People from all around the world have always said that planning is important, yet being flexible takes precedence. I feel that being flexible somewhat contradicts the planning phase in the sense that why is planning necessary if so many things are beyond our control and nothing actually goes according to plan? Isn't the plan as good as a waste of time and effort? Planning is a form of expecting something to take place at a certain time. If one plans to eat at noon, but is unable to have one's meal due to some unforeseen circumstances, one will be disappointed to a certain extent, depending on how much one is looking forward to the meal. Is it worth planning despite the potential disappointment? The example might have been one where the disappointment may not have been as effective. Now consider meeting up with an old friend who was your closest friend for years whom you have not met for a few years, and the expectation that you all will enjoy talking and laughing the way you all did years ago, but when you meet up, the conversation always ends up in awkward silence. Won't you feel disappointed?
Having said that, planning and having expectations are also important. If there are no plans, almost nothing would have taken place. Probably, excellent planning may reduce the chances of one being disappointed when reality deviates from plan and the backup plans kick into place. Expectations are important as they are a gauge as to whether ones goals are reached or not. However, the thing that most people fail to master is how high to set expectations. This is probably the case for measurable results such as tests and examinations. However, what about in the case of anticipation? How should one's expectations be set? If set wrongly, one could be terribly disappointed when things do not turn out the way one wants it to.
I have no idea what I am discussing. I'm just putting my thoughts into words, hoping that it can take some burden off my shoulders. Life is a game of balance and endurance. It's like trying to balance on a rotating narrow beam on a see-saw with the blinding sun shining into your eyes, the rain making you lose your grip and the wind pushing you off balance. Whether or not you give up or fall of would depend on your determination and mental strength.
I want to have a Subway cold cut trio.
Saturday was the second time in my whole life I played tennis apart from PE lessons during JC. It was rather horrible at first, where I either totally missed hitting the ball, hit it just to see the ball fly into the sky and fall a few metres in front of where I was or hit it way too hard. Thankfully, after a while, I was able to hit most of the balls that came and after an even longer while, I was able to get the ball to around a few metres to where I intended it to get. It sure sounds better than it actually was to put it this way. After that was a wonderful dinner before I had to reluctantly head home. Thanks to everyone who made all these possible.
Sunday was a nightmare. Along the way to band practice, it rained so heavily that my view of the road ahead was almost completely obstructed. It was really a bad experience to be travelling in such heavy rain, but thankfully I did not get hurt in the process. I had planned to go to The Band World to get my ligature before practice started but somehow, I couldn't find the entrance to the warehouse area. Before that, I was searching high and low for an ATM, when all of them were packed in a bank occupying a small corner of the building. I walked past the same shops at least five times to look for the entrance. I even ended up entering two doors right next to the food court just to find a huge unlighted area that appeared to be under renovation. I suspect that I had to walk through that area to get to the entrance but since it was unlighted except for a row of lights quite far ahead, I decided that it may not be the way and I definitely do not want to risk getting caught by security for venturing into a restricted area.
Practice was quite horrible. Okay, probably it wasn't as bad as I am about to put it because I wasn't really in a good mood on Sunday. I was slightly late for practice after having to go all the way to IMM in vain and expected to see the band already halfway through practice but I was wrong. Secondly, when practice finally began, we stopped every few bars. No offence to anyone, but I really cannot stand being stopped so often whether it is for the same things or not. That is the reason sectionals exist.
Anyway, the previous post should have been up quite a few days ago but it was misplaced.
The paragraph that follows may contain content deemed unsuitable for some. I shall not be responsible for any damage(s) or harm caused to the reader. Read on at your own discretion and risk, and leave if you are offended.
I feel that it is a crazy idea to raise cab fares again. It was raised not too long ago and I have not yet come to terms to the previous increase in taxi fares. Surely there is no need to increase the fares at this point of time. For short distances, fares are up at least 8.3%, for long distances, prices are up by 5.7% and the fare for simply waiting in a cab for the lights to turn green are up by 10%. Ignoring the changes to the peak hour surcharge and city (Peak City Area) surcharge, and given that quite a fair amount of time is spent waiting for the traffic lights to change, fares are going to increase significantly unless you spend most of the time on a uncongested highway. I also feel that the city surcharge is ridiculous. How will increasing the surcharge and rebating the cabby who goes into the city area without any passengers who doesn't find any passengers within 15 minutes solve the problem of not having enough cabs in the city? Would taxi drivers drive into the city just because they can earn a buck or two more? Wouldn't drivers want to maximise their earnings and ensure that they get no passengers for a full 15 minutes, get the rebate, then pick up passengers? And since the city surcharge is in place from 5pm to midnight, it would mean that simply flagging a cab in that area from 5 pm to 8 pm would cost $7.83, and calling a cab would cost $12.55 (by the way, this is the amount you will have to pay upon boarding the taxi). I believe that most people would rather not hail a taxi given that it costs so much. Given that there will be a reduction in demand for taxis, there will be "more taxis" but if the demand is going to fall below the supply, good luck to the cab drivers! I believe that the drivers would not see a fall in passengers in the super short run, as it is the festive season and there will be lots of people doing last minute Christmas shopping or hanging out for Christmas and New Year countdowns. But once the new year arrives, I'm quite sure that they will see a sharp fall in earnings as it is probably time people realise how much the fares have increased after riding in at least one cab during the festive period. Although Comfort Delgro is the major taxi company, I hope that the other companies would not follow suite. The chances of choosing a cab from a different company is low, but at least a small group of consumers and taxi drivers who enjoy the increased demand would be able to benefit. Everything mentioned in this paragraph is purely my own thoughts and feelings and shall not be used for or against me under any circumstance(s) nor be referred to, whether part or whole as a reference.
Get well soon Qiyan, have a speedy recovery!
I must say that I am very encouraged by the attitudes of the two sec 1 clarinet players who turned up for sectionals on Tuesday morning. Not only did they learn fast, they were also not about to give up getting a difficult passage right. Frankly speaking, they have the potential to become really good clarinettists as I realise that they it is only their first year playing the clarinet and I did have quite high expectations of them, which they met most of the time. It is upon further reflection that I realise that I did not lower my standards just to accommodate the both of them. I hope they keep up the good work. If only the rest of the section were like them, the section would sound great. It's a real pity that the two of them have to be in a section where most of the rest of the section have the same attitude as the section leader. I hope they do reach their full potential and not be held back because of the others.
Having a night where there is suddenly no one to talk to online sure feels weird. Probably I'll get used to it after some time but I wish I never will need to have such and experience again.
The weather has been quite nice recently. I say this without any regard to all the inconvenience I would face if I was working. I cannot imagine having to trod in the heavy rain with strong winds blowing to a building half a kilometre away for lunch nor squeeze into a sardine-packed bus with dripping umbrellas. But it is really nice to have such cool nights where the fan and air conditioner take up the role of white elephants collecting dust in the house.
I don't know if what I had been doing all along had been the right thing to do or not but I just feel as though I had been imposing on a group of very nice people quite a bit even though they do not mind at all. It is nice to have that much care and concern showered upon me, but I don't know what I can do in return to show my gratitude. This is something I must learn to do.
I have to stop here to start work on something that I had been delaying for nearly a month. I hope that that piece of work will be a useful bargaining chip at work tomorrow.
