stories from the land of the rising sun

been on the lookout for trashy romance novel titles. the situation out there is bad. quite bad really. it’s usually the girls who would be holding such books. and they (the books, not the girls) should be banned. i repeat. trashy romance novels should be banned.

books should not have covers with roses, pink (or any shade of pink), swirly, flow-ey designs/motifs/print. they should be banned. any books with fabio on the front cover should also be banned. no more trashy romance novels!   

/end of tirade

in other news, there was a farewell party at work today. champagne/sparkling wine, delectable pastries from delifrance, yummy-licious pizzas from spizza. it’s quite unbelieveable. it’s the people that makes the whole difference. everyone’s nice (or so it seems anyway). i guess this is why i’m not hating this office job.

there’re lots of french nationals working here and it’s just common to hear french being spoken. everyone who works here speaks at least 2 langauges. the basic would be english, the other would be either japanese, mandarin or french. and of course, there would be those who are proficient in three langauges (with english and french being the main two languages).

maybe it’s just the legal department where everyone is just so smart. and by department, i mean all 4, 5 of them excluding myself. i’m sure they are all at least trilingual. and maybe, just maybe, i might work till the end of the month and for slightly longer. tis not bad, not bad at all.

y’know, most people may think that filing, scanning, removing staples is a brainless, dead-end job. and for the most part, it is true. it’s truly boring, highly repetitive, you can almost do it with your eyes closed. but, it is actually quite a humbling job. why do i say that? because this job requires prayer. without God, i cannot do my job. it’s a simple job, yes. what kind of prayer? that the paper feeds into the machine well, documents get scanned properly.  

so many times, i just stare at the machine, counting the number of pages (i can’t help it. it’s automatic for me to count things). then the paper gets jammed. i sigh, removed the jammed paper, reload it into the machine and start counting again. paper gets jammed. i say a quick prayer and the next time i reload it, it goes well.

then i forget about praying because it’s going well. and hey, whaddyaknow. paper gets jammed. i think God’s teaching me a lesson: that he’s in charge and in control of everything; small things and big. there ain’t no hiding away from him. not even in the belly of a huge fish at the bottom of the ocean.

there really is no hiding away.