A Singaporean In Australia

I received a message this afternoon, "Why you no post?"

"Post what?"

"Blog."

"Hmm."
"No one read what, so I don't post loh," I joked.

"If you don't post, how people read?" came the reply.

For the first time since a long time, I was loss for words. Well, the blog hasn't ended. It was just TUESDAY. Finally I replied, "This blog is closed on Tuesdays until further notice." Heh, no loss for words after all.

To be fair, today was good. It started nearly crappy as the previous few Tuesdays. I was nearly late for work because I forgot my mobile phone. But the rest of the day turned out alright. I had a lot of thoughts from the yield of the day.

The work was almost just like any normal day. Unlike last Tuesday, work was pretty smooth. I managed to complete my work, of course with the help from 葵花寶典. At the end of the day, Jang Hoon the handsome Korean guy came over and gave me many pointers on how to finish my work faster, as we happened to be same job which was rare.

I used to troll Jang Hoon now and then with lame unfunny jokes such as

"Hey why do every single South Korean in this company live at the south? The Swan River is not the DMZ." :D

"Hey why are the places you visited all southwards from where you stay? You can travel North here!"

Today I decided not to troll Jang Hoon with Kim Jong Un. The tips he gave me were practical and good. Jang Hoon was young, smart, knowledgeable, skillful and he got a Bulgarian girlfriend he picked up at a pub in Perth. Some guys have it all.

Jang Hoon gave me a piece of good news. We knock off at 2am today instead of 4am. Though I would be earning less today, it didn't feel painful. I thought it was a beautiful way to work for now. I'm happy if I knock off early, I'm happy if I knock off late as well since I'll bring home more money that night.

That was not the lesson I learnt from knocking off early though. I noticed by 2am, I was still alert and sharp. Back then when I first started working 10 hours till 2am, I was a piece of rag by the time I knocked off. Then after that we ground 11 hours till 3am and 12 hours till 4am the last week or so, I went home absolutely knackered. By now, 10 hours didn't take a toll on me as much as before.

It was like jogging long distances back in Singapore. I couldn't run 2km to save my life. Just few months before I migrated to Perth I picked up the jogging trend from friends. I managed to do 15km runs at one time. Back then, I remembered looking back and wondered why I struggled that much to do a simple 2km run a while ago.

Humans can do a lot more than they think they can't. When we test our limits, we improve a bit each time.

I hope to pass this simple lesson to all my friends (I have at least 5 of you in mind) who may be getting too comfortable with their jobs. Get new jobs, challenge yourself. We are still young, it'll be even harder when we are older. Learn more, try more. Life is short. Most importantly,

Make hay whilst the sun shines.