June 13

stress...stress...stress is written all over my face today. couldn't even think straight by 6pm. so much to do before going on leave!? sigh! just wished i didn't take leave at all! then don't need to make sure that nothing crops up in the project when i'm not around. just wonder how the pile of work would look when i return!! aghhh~

despite the stress, many a times i've just constantly reminded myself of my passion for history. perhaps that's the driving motivation. it's always good to have positive attitude towards work, isn't it? sometimes i just dread going work! so much to catch up on...! especially when our dear director starts shooting down emails to ask for specific photo, specific archival document of which he has no idea where it's kept! and most of us just go round archives looking for it, spending huge amounts of time just looking for it! what to do?! when it's an instruction from him, he expects the information to be on his table asap! i just fear receiving such emails! cos' that equates having less time to do other important jobs on agenda. because his emails are always classified as 'Urgent & Important!'. what to do?! *shrug* he's the boss!

just today, i received a call from my supervisor, the Deputy Director. she told me that the Director wanted me to look through archival sources to pin down the location of Endau settlement during the war period. man! took my hours just to sit in front of a microfilm machine, scrolling through microfilms looking at minute hydro-geographical maps!

well, i'm thankful that there are kind souls around, like Stanley who did Geography major at NUS. after printing scrolls of microfilm, i went to him today with pathetic eyes: "Stanley, you are good in your jia-ko-pi eh? can you help me?" he replied with a cheeky grin, "yes indeed, i need coffee now!" i told him i really needed his help. as usual, he asked, "what do i get in return??" he's always asking me for breakfast treats! i owed him too many breakfast meals! looked at him with a skeptical grin, commenting that he's always out for treats! he requested for roti prata and teh-si for tomorrow's breakfast! *what duh?!* but i was thankful that at least, i found what i needed to find! and guess what? when i looked at the clock, i spent almost 3 hours on it! sigh~ how can i go on leave when there's so much to followup on before i leave???????? =(