But then...

You know that movie scene where the two main characters are about to kiss and the atmosphere is all charged, their lips come close... but then the phone rings? They hold still, almost thinking that the phone will stop and the scene can continue but the phone keeps ringing for so long that any built-up tension disappears.

And the audience thinks, "Typical".

Well, when David and I celebrated our 2 year anniversary on the weekend and we were in the middle of a very similar moment, my mobile rang. Since it wouldn't stop, I reached for it and saw that it was Christine. I decided not to pick up. Didn't want to give any explanations on what I was doing and decline any invitations to meet them.

Today, I called Christine and explained that I didn't hear my phone and when I realised, it was too late to call back. Surprisingly she didn't believe a word of it and said, "It's ok, we thought you didn't want to be interrupted" with a knowing smile in her voice.

I was a bit embarrassed because it was true. I guess she had many similar moments with Evan.

Makes you realise cliches aren't only in movies; they densely populate real life too.

Everything

You're a falling star,
You're the get away car.
You're the line in the sand when I go too far.
You're the swimming pool, on an August day.
And you're the perfect thing to say.

And you play it coy, but it's kinda cute.
Ah, when you smile at me you know exactly what you do.
Baby don't pretend, that you don't know it's true.
Cause you can see it when I look at you.

And in this crazy life, and through these crazy times
It's you, it's you, you make me sing.
You're every line, you're every word, you're everything.

You're a carousel, you're a wishing well,
And you light me up, when you ring my bell.
You're a mystery, you're from outer space,
You're every minute of my everyday.

And I can't believe, that I'm your man,
And I get to kiss you baby just because I can.
Whatever comes our way, ah we'll see it through,
And you know that's what our love can do.

And in this crazy life, and through these crazy times
It's you, it's you, You make me sing
You're every line, you're every word, you're everything.

So, La, La, La, La, La, La, La
So, La, La, La, La, La, La, La

And in this crazy life, and through these crazy times
It's you, it's you, You make me sing.
You're every line, you're every word, you're everything.
You're every song, and I sing along.
'Cause you're my everything.

- Michael Buble

Infatuated

This post is here for no other reason than to say that there is no person lovelier than David.

Paradise Fruit

There is only one fruit I will get excited about.

The persimmon.

Looks like an orange tomato but tastes like heaven. When ripe, it's sweet glossy chunks in soft mush. When it's not, it will feel like wool in your mouth.

I usually rip out the green top first, then cut it in half and spoon the soft orange fruit, then scrape the skin until every last bit of glowing deliciousness is gone.

When I was young, it was a treat since they were rarely in season. Now it's still a bit of a delicacy as it's usually expensive and difficult to find good ripe ones.

I just had one. Mmm...

Oops!

Every time I think of what happened, I can't help but giggle.

It was David's birthday and his mobile rang. He looked at the last digits of the number and thought I was calling from work. He answered cheekily, "Hi beautiful!" but what he heard was, "This is Sky's Mum. I didn't hear anything."

Poor guy was so embarrassed. It could've been a lot worse. I see nothing wrong in my Mum knowing my fiance is so adorably sweet to me.

Nice Girl

I always liked to think of myself as unique. Turns out I fit a stereotype.

Found this while procrastinating at work:

You are a nice POBian girl if:

• You have set of “home” clothes that you change into after school/work
• All the POBian boys you know are alcoholic, chauvinist, arrogant, materialistic, in IT, but you’re still trying!
• Your parents are waiting for a nice POBian doctor…but they’ll take an American lawyer just the same!
• You know the dirt on every POBian person your age in a ten mile radius (even if you haven’t met them)
• Your mother calls you on a daily basis to make sure you’re dressed warmly and eating well
• You offer all of your guests tea, regardless of season or time of day
• All the grandmothers you know or just met try to set you up with a nice POBian boy from a wonderful family
• You don't sit next to that girl in the cafeteria beacuse your grandmother told your mother that her father's ex-girlfriend is a loose woman and you never know how kids in that kind of family can turn out
• The words "I love you" pale in comparison to [POBian "I love you"]
• POBian pet names are so much better than honey and sweetie
• Whenever your room gets messy you see your Mum shaking her head in disbelief and saying, "But you're a girl!"
• You think showing up to someone's house for dinner (or any occasion for that matter) empty-handed is a criminal offence
• There are constant, constant toasts at parties... First, a toast for our health. Then for the ladies. Then for the children. Then for the lovely hostess. For cousin Andrew for getting into university. For world peace. For the poor souls suffering in Sudan. Anything, to make a toast.
• Your parents say that if you go outside with wet hair you'd get a cold
• You can't have boyfriends when you are 17 but you have to be married at 19.
• Tea + lemon + raspberry jam = the POBian cure for the common cold and everything else
• You were named after someone from your family
• Your grandma always offers you bread at every meal
• You learnt either piano or dancing as a child
• While many of your North American/Australian/Canadian friends' grandmas and mums stayed at home, YOUR grandma was an educated doctor/ dentist/ professor /engineer
• A lullaby was about a wolf who would eat you if you slept on the corner of your bed
• When packing a suitcase, you put everything in plastic bags first
• You love POBian songs because they are more melodic
• You grew up with the expectation of being a model housewife AND a breadwinner
• You have to tell your mother where you are at every minute and what you ate for all the meals of the day
• Your grandparents tell you how you never call... even though you visit them once a week

So turns out I'm not so special after all.

Those Boots Are Made For Me

I've realised that nothing is impossible because I finally bought the black boots that I've wanted for the last few years!

They were not exactly how I imagined them but they looked great and were black, knee-length, comfortable heel and good price.

I also bought wedding shoes. One of the sales assistant wouldn't believe that I was buying them for my wedding. After several times of telling her that they were for my wedding, she looked me straight in the eyes and asked, "Are they really for your wedding?" so I laughed and said, "Well, I'm not lying!"

She said I looked too young to be getting married. When she found out my age, she said, "Twenty-three is not so bad".

It makes me feel happy when people think I'm younger than I really am. That means they can't see any signs of aging that I see when I look in the mirror. (Yes, I know I'm only 23 but I never knew people my age start to get laugh lines around their eyes.)

Can't believe the weekend is almost over. It went by so quickly.

Done Done Done

Ceremony location: done
Marriage celebrant: done
Photographer: done

I feel so much better now. The more I tick off my list, the better I feel and the more I get excited. Not the anxious excitement but the joyous type. Yay!

Must not think about work though as that is starting to stress me out. We are given a new graphic designer for freaking FREE by another company for signing a three-year contract with them. Argh! This person better be really bad, otherwise when Eve comes back, I'm out of a job for sure! And then I will never find a job as good as this. Never. There's nothing anyone can say to make me believe otherwise because this job is as good as it gets. Who else is going to let me leave at 4pm?! And give me days off for working over-time? And great people who don't cause me any problems. And as much money as I'm earning now! I want to stay in this job all my life.

Anyway, stressing about it won't fix the situation so I will stop.

It's my and David's two year anniversary next week!!! I wonder, is it possible to be too much in love? Because I love him even more than that.

My Superhero

David got the new job!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I always knew he could do anything.

As Long as You're There

For the last few days, I have been composing blog posts in my head. Now that I sat down to write them, I can't remember the point of any of them.

David stayed over the last few days which was wonderful, even though he slept for most of his time here. Really hope he gets a new job so he can quit his current one. Then he can have a normal life again and we can spend weekends together.

We went to see an apartment yesterday. That was a new experience. I was a bit lost at first. I didn't know what I was looking for. Were there specific questions I had to ask? David was very confident, making comments like a proper grown-up.

You know, I woke up and thought that I was still 21. Then it dawned on me that I was actually a few years older. I told David this and he laughed, "Don't worry, baby, you will always be 21 to me".

I don't know why it's so hard to accept my age. I mean not that I'm unhappy to be 23 but it always gives me a bit of a jolt when I remember. Maybe 'cause I'm almost out of my early 20s now and the distance from my teenage years is becoming longer. Yet, inside my head, I still feel the same as I did when I was 19 or 20.

It makes me wonder if retired people or even middle-aged feel like their younger selves are stuck in their older bodies.

Maybe in adulthood, you physical body changes a lot quicker than your mental state.

I can hear David's voice in my head telling me to stop thinking too much...

On Friday, I didn't go to work 'cause I had to get my POBian passport. (The consulate only opens in the morning and since I had the flu, I decided to take the whole day off.)

My Mum went with me. On the train, she asked, "Can you believe you are getting married?" I think she was asking herself more than me. She said, "I never imagined you to marry someone from such a different background and culture. Did you ever think you would?" I didn't think I would marry anyone but I didn't say that. I told her his culture was actually not so different to ours.

South American culture is one of the few in the world that actually excites me. I mean, what's not to like? A focus on music, dancing and family, what can be better?

I haven't met any guy, from any culture, that was more responsible, reliable and yet able to have a good time (without any additional substances).

I haven't felt wierd about our upcoming wedding since the engagement. I think the initial fact that we were getting married made both of us a little anxious. Now that the novelty wore off, we couldn't be more excited.

April and I used to talk about how a wedding is the only really big exciting thing to look forward to in life. Although I never completely agreed with that, I did understand that there wouldn't be anything as fun to plan. Now I find myself looking more forward to after the wedding. Like spending time together on our honeymoon or settling into our new home.

When before, something like buying property seemed boring, now it's exciting.

I'm also really looking forward to being able to go out on weekends and come home together. I know that seems really insignificant but thinking about it really makes me buzz inside.

When I think about all the times with David that really stood out for me, they are always really low-key like talking while lazying around on his bed or pretending to dance in the kitchen. It's not the time we got engaged or when he asked me out. It's never a milestone.

I've also decided to calm down about the whole wedding planning even though the photographer is avoiding me after changing the original price and there's new confusion about which DJ to use. I'm just going to go with the flow and enjoy whatever happens. Same goes for the honeymoon (which also involves hours of planning and choosing from countless options, one better than the next). I'm going with David's view, "As long as you're there, it will be perfect".

Wonderful World

April shared this song with me. It describes perfectly how I used to feel when I was single and I'm guessing this is how April is feeling now.

I've been down so low
People look at me and they know
They can tell something is wrong
Like I don't belong

Staring through a window
Standing outside, they're just too happy to care tonight
I want to be like them
But I'll mess it up again

I tripped on my way in
And got kicked outside, everybody saw...

And I know that it's a wonderful world
But I can't feel it right now
Well I thought that I was doing well
But I just want to cry now
Well I know that it's a wonderful world
From the sky down to the sea
But I can only see it when you're here, here with me

Sometimes I feel so full of love
It just comes spilling out
It's uncomfortable to see
I give it away so easily
But if I had someone I would do anything
I'd never, never, ever let you feel alone
I won't I won't leave you, on your own

But who am I to dream?
Dreams are for fools, they let you down...

And I know that it's a wonderful world
But I can't feel it right now
Well I thought that I was doing well
But I just want to cry now
Well I know that it's a wonderful world
From the sky down to the sea
But I can only see it when you're here, here with me

And I wish that I could make it better
I'd give anything for you to call me, or maybe just a little letter
Oh, we could start again

And I know that it's a wonderful world
But I can't feel it right now
I got all the right clothes to wear
I just want to cry now
Well I know that it's a wonderful world
From the sky down to the sea
But I can only see it when you're here, here with me

And I know that it's a wonderful world
When you're with me

- Wonderful World by James Morrison

The Unspoken Rules of the Office

Working is so different to studying. And not only in the fact that you are earning money, rather than giving it away.

From my two years of experience in the corporate world, I learnt that you always have to think twice before you say something, three times before you whinge and never even think about bitching.

In the office you are not the same as everyone else (like you are in the classroom). You never know when the colleague at the desk next to you will become your boss.

I've been very careful about the way I act at my current job, having learnt how easy it is to get on someone's bad side.

My biggest challenge is to not make myself look better than anybody else. Doing your best is not always the best way to win approval from fellow workers as some of them might have issues and get jealous (as in the case of Renee).

I was doing pretty well here until yesterday. A person who recently became manager of one of the departments asked me to redesign a newsletter that they send out. She got the people who used to do it and me together to brainstorm some ideas.

The manager agreed with everything that I said and didn't pay much attention to the other people. I recognised the face of envy on one woman's face immediately. This is the woman who only a few months earlier kept saying to me for several weeks, "Sky, you're my new best friend!" when I helped her out with something.

I redesigned the newsletter today and the manager was so happy with it she told me that she really hoped my contract would get extended, along with many other nice things. She asked me to show the people who would do the newsletter how to use my template.

I emailed the two women asking if Monday was ok. The annoyed woman replied, "No, I'm away on Monday". Since she didn't give me an alternative, I suggested Tuesday. She sent another blunt response about how she was unavailable.

I went to her office and asked her when she could do it. She said she didn't know but could try end of next week.

I really hope I was imagining but I swear I could feel the tension.

White and Off-white

What's more difficult than buying a wedding dress?

Buying wedding shoes.

I never expected that buying silver shoes (since proper wedding ones are way too expensive) with a comfortable heel would be such a problem. April, Ella and I looked in every shoe store in the city and came up with nothing. There wasn't even anything worth trying on. Firstly, there weren't even that many silver shoes and secondly, all of the ones that were there had a stiletto heel reminiscent of a knitting needle. I don't know how people manage to stand in them, let alone walk.

One shop I went to had ivory shoes. I asked the sales assistant whether they had them in white. The snobby girl looked at me like I was crazy and said, "They are white!" She obviously never shopped for wedding clothes before! It's like wearing a white dress with an ivory veil - the veil would look like it's dirty next to the dress. I told my Mum and she thought that no one would notice if the shoes were white or ivory. I guess she had a point.

I was encouraged by several people to wear flats since noone would see them under the dress anyway but I don't want to be short at my wedding.

While we were looking for my shoes, we also had a look for boots (something you might remember I've been looking for a very long time). I told April that I've been looking for boots before I even met David which would mean that finding the boots I wanted was even harder than finding a husband.

I Know You

On Friday night, Ella invited April, me and David to dinner with her friends and their friends and friends of their friends... It was a pretty big group.

I sat next to one of Ella's good friends (who I met briefly once before). We chatted the way you do with someone you just met. She told me about her job, I told her about mine, discussed the menu and smiled a lot.

At the end of the night, she went to talk to another lady who sat at the end of our table. All of a sudden they called me and asked whether I used to work at some company. I told them I didn't. The lady next to her kept staring at me and said to Ella's friend, "I am sure you worked there. I know you!"

I looked closely at her face and she didn't look familiar at all. I also couldn't remember working for that company so I just laughed and said to Ella and April, "Isn't it scary that there is someone who looks so much like me out there". I also heard Ella's friend say to the other woman, "I told you she never worked with us!" The woman didn't seem convinced. She just kept staring at me.

Ella's friend told me the suburb of their company and I remembered that I did work in that suburb (the first first temp job I ever had, stapling all day). I told them that I thought I did work there after all and this woman started smiling while April rolled her eyes that I forgot where I used to work. (When you did as many temp jobs as I have, you might forget the one where you were only for a few weeks!)

The woman then excitedly said, "Remember we used to go for walks and you told me you did graphic design and played piano?!" Then it all dawned on me. This woman was the one who asked whether I had a boyfriend and got offended when I asked her whether she had kids. She told me she had a baby recently. No wonder I couldn't recognise her. She looked very different.

What was even more amazing than seeing her was that Ella's friend also worked there and she had lunch with us a couple of times. So we've actually met two years ago, way before I knew Ella.

Isn't it amazing how small the world is?