The Craftsman’s Forge

I had a pretty horrendous week, last. Obviously, with the unpleasant HR decision I made, it added to my feeling of general lousiness throughout the week. Then, it began building into self doubts by Friday, and I wondered if I had made the right decision. By Friday night, I was almost into a panic and on Saturday, was feeling that the world was going to crash around me.

Thank God for my wonderful wife. Being the down to earth woman that she is, she astutely observed and said that I was not compartmentalising my stress. She was… as usual, Spot on. I had allowed the stress at work to undermine my total being. My office stress became my world. I began imagining that things were going to fail, the team would resign enmass, we wouldn’t be able to get the right people to support the warehouse, etc. Despair literally set in, and I was paralysed with fear.

Things got better towards the end of Saturday as I began to rationalise and remember God’s promises. Then, Sunday’s sermon was yet again, Spot on. This morning, I listened again to Ps Kai’s sermon on repacking for life, where he shared about my burying of the blackberry and namecards, and I was reminded that this job belongs to Jesus. Thats right. It’s no longer my car lot. It’s His! I just work here. Somehow, that just took all the burdens and stress away.

I strode into the office this monring confident and very aware that God is in control, and that He is in charge, not me. This is His car lot, and I just sell the cars. Its up to Him to manage the books. Truly, He is the God of the impossible. Amen…

A very sad day for me indeed…..

I had to make a HR decision today. I won’t say much more than its never easy. This is my third time doing something like that, and it still never gets easier. Sigh…..

The house is undergoing renovation now, and one of the areas I am spending a little time on, was the balcony. I never had the chance over the last 10 years to really grow plants. The little time I spent experimenting with plants was back in 1997 when we first got our existing house, but the results weren’t too positive. My plants from Ikea died on me within a few months. Presumably from my over enthusiastic cramming of fertilizer root sticks in the soil.

Anyways, I headed down to a landscaping Nursery in Kovan to have a look. They came quite highly recommended by my neighbour and now my contractor. Looked around, and came up with a simple Frangipani with a round pot like feature. Aiyah… duno how to describe. Heres the photo of what I designed… yeah.. literally designed with a little help from the proprietor.

The pot thingy (which will be propped by a small stone support) will be filled with water, a small little umbrella fountain, a small water light, some water lilies, Water Cress… and some guppies/fighting fishes.

This will go into one corner of my balcony. The other end will sit my 2.5 ft fish tank. There may be some more plants/flowers/herbs or even edible plants like Maize or Cherry Tomatoes that I might get later, but this should be enough for now. I’ll begin looking around for 2 chairs and a small table.

Picked up the keys to our new house on Tuesday, and have since brought my contractor to view the place. The first thing he said to me was… “Wow.. this place.. the previous owner spent at least 60k on the renovations! What do you still need to do?” When he found out we got it for only 10k above valuation, he was even more envious. Ha ha ha ha Thank God.

In any case, the condition of the entire house is really quite pristine. Everything is very very new. The entire house is decked out in teak timber flooring. We really only need to make cosmetic amendments like changing the toilet bowls, paint the entire house, re-polish the floors, change the stair banister, change the laminates on the kitchen cabinets, etc.

I’m bringing the whole family to view our new place tonight. Really excited.