It's 12:19 PM

Remember that quote where someone said that when you die, the last thing you'd wish was that you had spent more time in the office? I suppose there's some truth in that. I seem to do that a bit more than the average, although it's been getting less and less ever since I realized that this really wasn't much of a way to live, although it is depressingly enjoyable sometimes. I like the solitude of the quiet floor, a couple of lights in a the huddle rooms, no airconditioner to speak of, and absolute silence save for the tapping of my keyboard and the soft humming of the printers on standby mode. The amount of work I get to produce at these times are pretty variable, ranging from semi-efficient productivity to cramming the next deliverable, but i like the quiet because it gives me time to think.
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I wrote Dieter 4 postcards this evening, after many emails from my mom telling me to do so. They were in Italy last October - my mom, dad, and poop came to visit me for a weekend, flying in from Malaysia, and flying to Italy for business and pleasure after. I asked my Mom for a designer bag. I wanted a really expensive one. A nice Fendi. Prada's too commercialized, and cheap. I guess she didn't have time to get me one. I don't mind though. Non-necessity. But my brother wrote me two postcards from Florence, each depicting an Old Master. He's amazing. I can't believe how articulate and literate he's become since I left.

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I was with Eileen Tupaz at Spinelli's for coffee and the oatmeal cookies that we got really hooked on since that training we had last week. They had those Zo-cards which I love. We got all of them. I decided to return the favor to Dieter since he sent me a picture which he drew to greet me happy birthday. I love snailmail. Brings back such great memories from 5th grade. So we were at Spinelli's, and Eileen decided to write Dieter a postcard too, that said "Good Neighbor's Day" with a picture in front of a really disgruntled cat. V. v. cute. I waited for about 15 minutes, writing the postcards, trying to maintain the conversation while she was finishing her coffee, because she was talking about something and I couldn't really pay attention since I was busy writing the postcards. We went to the Global SAM machine after that to get the stamps, then I dropped them in the mailbox next to my subway station at Novena. My first taste of the Singapore post. 50 cents a postcard. Not bad. I'm excited because I know Dieter will be really thrilled to get them.

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John left yesterday on a semi-bad note. I feel miserable about it. I was pretty busy for the last 2 weeks working on the asia symposium dinner. I was making the script, which was cheesy as hell (read: corny). It had to be. In a dinner with Japs, Thais and Koreans the lowest common denominator had to be lots of confidence, enthusiasm, and a whole jackload of corn. I dragged him out of bed in the morning, as it was his last day with me in Singapore, and arranged to meet him at 12:30 for our last lunch together for about a month and a half until I get back home by December. By 12, I went down for a smoke, but decided to go up again to coordinate the plans for the evening with our presenters, who were basically all part of the Asian Leadership Team. Soui, my partner, was having lunch and I had to wait for her since I didn't know any of these guys personally. We finished everything at about 1:25 PM and I rushed down and John was just there sitting at one of the al fresco metal tables at Food Junction waiting for me. I miss him already. He hadn't had lunch yet, and was waiting for me to come down. I had to leave since the next round of training was about to start, so he left as well, without lunch. Another disappointment. I just wanted to give him a huge hug, but i didn't, and he left. He flew to Manila at 5 PM that afternoon. I'm going to miss him, and I can't wait to see him once I get back.