The realisation that I’m getting old hit me after a Meeples session with py and Jerm two weeks ago or so – a female friend of Jerm’s who joined us told us that she was only 17 despite sounding incredibly mature for her age, and I realised that it was 5 years since I sat for my SPM. Five years on, I’ve completed my tertiary education and I’m sitting here typing… in an office.

Who would’ve thought?

I’ve recently begun a contractual week-long work at a publishing firm as a research writer, somewhat of a dream job of mine – went for an interview last Monday and was asked to begin work immediately the next day. Despite the rather long drawn-out hours from 9 to 9, I managed to get over the initial struggle of the first two days of trying to keep awake and alert, and soon the dynamics of a full-time working place set in. As always with any new environment that I’m in, the cloak of routine shrouded me and I’m quickly used to it once more.

Today marks the 9th day I’ve been working straight non-stop from 9 to 9 (yes, including Saturday and Sunday), and thankfully the production process has finally ended and we’re ready to send our magazines for the final printing. And it has been actually fun sometimes in a way—when you have a hearty boss that loves to crack jokes at every other interval and poke fun at everyone, it’s a fairly relaxed atmosphere and I truly enjoyed the workplace. Possibly one of the best choices I could’ve ever made for my first full-time job.

And as with growing up, I guess priorities changed easily before you know it. I used to blog with much ferocity and tenacity at an almost daily basis—trips and travels would be blogged and narrated down to the very minute detail, but now I haven’t even completed documenting my New Zealand trip 9 months ago, much less the recent outings when Matt was here or our vacation in Laos for 2 weeks. Photos were also taken fairly frequently, but with my camera’s death I’ll have to make do without them till I purchase a new one—even then I’m not sure if I’d have the time to post-process my photos anymore.

Circumstances have changed. As I exit my education life—maybe for good—I begin a new learning experience of being a working young adult, and for once, take charge of my finances. (Side note: my office subscribes to Personal Money, quite possibly my favourite magazine ever, and has regular copies of a photography magazine sent to it monthly. As we can borrow it back home to read, that’s pretty darn sweet imo.)

You know that you and your friends are all grown up when you meet up for that rare yumcha and talk about work.

In the aftermath of that departure, I recollected my routine among the debris. It took a week of battling inner turmoils but I emerged from the wreckage relatively well—I busied myself with my ongoing job search and finishing Demon’s Souls, which I did just 30 minutes ago. And I rekindled my DotA playing days again with Jon and Ding, where on Saturday night both Ding and I embarked to Jon’s place and indulged in our somewhat nostalgic teenage days of wiling the time away to a bedeviled game.

And two interviews later at two different recruitment firms, I begin to wonder if this is what I really want, when my two interviewers seem to find me suitable in a sales and marketing position much to my chagrin. Although I’m open to learning new things that I could put to use in my life, my passion has always been writing—it has always been that way. Unfortunately there seems to be a trade-off between a good pay and a writing gig, and I have admittedly succumbed to the idea of sacrificing my passions for a well-paying job.

Right now… I’m not sure anymore. Earlier today I stumbled onto a technical writer’s position which I researched into extensively and found it intriguing and interesting enough to want to make it as my actual career. Many questions still remain however, such as how to go about dealing with the paradox of a fresh graduate, in which these jobs require working experience but without a job I wouldn’t have any in the first place.

I’ll take on the world one step at a time.

More than a month now since I last blogged—a possible travesty considering a wealth of photos and entries documenting my daily life in this almost public journal of the trips I’ve been to, or my ramblings and soliloquies of love found and discovered, have not been published. To be honest, while I don’t feel an enormous pit of sorrow welling up inside me, I do regret the fact that I didn’t write as much, as it has been my passion.

Right now I will not talk about the Cameron Highlands trip that I’ve been to that ended in considerable disaster in the form of a non-functioning car that required thousands of ringgit to repair, or the foresty stay at Sekeping Serendah, or to Genting with Esther and Tony, or to the countless of Meeples sessions with my friends (mostly with Jerm, PY, and co. who were there nearly all the time), or the RoM with Tomoko and Ben and the after party, or the movies and dinners and co-operative gaming sessions with you.

Instead, I will talk about the upcoming Laos trip and how it both excites me and depresses me at the same time, as it signifies that your time here with me is drawing to an end. I remembered how excitingly agitated I became the night before your arrival, and now, I might be agitated again for all the wrong reasons.

Spending every waking hour with someone you love, while it’s the best possible thing to have happened to anyone, could turn into an emotional rollercoaster when this hazy, mystical summer draws to an end. You spend what seemed like an entire lifetime learning about your partner’s little quirky habits, like how you’ll use a fork while eating as opposed to a spoon, only to be torn away for another good year or so while your physical presence is spirited away.

But if we’ve done a whole year of non-physical communication before, surely we can do this again.

Next stop: Laos. In 3 days time now.

Tomoko, Jeremy, and Siew Kiat invited me to join them at a European board game cafe called Meeples last Thursday night, and so intrigued I was at the idea (notwithstanding the fact that I have an Organisational Behaviour final exam the following week) that I decided to participate.

And it was a pretty awesome decision, as you can see from the pictures I took on Friday night:

The quaint little place located on top of Face-to-Face SS15.

Playing the funky European strategy board game called “Smallworld”.

Jeremy reading the rule sheet with Amanda (one of the staff) helping us to sort out the pieces and explain the rules (which is really what their task entails!).

Jin was there too briefly, although he didn’t get to play as we were in the middle of a game.

One of my favourite games, Dixit, as it’s pretty simple too play and merely requires your imagination.

Meeples is possibly one of the most original ideas for a business, at least in Malaysia. Their vast array of European board games is definitely staggering (they even have World of Warcraft and Starcraft board games), and I think in the three consecutive nights that I was there (on Saturday night, I was with Poh Yuen, Tomoko and Jeremy), we only played like four different games. “Bang!” was also a pretty fun game (ala Murder in the Dark, but done and improved further with cards), and I had even contemplated purchasing either that or Dixit, which isn’t exactly cheap (around the range of RM150 and above).

At the moment, Meeples (the name possibly derived from their flagship board game, whose name escaped me now) has a launch promotion whereby purchasing an hour nets you an extra free hour. RM5 for two hours sounds pretty reasonable, but I doubt I’d be going as often as I did before when it reverts to the original RM5/hour.

Can’t wait to hang out there with the extended family and Matt in less than 2 weeks time. =D