My Good Week

I’m actually sitting in the office typing this. The past week was a whirl of work, work and more work. Now that I’ve handed it in, I find myself suddenly void of work. What a great way to start my Monday!

Despite the work, the past week has been pleasant… The hours stuck in the office were long, but I thrive on change. Moving up to the 27th floor surrounded by documents wasn’t as bleak as I thought it would be. There were new people to talk to, new people to lunch with, in between meeting with old friends for lunch.

On Tuesday, I checked out the nice Italian place at Ocean Towers with the IP bunch for lunch – Marc, Geri, Jessica and Tim. Except for Marc, I don’t really talk very much to the rest on a usual basis. So that was refreshing. The company and the food was great. (The antipasti was really good!) And then discovered a really nice coffee nook at OCBC Centre called Leo's, courtesy of Jessica. They have really really good coffee. Not diluted, but strong and not too acidic. Hmm… must expand my lunch avenues since I’m going to be working here for quite a while. And must expand my repertoire of lunch kakis. It would be nice to meet up with all the different friends working here for lunch. It’s actually sad that I work here with so many others, but we just don’t bother or don’t have enough time to meet up. Lunch has become a hurried affair in the litigation department. We dabao and do quick lunches in the office now. There’s just so much work.

On Wednesday, I actually walked all the way beyond Far East Square to Sushi Tei to meet Weihao and Darrell. Heh, I think someone had a craving… I’ve never bothered to walk all that way before. So much for saving money for the weekends instead!

The weekends passed by in a blur – a busy blur. Met up with FS for our tete a tete at Kovan’s HK Café. It’s really not bad. I would rate their milk tea above the HK Café at Upper East Coast, which is a tad too sweet. But I think I prefer the French toast at the latter better. Had a pretty good long chat about things. The next day, I met up with Kevin and Pam for Crystal Jade lunch, followed by Munich and then met up with Zach for the treat I always meant to give him for his birthday.

We went to Menotti’s… I’m a big foodie, and warm chocolate cake always takes a special place in my heart… hahaha. The pollo panini was excellent. Paninis remind me of Paris, because I ate so many paninis when I was there. It’s the cheapest way to settle dinner in France when you’re broke. Although paninis made for depressing dinners when I was there, it always brings back fond memories whenever I order it back home. Call it romanticizing the past if you will. I’m a sentimentalist. Pardon the digression, but I only realized just how much of a sentimentalist I am when I saw what my friends filled up for me in my own johari window. I didn’t think to call myself one, but my friends did. And upon reflection(ps, I’m ‘reflective’ too!), I realise that it’s true. I remember the past a tad too vividly, and I treasure fond memories. That can sometimes be dangerous.

One pollo panini and soffiato later (Zach had the scallop tagliatelle and riccioto), we stumbled out of Menotti’s. And I was suddenly weighed down by this immense fatigue. It just dawned on me that no matter how precious weekends were, no matter how I tried to maximize my time and pack in as much friend time as I can within those precious 48 hours or so, it will catch up with my body soon. I can’t keep moving.

I have to learn to be still. Something I also picked up the weekend before at the Tabernacle. And for the past few months, I’ve been moving in a blur, a constant kinetic motion. Never resting, never pausing to appreciate the futility of this constant meeting up, this continuing cycle of weekdays and weekends. Always doing, never thinking Why. Should I stay home and catch up on my reading instead? Or catch up on my downloaded shows? But does that not belong to the kinetic category albeit in a more sedentary fashion?

And then I realize, what am I going to do in my stillness, even if I learnt to rest and learnt to appreciate alone time. I’m not used to it anymore. What if my thoughts awash me and I return to those bleak days?

p.s. Must run off all the food I've been eating all week...