and friendly when taking our orders and asking about our feedback on the food. i even had a lovely birthday surprise when the staff brought up a piece of birthday chocolate cake at the end of our meeting session! my friends sang me a birthday song and i made my birthday wish! the chocolate cake was delicious! thanks gals!

i had a great time with good company, a cup of mocha and fantastic cake! the book café provided the much needed space for busy city dwellers to gather and relax or just to let their minds go empty.

thumbs up for the book café!

http://www.thebookcafe.com.sg/

the book café

my birthday cake!

math

today is my 31st birthday...

i have lived on this plant for...
31 years or
11,315 days or
271,560 hours or
16,293,600 minutes

most of the time, i spent it wondering what my truest self was... where did i leave it? luckily, for the past 2 years, i managed to find some answers...

i am thinking, if i ever live till 71 years old, that would be another...
40 years
14,600 days or
350,400 hours or
21,024,000 minutes

the next question is, what do i want to create? how do i want to create?

sophie's world

sophie's world, a novel about the history of philosophy, by jostein gaarder.

an unexpected encounter with this book when i bought it at a roadside bookstall in shanghai 2 years ago, but had not read it until recently. that time, i was walking along the road with my colleagues after dinner and we chanced upon a roadside bookstall. we started browsing and 1 of my colleagues, coly recommended this book to me. i thought it was no harm to add a good book at home and so i bought it.

2 years later, i was browsing my bookshelf, deciding on the next book to read. this book caught my attention. as i reached into my bookshelf and picked up this book, i did not know that an exciting journey through the history of philosophy was awaiting me. the story started to unfold. there was a story within a story, with a twist that kept me reading and reading.

somehow, i felt that THIS was the right moment to read this book than if i were to read 2 years ago. sophie's and my path finally crossed. this was what i needed to understand at this stage of my life..

it was interesting that every encounter with a book, reading it and the insights it brought after reading, could very well be an inspiring story by itself. did it just happen by chance or was there a reason behind it? had the bookstall not been there that night, had we not walked on that road that night, had i not gone to shanghai, had i not been assigned to that engagement, had i not... i like this kind of encounter, where everything falls in place, just waiting for the moment to unfold...

thanks, sophie! or is it alberto, hilde or major albert?

sophie's world