Mass Call

Mass call is a strange event - part court hearing part ceremony. Nevertheless, the significance is that we are admitted to the bar as advocates and solicitors i.e. we can start speaking in court, signing off things in our name, giving legal advice... and earning our full pay!

I was very glad that that the ceremony did not last long as the seat in Victoria Concert Hall was uncomfortably small and the hall seemed filled with (invisible) dust. I had to struggle with a robe, a clip board and a handbag while surreptitiously blowing my nose with a tissue. Not very glam!

Looking back, I think the main problem is the weak air-con. Imagine packed rows of pupils in the full court attire - white shirt, black coat - plus the MASSIVE robe with extra padding on the shoulders (contrary to what many people, including TR, think, no we do not have to wear wigs so too bad you've lost your chance to laugh -_-) It was humid, stuffy and soporific. The inevitable result is that many people (me included) dozed off.

Pre-call photo taking. It's convocation all over again.

Thought I'll never get to see YY carrying a handbag! As for E, erm, it suits him :P

Queuing up to take the official photo which we later found out that costs $80-$200!

Post-ceremony photo taking at the outside. Ominous weather.

Most of the Rodyk pupils.

Laughing out of embarrassment of having to pose in the middle of nowhere with people streaming past.

reminder to self: time is short

It's exactly a week before I fly yet I have not finalized a travel plan. It's definitely not because I'm not hyped about this trip (though I keep getting distracted by my Europe guidebook - nothing beats the European cities!) The inertia stems from having too many ideas and places on my must-see-must-visit list. I'm overwhelmed with all the info and put off with the thought of wading through them and selecting the best. This process seems no different from tedious legal research but I'm too kiasu to ignore any potential source of travel tips.

Gala premier

Saturday was a night of many firsts. The first time I attended a movie's gala premier and the first time Angels and Demons is shown to the public, worldwide! Which probably explains the tight security measures - all guests have to deposit their handphones/cameras at a counter before entering the cinema.

Now the fun part - TR and I were flummoxed by the last ambigram but the rest were easy peasy.

the 2nd Sunday of May

happy call break

If the filing of my call papers go well, this is the first day after many months where I'm officially off work!

And the laughable thing is that I am up at 7.10am (which is the time before I'm usually conscious) despite a hangover last night after the dept decided to celebrate our call break at a nearby Boat Quay pub. The amount of alcohol consumed last night is enough to drown several cats- I caught a glance of the receipt which was looooong (frightfully long actually since we have to reciprocate their treat in 2 months). All in good fun (and good faith).

I had a free lunch too. The partner I was helping out with treated us to a Japanese buffet at the Fullerton Courtyard - the empty space in the middle of groundfloor beneath a skylight. It's a cosy and intimate place for tete-a-tete and offers a very different experience from the eat-all-you-can buffets in the main restaurant. Only sushi, salad, cakes, chasoba and miso soup were on the buffet platter. We were served tempura prawns and beef separately. I suspect it's a place for quality rather than quality dining. Not for penny pinchers!

Cheers to two months of doing only what I want :)

Midweek

Yay! So it's TGIT this week. Love 4-day work weeks. Somehow it seems so much shorter. And the vibe in the office seems happier. So maybe they should follow the American law firms and impose a shorter work week. Cut costs you know.

I'm waiting (with bated breath and impatience) to see how the swine flu brouhaha will play out. How inconvenient to have it now when I'm planning my trip to the States in less than a month! And I wonder how Gillian is doing in San Fran. Don't think she's one to freak out though.

Another scrapbook for my collection but pardon the grammatical errors :)

I found another source for ELF!

Remember the cheap and good cosmetic label - E.L.F (eyes.lips.face) - that I was so crazy about a couple of years back? Which led to me carting home tons of it from NYC? Well, I just discovered a much nearer source back home!

Apparently the SINMA chain stores carry a range of it. Hopefully they have my favourite Cherrytart liquid lipstick with the convenient twist applicator. I know my mom likes their brightening eye shadow which comes in 4 handy colours per compact. Idiot proof makeup for people like me who don''t know how to blend different shades!

Scrapbooking weekend

I've caught the scrapbooking bug! Hence the sudden flurry of activities relating to scrapbooking at the expense of everything else.

And I finally got down to making a scrapbook for MYSELF. Usually, my motivation to complete one comes from the anticipation of giving it to others so my personal collection till now was naught.

First up is a digital scrapbook which I'm thrilled to say it's easier than it sounds despite my lack of any form of digital editing software. My current outdated edition of MS Word works wonders and I discovered many surprisingly useful functions that turned out as well as an Adobe-created effect like this:

I scanned in a patterned paper...


And turned it into the title of my scrapbook!


I was undecided whether to change the colour of the main picture - it looks so pretty with the muted reds and blues - but decided in favour of black-and-white to bring out a "timeless" effect.


Below are some of my favourite pictures we took randomly while walking along a little path in Potsdam. It must be dandelion season cos we saw fields of them! I was overly excited as usual but that's cos the only experience I have with dandelions is in Enid Blyton books.

I think the dandelions I sketched are pretty accurate :)

Snap!

I have no bloody idea why they make neoprint machines react so quickly before anybody has the chance to strike a decent post? I mean dishing out $12 for an A5 piece of sticker, they can at least give us non-Japanese speaking people some time to decipher (guess) the instructions OR maybe it's time to be a little less nationalistic and adopt a more universal language like English?

Complaints aside, I do rather like the "adrenaline rush" each time we enter the little capsule where 5 pairs of eyes stay fixated on a measly small screen and 5 mouths flash their pearly whites (it seems that the majority of us have gone through some form of orthodontic correction!)

And have you noticed what I call the "eye-liner effect"? See, because neoprints are for people who generally like to act cute (big eyes = cuter), our peppers are automatically eyelined in EVERY shot! Not that I'm complaining.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TR!

Here's your surprise!

And your kisses!

And your wishes!

And more surprises!

Perks!

The one thing I took away from the Microsoft 2007 Training Programme last Friday night is how imperative staff welfare is for an office of happy working people.

By staff welfare, I don't mean more $$$ by the smaller tangibles and intangibles that help ameliorate working life.

The pantry (yes it all boils down to food!) at the Microsoft office is a dream. Based on an open concept, it stretches along full length windows facing the Marina barrage, the skyline, the Esplanade and the Flyer. I can almost hear the collective "Oooh" when everyone glimpsed the night view. And I felt better already merely by positioning myself by one of the windows.

Cosy groups of tables, chairs and couches line the windows, a convenient walk from the coffee machine, biscuits and drinks larder. I was impressed by their "green" efforts when I saw 3 recycling bins strategically placed beside the coffee machine.

My mood elevated for the second time when I saw the array of drinks in the the glass-door refrigerator - those that you commonly see at mama shops and drink stalls. The only difference now is I can fish a packet/can out without paying!