A newfound purpose at work

Things definitely got much better in the year of 2014,
mainly cos I switched jobs, met some nice colleagues and bosses who are willing to spend time to know me as a person and develop me, and I am finally finding meaning in the things I do!
They say a job is not everything, so don't let it affect your life, but remember that you spend more hours at work than with your family or partner. 

I have gained some wisdom from my past workplace - Staying in the job whereby you are counting down to the end of work day after day is never healthy; it's killing you bit by bit.

People say every workplace is the same; it is infiltrated with some toxic workers, alot of politics, favoritism, and the list goes on... However, now I must say I beg to differ! Finding purpose and feeling the importance in what you are doing is the way to go... Don't give up, cos even I, a happy-go-lucky person, who had aimlessly lived out my life, has a newfound purpose at work!

I can't believe I will say this heartfelt words someday but ya, clinical and quality improvement research is one essential aspect in making healthcare progressive and forward-looking. (Thanks to the doctors who instilled this idea into me, I think I am brainwashed 360 degrees.)

1) The Masters thesis which I've been helping Sr Gillian with (the discussion & results section) got a distinction! She's so awesome!

2) Jun Wen and I won 1st prize at a wedding fair that we went to on 5th Jul - prizes include:

- One free weekend night stay at Rendevous Hotel

- $300 off BLACK accessories voucher (where I bought my crystal bouquet from)

- $388 for photobooth voucher by One Sweet Affair Production

- IMPrefection voucher (Wedding decor vendor)

- Touche voucher (Couple spa vendor)

[I gave the last 3 vouchers to Iris since I didn't use them!]


3) [Think I mentioned this before] The abstract I submitted for a forum was selected for an oral presentation. Didn't get selected for the other forum that we submitted to though, but when I told Dr Philip about this disappointing news, he emailed this, "Nvm, we got selected for oral alr, that's the best ;)"
LOL.

4) I won prize #29 out of 1,900 people at KTPH D&D. It was soooo coooool! 
Iris won prize #196 and I told her "Omg, you're so lucky to be in the top 200!" Hers was a $50 Cold Storage voucher.
And when my name was flashed on the screen, Iris shouted my name and I screamed too, exhilarated that I got into the top 30! 

My first time in D&D and I won something! It was Wan Ling's 5th but as she hasn't won anything yet, it became her intuition and motivation to glower at me when I won! LOL. 

Anyway, side track abit, I love Wan Ling! She's such a capable and humble lady full of positiveness and humour.
Told her about my knee conditions; the usuals - fall when the knees suddenly gave way and she asked, "So have you mastered the art of falling?"
"Huh?"
"Since you fell couple of times, you must have known how to react while you were falling; like maybe rolling over to prevent yourself from getting hurt." Lol.

Staying positive despite the negative circumstance. 
She's very 7 Habits - "You are a product of your choice; not a product of your circumstance."

Me with Mich. Mich - at 6 months of her pregnancy. Although Pretty Mich didn't bloat like what the other preggies may have unfortunately experienced / are experiencing, and there was seemingly not many random cravings for food and mood swings arising from her pregnancy, pain began to burden her gradually. I saw her ailing day after day - she can't walk without feeling the immense pain down her tailbone, and can't sit or stand up properly without help. However that night, relentlessly, she stood up from her seat despite her tailbone pain when the first prize was about to be announced, thinking that it will be her! LOL.
She was oddly disheartened when she missed her chance of winning the $3,000 travel voucher!
Mich! I will definitely miss the way you react to things so hilariously when you are on your 4 months' maternity leave!

Prize #29 

- 4 weekend buffet dinner tickets at Carousel, Royal Plaze on Scotts!

Then in an instant, very superficially, everyone in the department is making conscientious efforts to cajole me into taking them to one of the nicest buffet dinners in Singapore! 

It isn't dirt on my face; it was a shuttlecock hand-drawn by Mich with Wan Ling's eyeliner.

Mich advocated wearing medals in the hope that we win the best-dressed team award (but we knew we didn't stand a chance after looking at other teams' endeavours). And yes, you are right; I wore Simba's Garfield Marathon's medal!

Our lucky table no 88, 

thanks to Linda who reserved the table early!

Link to Solemnization Video & Photos' Slideshow

The solemnization photos and video are ready! :D

Click here to follow link to the Solemnization Video!

Or copy and paste the following link:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/edgxsz0y4z641nt/JunWen%2BHuiJin_WeddingTrailer.mp4?dl=0





And also presenting to you the photos' slideshow

JunWen+HuiJin WeddingR.O.MSlideshow from Toh Hui Jin on Vimeo.

Happy Teachers' Appreciation Day

To thank the Clinical Educators, the Educational Development Department came up with a Happy Teachers' Appreciation Day!

Just some photos to show (without words) to spare you from the excruciating pain of reading my otherwise long, meaningless entries. Haha!

Human-balloon hybrid spotted in the auditorium!

Sporting nurses playing old school games in the background.

Nurses are the most spontaneous, fun bunch of people; I love them!

Live photobooth!

random photos of solemnisation, well for me it never gets old.

Hi cuteness greeting you this wonderful weekend...

Hi this is Casey.

Photo by Andrew Tan, SOSD photography volunteer

Our recent rescue, Perri, who has been waiting in the shelter for a family.

Mood photography - Portrayal of so many emotions through a single picture. Perri looks so lost and sad - both her and her reflection.

I seriously think that the SOSD photographers should join National Geographic, to venture out in the wild and do naturalistic observation, capture some good moments and be famous! :)

The fellow volunteers decided to give me a break for a month or two for me to plan my wedding, but the break is officially over after I was assigned to 3 cases at one go!

Being a volunteer (or should I say a social worker for dogs) was definitely a huge step out of my comfort zone; navigating my way to strangers' houses, talking to strangers, and using my intuition to guess if the adopter/fosterer is sincere were undoubtedly not my kind of stuff.

I met dozens of nice adopters/fosterers, some of them even became my "assistants" (in taking dogs to vets and adoption drives) and friends; but of course since God is fair, I met difficult people as well. Sometimes I literally watched a "Korean" drama unfold right before my eyes; the mum demanding that I bring back the dog while the kids cry and cry over their mum's unreasonableness. These people gave me a hard time; I could be in the middle of work caught up on something when some fosterer called and said she couldn't handle the dog, blaming all her actions on the dog's misbehaviour, and demanded that I find another fosterer within his/her given time frame. Yesh, some people are that unreasonable; it's always the dog's fault. In the short time,  frame,  I find myself helplessly being coerced into a situation whereby I have to go around begging for someone to help me with the dog and these times are definitely the times where I want to fetch the dog home, sneak into my room with it, and give my parents a heart attack the following day.

So I can truly understand why my fellow volunteer when orientating new volunteers said this, "After you start volunteering, you find that dogs are much better than humans." LOL.

But how can I complain when the dogs assigned to me eventually found such good homes?

Evie has gone to Switzerland with adopter Anna, and Anna said Switzerland is very dog-friendly; you are allowed to bring your dog everywhere, to the trains, to shopping malls etc.

Evie loves it there, so blessed - the 14 flight hours in a container in a plane must have been daunting for Evie but it was all worth it. :)

Yuko, another blessed dog with her family.

I was with Yuko this adoption drive and this family followed us wherever we go. LOL.

The dogs blessed me; they are an inspiration. They love and protect their family more than anything else in this world; their family is their whole world. 

I wanna blog with Androidsinboots' photos when they are ready, but they aren't ready yet, so I'm going to just post random photos of the solemnisation while waiting!

Will and Wilson at work. The pair of brothers had on the shoes of the same brand.

Jun Wen's dad at work in the background too, endeavouring to help retain most memories for us. Haha!

The infinity pool really made the whole backdrop stand out; there were no railings to block what's behind.

With several blocks of flats behind us.

And soon after this shoot, his dad advised Wilson not to take photos from this angle as the view behind us is not scenic enough lol. But as you know, I went ahead to engage AndroidsinBoots as they are very renowned for their vintage shots; (I mean, look at Will; he dressed like he lived in the 60s!) so I trust that the old flats will serve as a perfect vintage setting!

His tie is so cute right! It was pre-tied by the bridal studio coordinators and looks like what some prince in the fairy tales would wear.

My crystal bouquet and his brooch were in matching colours.

Trying my best to look Grecian; I chose blue as the base colour and champagne as the secondary colour, his was also blue but he wanted his secondary colour grey.

My colleague who saw the photos said, "Wah lau, can see that you make good use of your bouquet, you carry it in every photo!!!"

Hahahahaha!

Solemnisation table. Thanks Shixing/Mao for this photo! 

I love its contrast with the background of the museum.

Thanks Ling for placing my ornaments in appropriate positions, I love the way they are placed!

The frame made by JunWen, and the wedding rabbits pre-ordered by us from Nex, (Simba adamantly wanted the veil to cover the girl rabbit's eyes as he thought it was funny -_-").

The bouquet of flowers provided by the bridal studio was placed most of the time on the table and it works wonders in adorning the otherwise plain table.

The mass of fresh flowers placed right in the middle of the table that was provided by Naumi Hotel was one of the first things I awed at when I stepped into the bar-turned-solemnization presence, and I love that it doesn't clash with my personal decorations haha. 

Photo taken by Jun Jie. 

This photo is a must-show 'cause Jun Wen's mum thinks I look great with some sadness as I unintentionally brought out the emotions and highlights of the event.

"You were holding onto the crystal bouquet even after the march-in and was even crying with your hands tightly gripped onto it???"

Hahaha, sorry la - My first time getting married; I was so nervous I really didn't know I was holding onto the bouquet all the time.
The video Jun Jie recorded of us while JunWen recited his vows vividly showed me wavering in the direction of the wind.

Omg, I'm so sorry Androids; I has always been so awkward in whatever I do - but I trust that your video editing skills is top-notch! ;)

To do more justice to the crystal bouquet, here is a close-up shot of it taken by the vendor.

Crystal bouquet from BLACKaccessories.

The bow was plain blue but I added lace details onto it! Nice right!

His brooch at a closer look.

Grey and blue actually go very well together!

Found this in my camera after the solemnisation. LOL.

My bridesmaids, what were you doing?

Need some help? Dropped something in the pool?

Married.

Other than the additional weight to the finger, "married life" didn't differ much from being single! Haha! Everyone is saying it's 'cause we haven't lived together yet! 

But I start getting lavish treats from various girl friends, Mich, Evon, Iris, Celene, to be congratulated for my end of singlehood. Haha! To some, the inception of a marriage is a new phase of life; it's exciting, and something to look forward to and strive for. To others, marriage is definitely a deficit (haha), never something good; it is the start of the 3rd ring: suffering. Lol.

Evon was waiting and waiting for her boyfriend of many years to propose.. It was day after day of disappointments, even after several distinct hints. She exclaimed when I came back from leave, "Hey you married woman!" And instantly before I had time to react, she was right in front of me and stroking my ring.

"Wahhhhhh!! So nice!! Look at my finger; it's so bare! Send me a photo of your ring, I will send it to him!!!" Lol.

He asked when he received the pic, "Why she got two bands ah?" #facepalm 
(According to Mich and Lynn, the married women, I'm supposed to wear my engagement ring together with the wedding band.)

Lol! Guess when he finally proposes she will really cry out loud, both touched and relieved. Hahaha!

The Solemnization

Everyone knows that whenever you are very busy, the day passes really fast.

Yea, that's what happens with us on our solemnisation; everything went like a breeze.

I was so busy I didn't eat the food, but the SOSD adoption drives have drilled me to cope with busyness better - I could be talking to one person when another volunteer needs my help, while the pup I was holding onto peed or got into a fight with other pups. Haha!

All in all, everything went so well due to my friends' help! 

Can't say thank you enough to them, really :).

They came early and put in meticulous effort to greatly assist us in making this event a big success!

The vendors have filled the bill too!

Naumi Hotel - best service ever! The event planners have been very thoughtful and patient with us; we went there a couple of times and despite their busyness, there was always someone (at least an assistant manager) to bring us around. 

The planners were very, very funny, approachable and brutally honest - which is the style I like! They are quite unsure of many things actually as the assistant manager, Nelson, who attended to us in February was new and has not done any solemnisation event before in this new hotel. He simply said, "Let me know your concerns and I will write them now, and get back to you." 

I asked a million questions the first few times we met, and the planners have not once shown any sort of impatience or annoyance answering me.

They looked very very blur, and in fact they were really blur - they didn't seem to understand us even after several emails. There was once I became extremely worried and told Simba that we might be in for some unpleasant surprises.

But as days go along, the planners became more experienced as weddings started to line up in March. Phew~~ As the day drew closer, their attention converged and there was undivided attention for our event. It turned out that they were quite well prepared, and got everything in the right place (Solemnisation table 3 metres away from the pool, reception table right behind the seats etc etc). The 3 managers were there throughout; they weren't as frivolous as we thought to be. I was indeed surprised but in a pleasant way.

Will post an entry to rate all my vendors for ya future reference!

We took a mini pre wedding shoot just before the start of the solemnization as requested by the photographer.

Love this pic that Ling took for us! If ever Androids wishes to film a documentary, this can be part of it to show that painstaking, backbreaking, tedious side of a photographer's job. 

Another stance of the photographer's!

Some friends commented on how muscular the photographer is and that he flexed his muscles while documenting our marriage. Lol! Guess part of his training was to carry the camera equipment and stretch as far as he can!

Looking as if we lived in the past, with the faded photograph.

My tea party dress was handpicked from the store front; it has some Victorian to it, bit vintage so it's length was longer than the other usual cocktail dresses and I like that it concealed my knees haha! Also the ballerina-like bottom and the lace that covered part of my shoulder were elegant too.

Simba felt like a star that day and he loves it as we all can see - he looked right into every camera that was directed at him!

With the bridesmaids decked in mostly primary colours. 

Taken by Junwen's dad. This angle made the groomsmen look members of some (in)famous band. Lol!

Had to bend down a little for Simba to kiss my forehead, so I'm guessing that the photographer will crop away our lower bodies haha.

When the solemnizer talked about kinship... I found myself tearing despite efforts to resist them. 

The exchange of vows..

Simba wasn't very nervous, much to my surprise! Told him beforehand to read out the vows slowly and not rush through them (as he had the tendency to rush through his past presentations in school, especially when he gets nervous.)

He did really well, his vows truly personal and go way back; we both reminisced the old times when we first got together as he spoke of them.

Side track a little - don't you think the back of my hair looks like the dinosaur's back spikes? 

Ok, not funny...

Seems like everyone loves sending me photos of my weeping face lol.

Ok, I must confess that halfway through his vows, I got extremely worried as the vows I have prepared to say to him weren't as intellectual and heartfelt as his. Lol! I made it bit hilarious on purpose.

Cake cutting! And as requested by videographer we had to feed each other as one of the effects for our video. Lol.

With all kinds of cute, colourful and cheerful infiltrating every aspect of their wedding, it was only fitting that the story began with a shot like this. 

Posted by Androids on Facebook.

Looking forward to Androids' video of us! Watch the following creation of theirs and u will understand why:
https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=787818147912147&set=vb.146264548734180&type=2&theater

Simba's vows:

"Dear Hui Jin, From this day forward, I shall take you as my lawfully wedded wife. We have come a long way ever since we first met as fellow classmates 6 years ago. 

Reminiscing the days when we first started out as a young couple, I still clearly remember promising you that I will marry you someday. I was right all along as you were always that special one who stood by me all these years, sharing all my happiness and sadness. 

Today, in the presence of our family and friends, I am going to put my words into action, by holding your hand, as we both embark on a lifelong journey together.

You are my best friend, lifelong companion and irreplaceable soulmate and I promise to love you always, with my whole heart.

I promise to be forever faithful to you with my heart, body, mind and soul. 

I will always be there for you in times of joy and sorrow, health and sickness, good and bad times and of course skinny and fatty times.

I promise to listen to all your complaints and apologise to you first no matter who is in the wrong so that our relationship stays strong for the longest time ever.

I will cherish and respect the unique you and to honour and fight for you, despite having a small physique, for as long as we both shall live.

I promise to bring joy and smiles to your life and cheer you up with my not-so-funny jokes and funny facial expressions.

I will watch all animation films with you and all horror films by myself as well as refrain from nagging at you for occasionally indulging in your favourite bubble teas and cheesecakes.

And finally I present you with this ring, as a symbol of my said vows. May it encircle your finger always as a token of my everlasting pledge of love, from me to you."

My vows:

"Dear Jun Wen,

有些人说婚姻全部靠都是团结， and I’m truly grateful that you are on my team. You have been an awesome team player all this while in the relationship, and 我希望我们永远能这样的合作下去。

Thanks for always being on-call 24/7 for me. Thanks for making me smile whenever I’ve forgotten how to. Thanks for eating my leftovers, although it always looks like I have eaten yours. 谢谢你。

I promise to love you without condition, to hold you in the highest regard each and every day, to be always ready to share your hopes, your dreams and your secrets, and to support you to challenge you to be a better person. I promise to talk less and listen more, to let you speak in at least 50% of our conversations. I promise not to always laugh at your silliness, but instead I will laugh with you through good times and even bad times. Also, I promise to watch with you all your favorite horror movies someday and to ride some roller coasters with you for a limited period, of course. Lastly, I promise to expand my GK, so that you don't have to laugh at me all the while!

This is my promise of love to you. 这是我对你一辈子的诚诺， 我会一直守着它。And I look forward to spending the rest of our lives together. I love you."

It's tomorrow!

It's tomorrow! Didn't feel it when I was giving tuition from 9.30am to 7pm. Felt it the moment I saw msgs from friends wishing me well after that. Haha! 

Vows although personal and last no more than 3 minutes, is like a true blue presentation, which I'm truly so afraid of.

I'm pretty on the edge now, and you are right about it-I can't sleep! Aiya why am I still memorizing the steps that the solemnizer told us at this time??? It's 1am in the morning already! U know.. Other than lately being called short by more and more people (which is weird cause I wasn't called short until I stepped into the working world), I was told a couple of times at work that I have this obsessive-compulsive personality disorder. This behavior is so apparent to me now it scares me. Lol.

Now breathe in and tell yourself "It's okay if u didn't follow the solemnizer's instructions that well. It's okay if you stammer a few times or even throughout the vow. It's okay, it's your solemnization, your say. Have it your way." 

Anyway was on my way back from the bridal studio today when fireworks emerged in the sky somewhere of Chinatown! It was a pleasant yet unexpected surprise, as though they know it's my wedding the following day. Well.. The romance spoiler is none other than Simba. 

Let me rewind that for you...

He was rushing to Chinatown MRT for the toilet all the way from the bridal studio when the fireworks caught us by surprise! Having seen and heard the inception of the fireworks, everyone dropped what they were doing and scampered out of shops, and this stopped us right in our tracks! Just as I thought Simba could withstand the urge, I saw his face turn blue by the second; he has this "please-I-really-need-to-go" look. Lol! While each firework spark gave out a loud explosive sound, his bowels were actively responding to these sounds, the pain as if the fireworks were drumming his tummy at each blast. Eventually, with few words, he left me behind, jostling everyone to get to the toilet in the meantime... And this was how I was left stranded in Chinatown admiring the remnants of the fireworks display on our last date as boyfriend and girlfriend. Awesomeness! Lol!

Happy Lantern's Festival!!!

Fireworks at Chinatown 06/09/2014

And Happy Teachers' Day! It was as though everyone knows that it would be my wedding tomorrow; one of my students bought me face masks! Lol! Just when I need it!

Wedding Vows - My Promise of Love to You.

It's next Sunday.

Got up early today to watch AndroidsinBoots' wedding videos

 to draw inspiration from them (ahem* not copying wholesale I promise!) for my personalized wedding vows.

Time well spent; delirious at one moment (for the couples in the videos whom I don't know), and emotional at the next (when they looked into each other's eyes, broke away from their reserved Asian norms and openly spoke of their love for each other.) 

Yay to have finished penning down my vows and reciting them over 20 times, and

there was never once my eyes didn't brim with tears throughout the 20 times! 

Oh no! I hope I will be too anxious next Sunday to be choked back with tears!  

"Dear Jun Wen ...

...

..

This is my promise of love to you...

... With Love, HJ"

With that, see you at our solemnization next Sunday!

For now, I'm going for bachelorette high tea party with Michelle, Evon & Iris! :D

Jump Shot at Sunset

The best photo yet!

Colour-adjusted by Photographer :).

Our solemnization is 3 weeks away. I'm feeling the jitters having met the solemnizer Mr Lau today at his place, not 'cause he isn't professional and gentle (he's awesome) but 'cause when he taught us the procedures that we have to adhere to, we realized that the event is around the corner.

Vendors have been emailing us alot lately too. Scaryyy. 

(Will recommend some vendors to you if they are good!)

Still owing my friends the solemnisation schedule flowchart and guest list.

Personalised vows and thank you speech are not formulated yet too

S-T-R-E-S-S!

JIA YOU!!!!

Solemnisation Invitation Revised

Hi dears,

Revised version of my solemnisation invitation, after I remembered that I should save my photo in .tiff rather than .png. And ta-ta! Now the resolution is higher than before!

And got some advice from my colleagues on the font, font size and colour.

Part of our job scope includes reading a few chapters of a designated book every 2 weeks and review it with boss (abit stress I tell you! Boss wants us, whom he describes as "the young sweet things" and "the strapping young men", to speak up and give our personal take and experience on what's covered in the book).

 This week's book is Zen Presentation, a cool book about how to present your slides in a way that captivates your target audience. 

So after picking up a few skills from Zen, we have been endeavouring to organise our slides the Zen way. 

So today during lunch, I asked, "Is this invitation ok? Is it Zen??" LOL.

Mich and Evon said the font is too "normal" and I should have selected Roman-styled writing fonts since the wedding theme is Grecian. But not heeding their wise advice this time since Simba and I like cute fonts. Lol.

Lynn said the title colour is blended into the distracting background so I should use a shape with fill nearly 50% transparent, and so I did.

They also commented that the font size for time, date and venue could be abit bigger since these details are of paramount importance!!

---

Emailed my team that I will be away for 3 days to prep for the solemnisation, and Carl replied with the following:

The “little girl with the winsome smile” getting married made me want to scream “Cradle-snatcher!” at your husband-to-be.

Hahaha! That was supposed to be a joke.

Congratulations!

(Carl always thought that I'm his son's age, which is around 20 years old.)

7th September 2014 - Our Solemnization

Sending invitation out soon via Whatspp

(a cost-effective and paperless method of invitation)

Eh, used Powerpoint to do this, but the resolution turned out to be mediocre.

Used the photo editor in Mac but it doesn't have fancy fonts. 

Sigh, can't have the best of both worlds, unless I use Photoshop which I don't have!

Original photo taken by Photographer & recently colour-adjusted 
(He calls this genre journalistic, I learnt something.)

The pre-wedding shoot photos really are phenomenal. I used to think that with some talent and when your same sense of beauty is something which most people can identify with, you are a photographer. 

I was so wrong, absolutely and absurdly (after receiving my pre-wedding shoot photos).

A competent photographer does his homework.
Taking good photographs requires so much more than just talent, luck or good sense of beauty; it takes experience, and mastery of both knowledge and skills.

Just look at this photo for example, 
The length of tree branch has to just adequately cover the length of Horse Poland. 

 The fence was used to accentuate his art; it created an interesting outline to the pic, as the line was straight in contrast with Horse Poland's curved structure and the winding branches of the big tree. If he were to take this photo from the other direction wherein Horse Poland faces the other way, he might not be able to capture this.
The layering makes the whole pic less complex and you know where you should focus on just when you see this photo. It's us, beautified by Horse Poland, Horse Poland not far from one main tree, and the main tree is actually not alone; there are a couple of others behind it to set the backdrop.

No good photograph is a coincidence.