Spent the weekend up in Aberdeen. Was passing through Trinity Shopping Centre and seen a stall that sold crystals. I know that El likes crystals so I paid particular attention to see if I can find something nice for Valentine's Day. Saw some roses, a frog, clocks and a horse and carriage. Found out that everything was on sale, half price! Mmm...interesting!

I seen a crystal heart that said 'Mum' on the base bottom. Immediately asked how much it was - £3. Must get it! Don't have to look around for Mother's Day present anymore. Also very cheap.

El came to have a look and I thought of buying her a rose. However, wasn't sure because she may have wanted something from Clinton's. Tried to question her about her preference but she wouldn't say. Rose would be nice and cheap. Clinton's nice but more expensive. Hmm...

Anyway, Sunday morning El set a reminder on her phone for me to buy her red glass/ crystal rose. Sorted! =)

Valentine's Day (well, 13th): Big wheel, small box of chocs, crystal, dinner. All I need is a card.

I thought I would be at the mail room again today, thinking I would get away at 5:45pm or so.

However that wasn't the case. I had to stay in phone room till 6:30pm! EM Leadership Team meeting at 7:30pm! What could I do? What a rush it would be to go home, eat, grab my Events stuff and head out again! Thank God I thought of asking Ray if I could miss my last tea break at 5pm and get away at 6:15pm. He said ok. =) Left at 6:15pm and rushed to Jessie and drove quickly home. Called home and mum put stuff in the oven for me.

I had eaten and was even only for 7pm. Made the meeting 7:30pm SHARP believe it or not. Meeting finished at 10pm. Ideal! Thank God for He provided.

Also, I needed Sunday 13th Feb off duty since El's coming down. I sent an email to ask for shift swap and offered my Friday or Saturday off duty. Joanne and Julie Stevens said they'd do it but Joanne was on reserve so didn't know her shifts. I had to take Julie's offer of 7:15am-3:15pm for Friday - sacrifice eh! Hehe!

Drove to work as usual in the morning - left at 09:30am and arrived around 9:47am in the Woodlands area. Had to drive along Carnarvon Street to Queen's Crescent and back - no spaces available. The weather was really bad; wind and heavy rain. I need to park in time for devotions then work. I circled around Queen's Crescent once but had no luck. As I made my way back out to the primary school area, a man walking along the pavement area looked at me and waved. Thinking he signalled someone else, I just drove off.

It wasn't until I had to stop to allow Ivor Shek's car by that this man came close to my car and pointed at his own: he was going to drive away and wanted to give me his space! Such a nice man!

He drove away, I gave him a few appreciation flashes of the headlights, packed, then did devotions. Praise God for this man. God bless him.

Actually I think he offered me his parking space once before, around Queen's Crescent. Could God have sent him?

I was afraid of going to cell group tonight. For a very crazy reason. Janetta is meant to have a birthday do thing in Havana Bar on Friday, which includes a bit of Salsa dancing as well.

Two reasons why I didn’t wanna go: no money to buy a card/ present for Janetta and also I have to work 7:30am on Saturday. Therefore I wanted to avoid Janetta because it would be hard to tell her I don’t wanna go: 2 cons. The only Pro is I could get a lend of Kenneth’s PS2 games.

By 7:15pm I decided, ‘what the heck, I’ll go to cell group. It’s for God and I’m sure He’ll help me.’ I prayed on my way to Kenneth’s place. The traffic from the motorway right through to Kenneth’s flat was so smooth. No red lights along Great Western Road at all!

Therefore, when I arrived I had a feeling things would be ok. I was very peaceful at heart.

By the time we started I realised that Janetta was out having dinner with her parents since she’s busy on Friday.

I got to have fellowship, Kenneth’s games and no blushes.

I applied for annual leave from work for 2 dates: Sunday 30th Jan (up in ‘deen) and Sunday 13th Feb (El coming to Glasgow). Both were declined. The reason why I waited till today was because I had to wait for my Reserve Shifts for week commencing Fri 24th Jan to be sent to me. It was sent on Friday 14th Jan at 6:05pm – I was away by then since I was in mail room. Also on 10th Jan I emailed Duty Managers requesting I work on Tuesday 25th since I’m meant to be off duty and be off duty on Sunday 30th instead. They ignored it.

My only hope now, after I appealed to Karen, is that they can sort something out for me for the 30th and that I can apply for half-day holiday for 13th. If not, than I’ll call in sick for the 2 days. I hope it won’t resort to that. Probably don’t have to if God helps me. I just need to have faith and keep praying about it.

I’ll write what happens after I know the result.

(Update from 20th January 2005)

Back to work today, checked my emails.

Got one from Karen about the annual leave requests. The duty managers decided it was not possible to give me Sunday 30th Jan off, nor Sunday 13th Feb because they already have people on leave and Off Duty. The only way around this would be to swap the shifts myself. I was given a list of names of people who are working on Tue and off on Sunday. Names included Willie Burns, Edith, Peter, Lucy etc. I emailed them a plea and explained the situation before heading to mail room to help out.

Received a few replies: 2 saying No, 1 maybe and 1 Yes. Willie said he’d do it for me!! So surprised! He got stuff sorted out with Bob and then confirmed it was ok to go ahead! Praise God! At least now I won’t have to lie on Sunday 30th Jan and phone in sick. I owe Willie a favour now! Hehe!

Still got Sunday 13th Feb to sort out, but I’m sure with the Lord’s grace, I’ll be writing in this pad again! =) Hallelujah!

P.s. I also got all my Toronto annual leave booked, and our birthdays and anniversaries too! =)

A few things to write about for this entry. The first is not date-specific, but I’ve started to do my devotions in the mornings, either at home before I leave the house for work, or in the car before I walk to work. It really does help – reading the Lord’s word with a clear/ fresh mind. Good start to the day.

I was asked to help out in the mail room yesterday and today. They have so many Jerry Springer letters, so I help them out with sorting and scanning. I guess for doing so I get to leave earlier than my end of shift time. Today, for example, I was let away at 5:05pm though my shift finished at 6:30pm. Thank God Ann does not make me go back to the phone room.

Also I received a letter from Karen Scott telling me my annual salary has increased to £12,000 now. An extra £1,000 a year will come in real handy, especially since I have to save up for the holiday in Toronto, and there are special dates in April!

Praise God! =)

I had a day off work today, so I stayed in to chill, chatted on the phone to El for a bit and done chores, hovered, washed bathroom and then cooked dinner for the family! My very first time!

Had rice, crab meat stick and red, green, yellow peppers in black bean sauce! I cooked that myself! Kinda picked up a few pointers from El when she cooked dinner for us! Hehe!

Mum and Cat came home from work and the three of us literally cleared everything up! I washed up after dinner and took the washing down. Mum didn’t have to do anything. Was a fab way for her to start her week’s holiday and for me to redeem myself! =)

We had a good time during dinner. Once again, thank God!

I spent Christmas and New Year up in Aberdeen. At first I thought it was a great idea, getting to open presents with El, going to parties etc. I didn’t realise I was neglecting mum and Cat. The more people I told about my Christmas plans up north, the more people were surprised and asked why I wasn’t spending time with family. I started to feel a bit guilty, but couldn’t really do anything about it since the tickets were bough and plans were made. At the back of my mind I had always though ‘El would do this for me as well – either way, one of us would have to take the slack for doing so. Next year it’ll be better.’

Between Christmas and New Year, mum’s face went all red and blotchy. The medical term was Impetigo if I remember correctly. She suffered a lot from the pain but still had to work. I went up to Aberdeen on New Year Eve because El was getting baptised on Sunday 2nd Jan 2005.

I came home on 3rd January 2005 as usual and thought everything was alright for the new few days. It wasn’t until I arranged to go up to Aberdeen on the following weekend (15th-16th Jan) and showed mum the reservation, that I realised how hurt my mum had been.

Not only was she angry that I am going up AGAIN but I’m going up even though she is still unwell and she had a week of annual leave off work that week and would have been nice if I had stayed at home. I felt so bad about this and cancelled my plans and apologised to mum, reassuring her that it was not intentional to book on those dates. Mum cried on the phone to people, also said I treated the house like a hotel – come and go as I please and make no contributions etc. Actually Cat blogged about mum’s unhappiness to start with. I saw it whilst at work and then all this happened.

Anyway, I thank the Lord for all that has happened. I have since then become more aware of my actions and behaviour towards my family and make more effort to put things back to the way they were: the love, laughter, jokes and family time.

Praise God for this =)