LCB Intermediate

School started again this week.  My timetable is a lot more merciful this time round.  I finish at 3.30pm on Mon/Thurs/Fri, but the number of hours are the same as before.   The first full day on Tuesday, we could feel ourselves so slow in the kitchen.  It was essentially a race against time, and re-orientating ourselves in the familiar surroundings again.  

Back in my old jobs, I used to watch the clock and wonder when the day will end.  Right now, I am watching the clock and wishing the minute hand will be a little slower, so I can finish dicing up this, or whipping that and the product out in time.  I am tired, but satisfied, and contented that the other person at the end of the spoon like the plating and taste.  

Would I have wished I had done this earlier?  Afterall, I am not the youngest student in here (nor am I the oldest either).  Yes... but it's always easy to say, it shoulda, coulda, oughta.  But I've learnt these are 'loser' words.  These words only lament, and they don't hold what you have in your hands right now, and make something out of it.  

My years at work has given me good exposure to working with different people from different countries and background, working on tasks that required a balance of hard skills and people skills, to travelling and being more world savvy,  pysche of working with French, last but not least, a wee bit of savings to go into this current fund.

I had a go at corporate life and its politicking, planning holidays and weekend routines of cafe, gym, movies and shopping... all the 'comfortable' but sedate lifestyle that SG promises so well.  I can't say I excel in it, there's something lacking somehow, lack of an edge, lack of something that drives me to the cliff.... everyday was like when you get off a plane and the ears haven't popped.  A great blank of 'blah-ness'.

I don't propose to have found my calling, or purpose in life.  I think we all have different corners of our kaleidoscope of life where we name, "this is me".  And I can safely say, yes, cuisine and pastry, good food and beverages, colors and art, shapes, sizes, texture, heat and cold, sweet and savory, gourmandy, if not gastronomy, is what I want to surround myself with.  Discipline, efforts, techniques, co-ordination, skills.. are what I want to be recognised with.  

Supposed I have gone ahead and started this right after university, I think I would have missed out a lot on character-building years.  I think I might have lacked the maturity built up over the years.  I think I might have had moments when I thought to myself - why can't I be like everyone else, wear a tie, 9-5, teleconference, and make powerpt presentations.  More than anything, choosing this path now makes me more committed.

Many thanks to friends who have been very encouraging.  You are all very missed, away from home.