DAY 12: FINALLY, A COMMENTATOR DURING THE MASS

it is day12 of my stay in singapore, and i decided to hear mass at the st. joseph's church in 143 victoria street, near the bugis station (the address was easy to remember since valentine's day is around the corner).

for breakfast, i had some, well, bee hoon and some roki prata (read my previous blogs to know what that is), and some ice-cold soya milk. and since it's a saturday, i also bought a copy of the straits times, hoping that there was some odd job out there that was meant for me. i took a quick stroll to buy some bottled water, tag-priced at 80cents. i got home and had breakfast. my brother hasn't come home for two nights now, so i reckon he's probably spending the weekend over at a friend's house. he hasn't SMS'd either, so i also think he doesn't want to be disturbed.

after breakfast, i started reading the papers, and browsing the classifieds. i did find some interesting job vacancies and listed them down on my planner - all 13 of them. invigorated, i started emailing my CVs to the companies. one particular application though, for a local university, took forever to send, since the company had a separate template for applications. sadly, the template encountered glitches along the way, doubling my entries every now and then, and entering (and saving) wrong data which i did not type not selected. eventually, i told myself, maybe the job wasn't for me. it was as part-time lecturer for communication arts. pun intended.

after an hour of sending out CVs (since i had to edit cover letters etc), i took a quick nap, forgetting lunch for the meantime, and woke up at around 3pm. i had lunch. no it wasn't bee hoon. it was ramen, and loaf bread with apricot jam. i finished almost the whole pack of loaf. please, do not judge me. LOL

at around 5pm, after a bathed and all that, i set my course to the church on victoria street. i discovered the church while looking for a shorter route going to the interview i went to for the children's magazine i was applying a job for. this church, with its magnificent steeples, is located in front of the neo-classic singapore national library.

i got in, and the mass started. i was so pleased to know that there was a commentator for the mass. sadly though, it eventually became apparent that he was more concerned of his singing (and waving his hand to conduct everyone), instead of doing the commentator's work LOL he went to the extent of rehearsing the crowd for the psalm response and even busier making sure every one was in perfect during the singing of the hymns. i was delightfully amused. no, not in a sarcastic way.

the mass was going along just fine, when, during the prayers of the faithful, i was struck by the third prayer: "for the currently unemployed, so that they may find gainful work..." i grew teary-eyed and thanked the Lord for that. it suddenly occurred to me that the Lord does joke in odd ways, and He did to me today, reminding me that i wasn't supposed to stop. i had to trod forward. the other readings talked about the power of prayer, and of the things we needed to sever to refrain from making sin, i.e. sinful eye, poke it out; lustful hand, cut it and throw it away etc.

i was on my way home when i glanced at a signboard. it said, "hold on." i felt like the Lord was telling me what to do. passing by the malay street and iluma on the way to the bugis mrt station, i was welcomed by dozens of shops that were on-sale and was even tempted to buy a shirt. but i had enough strength to stop myself. more than a shirt, i needed a nail cutter, since my nails were kinda long, and were starting to accumulate dirt. eew, i know.

reaching eunos, i dashed to the crescent and bought, well you know what, with some chili-and-lemon-grass-spiced chicken wings, and a sling bag of icy-cold soya milk. i was expecting my brother to be home by now, but apparently he's not. that's why i got to blog tonight. tomorrow, i am going out with former high school classmates who have settled really well here in singapore. one is an avp for an accounting firm (i think; she makes tons of money), and another one is an engineer for a PC company.

i hope i land on a job soon. i really want to go to little india and buy that wedding band for my wife. oh, and i want a new set of shirts too, plus have the audacity to buy from starbucks 24/7.

still here. hey.