Finally...

2008 has been really eventful so far. I won't be going into too much detail as to what's been going on, I'll just mention some significant things and elaborate about them as I see fit. After all, isn't that what history is all about - the whims and fancies of the history writers.

First, I'll soon reach 6 months in my job. In fact, I'm in the midst of doing my six-months evaluation. Haha. 6 months in my job essentially means I've pretty much seen all of what my job entails since my work revolves around the calendars of my company, and two international organisations. A milestone in my job was the holding of a big meeting involving internation participants. My department had been preparing for the meeting since before I came to MPA in November! Anyway, it was a great relief when it was over. It ended just in time for me to take part in MPA's Inter-Divisional Games pool tournament (I was captain of my team). Actually, I arrived at the tournament venue late, just in time to take part in the 3rd round of matches. In this round, I dropped the first rack to my opponent, and was trailing in the next (it was best of 3). On the brink of elimination, I played a superb safety shot which caused my opponent to lose his cool. I won that rack, and somehow won the next after my opponent fluffed a simple shot. My win wasn't enough though, we lost the match 2-1. For our final round match, my team would finish joint 3rd out of 5 if we could post our first win. Once again, I dropped the first rack but finished strongly to win 2-1. Walking over to the doubles table, I saw one of our opponents sizing up the 8-ball. I realised it would be the winning shot if he made it. He did too, and started to celebrate as he made the shot, turning to his teammates. However, the cue-ball was tracking towards a pocket, and it indeed dropped in. Realising that it was a game-loss foul, it was my turn to celebrate! My team was up 2-0, meaning we had won the match and that we had managed to improve our final position. That was the first tournament I have ever played. Wow.

Another milestone in my job was my first ever overseas work trip, which was to Hong Kong from March 10-12 for the World Ports Summit. That was a nice experience, I stayed at the Renaissance Harbour View Hotel; the room rate was $380 a night, and that was the conference rate! It was good to meet other people in the port world and the hospitality of the organisers was certainly top rate; a harbour cruise and cable car ride rounded off the event. On my return flight, I was seated next to R. Sasikumar (Home United had been in Hong Kong to play a match). I made some small talk with him before the plane took off. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I could recognise the features of Hong Kong Island's skyline, plus a certain smaller island to the south! More about this later.

Right after this trip, I had ICT. That was a good experience for me overall, as it was the first time I had trained with my unit.

BSF started off in February. It was good to see everyone again, and it was especially good for me to meet my new group. I'm really enjoying my time with BSF, and it looks as if doing homiletics has helped me become more confident in teaching God's Word!

Now, for the final piece of this post. Coming back to my Hong Kong trip, it was such a contrast with the trip I had made in July 2005. While I was thinking of all the differences, I found myself thinking about a certain person. This person had made me sad two years ago, yet I found that I had never really had any negative thoughts about this person. Anyway, for some reason, the evening after my return to Singapore, I saw Esther online, and asked her if she would like to start over. She seemed surprised, but she said yes. though I had to ask her again the next day to see if she understood what I was asking her.

Anyhow, she had indeed understood, and she told me that she had been praying for a second chance for some time (I later realised that she had been praying for the past two years). I was quite stunned, especially when she later reminded me that I had actually turned her down some time ago when she had asked to start over. :p

Now, we're on a much more stable platform. Of course, Christ is our relationship's foundation. I'll be visiting her in June. It's really wonderful how God works, in bringing healing to my heart, in teaching me genuine forgiveness and giving me the desire to practice it. Thank you God, for opening this door!

In future posts, if I mention our relationship, don't worry, it won't be the sole topic of my posts. ^_^