dreams. moments. blue skies.: March 2005

wonderful wkend

the party started on friday night, after work.
There was a huge welcoming party at Tango's...
Didn't think it was a major party place...alwaz thot it was more chillout and sit-back...
But oh, Reuters turned it topsy-turvy with our free flo'of everyth!
Good to know ur bosses are open alcoholics and v generous with all things fun and convival.
Lots of laughter and joy on tap.
Lovely lovely night.
With 30 of us in the team, and 2/3 new recruits,
we REALLY needed tis party to swing things up and get things gog.
Consequently, I really felt it drew everyone tat much closer.
It's true after all - pp do like to blab over alcohol.

And then on sat,
Things went quite wrong,
Cos a new colleague's bday party by the pool
Turned out to be a super-wrong-mix-of-people-trying-to-make-conversations.

Aft tat, i thot i'll meet some frens at tis swanky club called New Asia Bar,
at the top of Westin.
Everyone seems to have been there except me,
so i thot i'd jus check it out and catch up with those frens.
Wat a mistake.
The bar, not the frens.
It was full of ang mohs and indians...the eurasian-looking/posh kinda indians.
I left in an hour. It's amazing I even stayed so long on one pathetic drink.
I really could have used the $20 cover charge on better things!

And jus when i was abt to call it a night and give up being optimistic abt parties,
My fren called me for beancurd at geylang at 1.30am.
He's an old fren i haven't seen in a year...
So i went.
And tat was the best time of the whole day.
Didn't realise i missed his frenship so much.
It was nice doing the things we used to do...
Checking out nonsense places, having supper all over Singapore,
and just talking and chatting and realising time flies when we get tog.
I love his simple soul and simple heart.

And tat was all it takes to turn one nightmarish night into a lovely Sat.

Reuter 1st wk of real work

Work has began. Training, and the good days, are over.
It is, to put it mildly,
Competitive, scary, fast-paced, pressurising, challenging, interesting, unnerving.

Not very pleasant...
All at once, you realise the power of working in a real-time news org.
Everyth u send out, pictures or stories, has a far-reaching audience and immense impact.
There is absolutely no room for mistakes.
And no forgiving/forgetting either.
And we're constantly reminded that this is Reuters.
This is "as far as we can go in our journalistic careers", as my editor puts it.
"Stds here are absolute. Make sure you keep up."

We're constantly being watched too, by Reuters bureax the world over.
It is too scary a thought to describe further.
Yes, it is super unnerving working here.
I work on tenterhooks. One mistake, and I'm on the way out.
But Í'm alredi in, so I gotta make the most of it.

We're also constantly reminded of our 6-mth probation.
Passing it and staying on is certainly not a given.
I hate it when they remind us so.

But all in all, it's good.
I feel like i'm back in sch, cos I learn so much everyday fr all these great editors, photographers, sub-editors etc. It's like a huge real-time classroom.

Except we go to school from 11pm-7am.
That's my night shift for the next 2mths.
Oh well, it's not as bad as it sounds, really.