mass call 2011, incidentally post #200!

"I can think of perhaps 2 other occasions in your lives that will rival this day in terms of significance and honour. One would be the day you take your marriage vow and the other, the day you become a parent and hold your baby in your hands for the very first time..." - excerpt from speech by Vice-President of the Law Society Lok Vi Ming, S.C

was called to the singapore bar on saturday 27th august and am very glad leave the profession, ironic as that is, on a high note. having finished what i started, it was fine and fitting closure to a good five years. enjoyed every moment of lawsch and have been incredibly blessed with wonderful people along the way. pupil-ing on the team i pupil-ed on was a privilege, and hand on heart i can say the chances of ever working with an (almost) perfect team like that again are very very slim :(

grateful for the mentorship i've received, and even more grateful for the support and encouragement of those i respect. my lawsch dean was my referee for medsch applications and i am convinced i was accepted because he wrote so nicely. yay to the close of one chapter and the beginning of the next. i leave in exactly two weeks and am excited beyond belief.

"This is a profession that leads you to be involved in the lives, businesses, the hopes and aspirations of people from every level of society; from the weakest to the most powerful among us; because the law is part, and rightly so, of every aspect of our society. This is a profession that allows you to be a teacher, a counselor, a protector, a healer and a friend to people who seek your help and to people you are paid to oppose." also from Lok S.C.'s speech.

 

 so with that, it's goodnight but not goodbye.

p/s on an unrelated note, 27th august was really a day of milestones seeing how i also voted for the first time! 

p/p/s have a soft copy of the law soc veep's speech so if you were at call and are interested, drop me a line and i'm happy to send it over.

spring cleaning finds

it just hit me that this brief pre-departure stretch is sort of the last time i'll be living at home, and in my room. 

big transitions on the horizon and when i return next summer, i do think i'll have to move. no plans to come back in between starting school and the end of first year so i'm going through all my earthly possessions and doing my darndest to sort them out. 

first there's clothes - what do i keep, what do i pack to bring, what do i give away, what do i donate. fortunately, being unsentimental and generally minimalistic means i've made it through the clothing challenge relatively quickly. 

but my books! oh my books :( and that's when it starts to get trickier. my lovingly annotated literature books? my collection of intellectual reads (haha) slowly amassed over the years? my mountain of cosmos, also amassed over the years? poetry books from former flings (haha, again)? and my folder of cross-disciplinary A+ work since primary school? not like it's very thick, but, still!

cleaning whinge aside, there is some good that comes out of this massive operation.

like this old photo of yvie and i!
gotta love the retro hair and vacuous stares. 

two decades later, nothing has changed :)

the W word

is still something i haven't quite gotten my mind around. 

but after being granny's +1 at the thanksgiving service and vow renewal of this lovely couple, i do think i'm a step closer to understanding what goes into a long, happy marriage.

it was a moving ceremony, with tributes from their daughters and what struck me most was how love is about letting go. a very deep concept for after lunch on a lazy saturday afternoon.

crib warming

bull pup flying solo

a wave of pre-nostalgia hit me when i went to visit xj in her brand new office. excited for her and because i'm living vicariously through her, i thought i better pay my dues by helping beautify the space a little. also, i do feel somewhat for leaving her in the lurch as the most junior on the team. whatever first-yearer work that should've gone to the both of us will unforch almost all land on her lap. but hopefully another name plate will fill the empty slot on the door, and it won't be too long before she has a roomie. 

we'd a great run as bull pups though, and i've fond memories of our pups' corner.

p/s doesn't she look happy for someone who just started the rest of her life?! wow. awesome work ethic yo.

wandering hunter valley

and quite liking the spoils of vineyard living. 

bought more bottles than we could legally bring back but that happy problem solved itself with constant drinking for that perpetual buzz. 

part of me is tempted to compare hunter valley with tuscany and bordeaux, both fantastic wine country in their own right. but life would be sad if new experiences were always compared with existing memories. plus the added element of romanticising something that's past. having next to no expectations for hunter valley meant that i did end up appreciating the hunter for what it was worth. 

and for that i am grateful :)

thus concludes the sydney and hunter valley series folks! thanks for reading.

thrifty sydney

to risk sounding more maudlin than age-appropriate, the best things in life are free. like glorious sunsets and a rainbow or two. collected our wheels from the thrifty rental at darlinghurst and were quick to milk our newfound mobility with a drive right up to the coast where we were very lucky to catch the sunset, and rainbows on display.

then when it got dark, we looped back to bondi for some cool chasing at icebergs.

summer reading

should probably be the mountain of medical textbooks i've been gifted with, and piles and piles of seniors' notes (thanks pra!) but seeing how i intend to specialise, once i start studying i'm never really going to stop. theoretically, anyway. so i'd like very much to linger here in this blissful pre-med place where i am very much aware of my ignorance and inadequacy, yet deliberately not doing anything about it.

and yay i can finally read proper. in the habit of reading a bit before a sleep every night, something i picked up on holiday a few years ago from my more sophisticated friends, believe it or not. there i was all ready to crash after a long but leisurely day, and i spied books on their bedside tables, and noted how they wound down with some reading before bed. my former pre-snooze routine was reading online because goodness knows i spend wayy more time on the www than healthy but i'm slowly but surely returning to the wonders of the printed page.

plus i've two dear friends* who have been conscientiously feeding me with books, even going so far as offering to meet up to discuss them after. these self-styled book gurus of mine are people i also respect very very much and it's about time i took them up on the offer. but oh hey, i'd need to actually get down to reading first. the added benefit of receiving books is that they've been quality controlled by the giver and so chances are they'll be worth the effort.

clockwise from top:

1. the undercover philosopher by michael philips

2. who are we? by gary younge

*both from a long time friend of my mother's. he's averse to travel but likes receiving postcards so i send him one from every city i visit. while he does not write back, he's very sweet to give me books every now and again, and a whole box of penguin classic covers postcards at christmas. if you can't tell from his choice of books, he's into philosophy with a hint of existentialism.

3. home cooking with master chef murata by yoshihiro murata

from a superwoman mom-of-six who takes time to cook and bake with each child individually, and is evidently concerned that i will waste away in the uk.

4. gifted hands by ben carson

from a lawyer i interned under when i was 19. he had always felt that i'd be a doctor one day and when he learnt i was off to medsch, he sent his congratulations along with this book.

5. playing darts with a rembrandt by joseph l. sax

*from a friend who runs a highly-successful photography studio to pay the bills, but is an artist passionate about intellectual property at heart. he also gave me seven days in the art world, that i read while on holiday in goa to great effect i.e. people thought i too was artsy. oh wow! what a con :)

flash forward

today, my very lovely cousin natalie and her friends alexa and ariana did the sweetest thing! they offered to come over and bathe the puppies. they visited yesterday but the pups were sticky and smelt a wee bit funky so the trio decided to give them a bath! they came back today and i coordinated their visit from the office by remote control. texting home to let the help know when to expect them, and to let them in, and what to have ready etc. so nat and co. gave the pups a good scrub, then played with them in the sunshine. 

and that's when i had a scary flash forward where i saw myself with not puppies but living breathing children, run off my feet not in an office but at a hospital with no time for them myself but having to resort to the kindness of relatives to clean, feed and photograph my sorely neglected offspring. 

the worst part? i can't even sell the children once they're weaned like we're doing with the pups! oh nooo... ongoing responsibility that ONLY GETS BIGGER! dundundunnn...

how's that for a sobering thought!

a year ago

i was on the verge of graduation. had just returned from six glorious weeks of eurotripping, celebrated gramp's birthday, took off to ho chi minh city with two couples (or four friends, depending on whether you're the glass is half empty or half full type!) and felt virtually invincible.

fast forward 365 days - gramps slipped away in october, i'm almost done with pupillage and my joy at finally being done with school was ostensibly short-lived.

not that there's much deadweight to shed but yay to the good endings and new beginnings to come. the photo really says it all.

emptied lockers

"...our lockers are cleared out while the undergrads still have theirs sealed shut in the background awaiting the new timetable and reading material."

photo and quote credits to the mighty talented joel cheang whose eye and skillz leave me in slack-jawed wonder.

not an everyday sighting at RP

doesn't it look like it's the two of them off to war against the world?

our men were promoted to captains and the bestest boss on earth gave me "dispensation" (oh how i love that word!) to begin my weekend at 4pm this evening. the promotees pulled a quick change charlie in the office and we hurried to the next street where the waiting steed was parked. made it to the ceremony hall with seconds to spare, although we were relegated to the latecomers' row :(

the ceremony was funny - plagued with technical glitches and they even took a lengthy "technical break" to sort things out. and this was compounded by the one hour of propaganda songs and videos we were subjected to before the actual ceremony. the only thing i concluded is that for the next general elections, home should be played on repeat at the polling booths if the incumbents want to guarantee a landslide victory. just listening to the song once through made me feel more patriotic than i have in months.

on an unrelated note, they joke that in the army, they "wait to rush then rush to wait". today i saw first hand why.

bellyaching aside, twas nice to be a small part of a big part of their lives. and so glad to have had our favourite couple celebrating too :)

tropical storms

are my favourite kind of weather. there's nothing like a storm rolling in at lightning quick speed and the sudden gusts of wind to send us all running indoors for shelter. would've loved to have remained outside and exposed to the elements but didn't want to channel crazy woman and scare the lovely resort staff. but it was a majestic display of nature and her might and the pitter patter of raindrops sure beats the pitter patter of tiny feet.

 

i was so bummed to have to leave :( but appreciated the very thoughtful upgrade to a jet (look ma, no propellers!) for the flight back. 

too much of a good thing

photo credits to emily loerke of today's letters

tumblr find

 

my greatest fear is being stuck with someone boring.

feisty at 85

isn't she tough as nails?

the same delicate, non-tennis playing porpor insists on lunching with the ladies despite her fractured foot. 

respect!

p/s she emailed me from her ipad...

weekend finds

doesn't this beautiful front make you wonder what's in store? 

looking forward to visiting (whilst hungrY!) and having a full meal here.

also, much as i'm in favour of being resourceful, well-read and aware, nothing quite beats the thrill of aimless wandering and independent discovery :)

castles in the air

it was after our last A level prelim paper and a bunch of us were clowning around in the ri squash courts. distinctly remember sitting on the steps with pra, talking about our hopes and dreams. he shared with a quiet conviction that he wanted to go into medicine, and be an orthopedic surgeon one day. i told him what i wanted to do and shortly after, vidz joined us and added her ambition to the list. there was no pact, no drama, but it was a good juncture to talk about what we wanted to do with our lives. we were 18, feeling invincible and so very grown up.

fast forward 5.5 years and tonight we had a blow out meal to celebrate pra's acceptance into the surgical residency program. mind you, it's no mean feat that he rose to the cream of this crop, surpassed hundreds of other hopefuls to secure a surgical residency. there are, after all, only 6 such positions in THE WHOLE OF SINGAPORE... vidz is hotshot lawyer doing all these sexayy shipping deals, and i'm en route to doing exactly what i'd dreamt of when i was 18. transitioning into a new phase, i think i speak for all of us when i say that every day i'm reminded of just how young i am, how much i've yet to learn and how this is merely the start of a forty year journey. but hey, what a blessing to be doing what we believe in, and what we've always wanted to do. sure takes the sting outta waking up each morning!

time's flown since that rainy afternoon in the squash courts. they're still madly in love, and like me enough to still be my friends ;) so some things change, somehow we each by the grace of God "made it happen", and yet other things stay the same.

in another six years, pra will be a consultant surgeon (i.e. REALLY have it made), vidz is likely to be a law firm partner, and i'll be fulfilling a lifelong dream. not too shabby eh, for a coupla kids bouncing off the walls in a squash court :)

vaguely reminiscent

of how i felt at the point in time when i posted this post.

(hitting the rink at kungstragarden just after the first frost fell, november 2009)

it's been a good run

the good news: i passed my bar exam -happy dance-

the bad news: have been summoned to the office a week earlier than anticipated. as such, the final fling to phuket is no longer happening.

but i've had plenty of time to get my mind around this crazy little thing called work. unlike previous batches, i was spared the one month of pupillage right after my final exam. which translated to a glorious extra month of grad trippin'. similarly, because i only start at the firm after the release of the bar exam results, i scored an extra (almost!) 8 weeks of holiday after the bar exam. previous batches resumed pupillage right after the bar exam.

(am also counting my blessings about having an extra week on most other pupils who started yesterday)

so there are many things to be grateful for. and after being on a perpetual holiday (or so it feels!) since year3sem2 (read: april 2009) it is high time i grow up and sober down. there's much to look forward to - am excited about this big transition and upbeat about crossing that final threshold from student to trainee. "employee" would be a tad presumptuous, seeing that i need to be retained after the six month pupillage before i'm officially part of the firm. 

exciting times ahead, despite the hedonistic joyride coming to a screeching halt. thank you for reading, thank you for being a friend and happy trails, wherever they may take you :)

(photo credits to judith and the tumblr universe)

2011 has

the makings of being the best year yet.

while there is a "limited range of possibilities"*, to borrow a line from a dear mathematically-inclined friend, these possibilities are each mutually exclusive and fantastic. the control freak in me is sort of freaking out at not knowing exactly what's going to happen. but the non-control freak part of me (probably the bath tub of sake i had for lunch speaking...) is delirious with delicious anticipation. 

have a sneaky suspicion that things are going to turn out just the way i dreamt** (see? control freak) and how life is about to change forever but am cautious not to get ahead of myself. but let me just sayyy big big BIG transition ahead and i am psyched. 

so with a little more bravado than i actually feel, bring it on!

after all, it's not over till the fat lady sings.

*edit as of 13 june 2011: 
possibility #1 get into medsch and go
possibility #2 get into medsch but realise i'm headoverheels in <3 with being a lawyer and not go
possibility #3 not get into medsch

** possibility #1

2010 in a nutshell

you can also see it online where it's much clearer than this dinky screenshot!