A love story - Part 10

Marilyn Monroe sang, "Diamonds are a girl's best friend".

IMHO, it depends on the girl and the situation. Coming from a working class background, bred on frugality, I had never really cared for "show" jewellery. Gold and jade, I understood -- gold is for preservation of value and useful in slim/war/chaotic times, jade is for protection of the owner/wearer as Chinese traditional beliefs go. Diamonds? Sapphires? Rubies? And other expensive stones? Nope, I didn't understand those... until I got my first, thanks to AL.

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Part 10 - The diamond turning point

It was the early-2000's, some months before my trip to France. As per AL's request, we celebrated my birthday by having dinner together and going the movies. If I remember correctly, we watched the touching romantic comedy 瘦身男女 [Love on a diet]. I could not keep back my tears towards the end of the movie -- it was touching how much the male protagonist would do to help the female protagonist fulfil her dreams of reuniting with her former boyfriend. And the lyrics of the Cantonese song 终身美丽 [Lifelong beauty] that goes with it was so meaningful.

终身美丽 [Lifelong beauty]

After the movie, I decided that we should each head our separate ways home. Then AL stopped me and insisted that he needed to talk to me. So we sat down on a stone bench near the cinema and he presented a paper bag with his birthday gift for me.

I noted that the paper bag was that of a posh jewellery chain that had a store along CityLink Mall. I hesitated -- then I thought perhaps AL is just re-using the paper bag from a previous purchase, something that I often do. I first took out the birthday card and read it. Then with AL urging me, I opened the gift. It was a white gold necklace with a small diamond pendant -- of decent quality [0.1-carat, round cut, F colour, VVS1 clarity, GIA certified diamond pendant]. I was stunned. Knowing how frugal AL was and his middle-class family background, it is certainly something that he would not splurge on unless it is someone really special to him.

My immediate response, "I don't want it. It is too expensive. You should give it to your wife."

AL replied, "I bought an identical one for her. This one is specifically for you. Please keep it."

[Note: Those were not our exact words because we spoke in Cantonese to each other.] I told AL that I would keep the card but he should keep the gift, maybe for his about-to-be-born daughter. He refused, stating that it was for me, and that if I didn't want it, he would just leave it on the stone bench for anyone to find it. I know AL well enough that he meant what he said, and I didn't want his hard-earned money to go to waste, so I accepted it, thinking to myself that one day when his daughter grows up, I can re-gift it back to her.

That said, AL's reply woke me up to the fact that he has no intention of changing the way things were between him, 6Snoopys (his wife) and me. For any change to happen, it has to come from me. Slowly, I slipped into alternating between anger at how unfair life was to me and sadness at the disaster that my love life was. Strangely, in keeping up a 女强人 [i.e. "strong woman"] image, I managed to fool even myself that I was not sad -- until on the first evening when SMS and I met, he reached out and my tears flowed uncontrollably.

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For a while after that incident, I decided as a 女强人 [i.e. "strong woman"] that I would not deprive myself or rely on men to buy me jewellery. I would buy myself jewellery that I fancied. I started collecting some items for my wealth vase.

Years down the road, I am back to my "I don't really care for show-jewellery" mode. While "spring cleaning" my home in my late-30's, I donated away a sapphire that I bought (on impulse) in Thailand so as not to be bogged down by the sad memories of the plans I had with it. I thought of donating away AL's diamond too, but decided to keep it in the end -- at least he had loved me at some point. I no longer plan to re-gift it to his daughter when she grows up. It may bring up odd questions, which is not in anyone's best interest.

That said, I do have a small collection of semi-precious stones. They are more for the fun I had when learning about the (pseudoscientific) healing properties of these stones (i.e. crystal healing).

If any of my readers plan to impress the lovely women in their lives with jewellery, my 2 cents is that it is best to test the waters, check what she values. Frankly, I would be more impressed with a sensible "retire together plan" than a multi-carat diamond engagement ring. Btw, 24K gold is good with me, anytime! Yeah, I am such a "gold-digger", haha!

A love story - Part 9

I moved out of my parents' home to stay on my own in my early-30's. My decision was based on an accumulation of unfortunate family events that spanned years. The final push came when I was told by my mother to share a tiny condominium room with my younger brother because my mother had unilaterally decided -- eerm, maybe not unilaterally, but also with my elder brother's silent consent -- that our family would upgrade to private property, with the monthly maintenance fee paid by me and (maybe) my elder brother.

I started plotting my move out. This was back in the early 2000's when a single Singapore citizen not staying with his/her parents (but renting a room from someone else) was a rarity. Potential landlords eyed me with suspicion and put up long lists of restrictions (e.g. cannot cook or at most only instant noodles, must not be out late at night, etc). Fortunately, a colleague took pity on me. She had learnt of my family issues the year before, when I often fell asleep at work due to insomnia caused by my parents endless middle-of-the-night quarrels over my younger sister's wedding banquet. She spoke to her parents and they kindly rented me their empty apartment.

Since I did not want to spoil anyone's Chinese New Year's festive mood, I waited until after the 15th day of the Chinese New Year to inform my mother of my plan. To put it simply, my mother had an attack of hysteria -- it was all about her. E.g. "We did not ill-treat you, how can you do this to me?", "What will the neighbours think?", "How am I going to explain to the neighbours?" It ended with her screaming/crying angrily and labelling me as “反骨” ["reversed bones", i.e. "traitor"]. I had observed my mother's past hysterics, so I was too emotionally numbed to be affected by her current show. In addition, only just a couple of years ago, my elder brother had angrily called me the same “反骨” ["reversed bones", i.e. "traitor"] when I refused to pool my CPF with his to help him achieve his condominium dream. [He pretty much demanded me to do it, without considering that I was unemployed and in the midst of depression at that time.]

My dad was awesome. For some unknown reason, my mother wielded power at home. My dad kept silent throughout the debacle. Then on the morning of my move, when my mother was away, he came out of his room to offer help. He looked at me with pride, told me in Cantonese that, "Moving out is good for you", and even gave me the thumbs-up.

Given the above dainty situation, I did not want to implicate anyone from my immediate or extended family with my move. In addition, I had to time my move during the window period when my mother would be at the market (that timeframe varied day-to-day depending on my mother's mood), i.e. so that she would not be present to kick-up a scene. Thus, I had to find people who were prepared to appear within moments of a phone call, and yet not probe too much, and would be discreet about the matter. A JC schoolmate of mine in the construction industry arranged a lorry to deliver my things. Now I only needed 2 men to help with the load.

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Part 9 - 藕断丝连

[literally "the lotus root has broken apart, but its fibres still connect them together", i.e. "apart but lingers on"]

Sometime during the millennium year, AL was seconded back to Singapore again. The duration was not confirmed, but predicted to be a couple of years. Initially, he migrated to Singapore while 6Snoopys (now his wife) remained at her Hong Kong job. There was a couple of times when he contacted me to hang out. I kept the face-to-face rendezvous to a minimal, and when we hang out, we returned to being buddies.

Once again, AL took me as a confidante and shared with me about the problems he faced. As I had predicted, AL had a tempestuous marriage with 6Snoopys. The major issues that cropped up repeated were precisely the ones that I had highlighted to AL in my desperate bid to stop his marriage. Their differences over the major issues spilled-over into other menial matters of daily life.

In the early 2000's, when I needed help with my move, I knew instantly who I could count on. I asked AL. He promised me that he would bring along a friend (who turned out to be another of our colleague). With my friends' help, I moved out successfully without any scene at home. I thanked him (and my other friends -- if my memory didn't fail me) over a meal.

I started turning my rented apartment into a home for me. There was lots of stuff to be done. Recognizing the physical limitations I faced given my petite size, AL kept asking me if I needed any help (especially with the lifting/carrying things home) and came over voluntarily to help set-up my home. To cut to the chase, AL once again gradually began acting more like a boyfriend and less like a platonic friend. Finally he took action and brought eros back into our relationship again. In public, he would be very careful and discreetly check that there was no familiar faces around before he even held my hands. In private, we went as far as being totally naked with each other, but without sexual intercourse -- not that I did not want to, but AL refused to because he did not want to take my virginity.

I questioned my own (lack of) morals -- in knowingly being with a married man. I was not proud of my actions, but back then I rationalized to myself that men had multiple wives in the not too distant past, so what we were doing then wasn't that much different. I was willing to play the "concubine" role. I thought, "So long as I am with the person that I loved, and we are both happy, what does it matter?" Yes, I was so madly and desperately in love.

Some months later, AL's wife 6Snoopys quit her job and joined AL in Singapore. For a while, AL went missing from my life. Then he re-surfaced with lots of complains about his life with 6Snoopys. I missed him badly, so I allowed our relationship to continue. However, sometimes when we were hanging out, 6Snoopys would text/call AL and he would return home to her soon/immediately. Initially I thought that I would not mind -- after all, I was only the "concubine" (albeit one who is financially independent). After a while, it happened more and more often, and I began to feel jealous that 6Snoopys almost always had priority over me. Given my brush with depression, I refused to let myself fall into jealousy again. I began reduce our time together by staying at work for long hours and giving AL crappy excuses of why I was not available to meet up. If and when we did meet-up, we still indulged in non-penetrative sexual activities -- but with more resistance from me, which required more persuasion from him.

Gradually, I decided that I would have to end this relationship someday -- "Just move on. Don't fight with another woman over a man". A birthday gift from AL seared into my mind that he was too wishy-washy to make a tough decision that would temporarily hurt any party involved, in exchange for the long-term happiness of any other party involved. Thus, if any of us (AL, 6Snoopys, and myself) were to regain happiness in life, it would have to be me breaking the triangle.

That "someday" came in the form of a trip to France where SMS won me over. [Ok, I am over-simplifying this. Nevertheless, SMS is a different love story and it would take too long to write about it here.] When I returned from France, I told AL that we were over. He asked for a final hug and kiss, for the memories. I stiffened up, crossed my arms in front of my chest and refused to let him hug or kiss me. He went away looking very sad -- I felt torn too, but I was determined to move on.

A love story - Part 8

Here are some other pieces from my recollection. I am sorry, I remember these events happened, but I cannot quite seem to recall when (year or month) they happened. That is the problem when one does not have any children or some milestones upon which to mark the passing of time. By "children", I mean I know of friends who remember the year of events because they remember how old their children were at that time.

Well, as you can see, despite my intelligence, I have a somewhat broken memory system. Haha!

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Part 8 - An overseas call and a walk in the forest

(A) An overseas call

During period before the millennium (1998 or 1999), I was recovering from depression. One day I emailed a greeting to all my friends. [I cannot remember what kind of greeting. It may have been a year-end greeting or something else.] Out of the blue, my mother answered a phone call one evening and insisted that I get to the phone. I gave my mother some bullshit that I was too tired and sleepy to answer the phone, she then insisted that I must answer it. She said (in Cantonese), "It is a man on the line. He said that it is an overseas call."

In those days, long-distance calls were very expensive. In my family, the attitude is that if someone is willing to pay the expensive long-distance phone bill, the call must be regarding something important, so one must not ignore the call. A man calling from overseas? I wondered if it was AL. Then I wondered if I should even answer the call -- I didn't have the guts to because I would not know what to say to him.

Finally after about a minute of hesitating and my mother harassing me to get to the phone, I got down from my upper bunk (I was the top-bunk on the double-bunk bed) and picked up the landline phone in the living room.

"Hello, this is SMS speaking. How are you?"

What a surprise! There was no reason for him to call me since I no longer worked at my second job. I was perplexed. Then I thought that maybe he needed some help/explanation on some work/technical stuff, as another staff from my ex-vendor ever called me for -- even months after I've left the job. No matter, I was just relieved that it was not AL on the line.

"Errrrrrr, I am ok", I replied with uncertainty.

"Oh, it is good to hear your voice. I was so worried. Your email sounds so sad," he said.

"Oh, is it?" I asked in surprise. I did not realize that I had sounded sad in my email. I thought that I was just sharing some of my general thoughts.

Then SMS went on to chat as per his usual self. And finally after about 10-20 minutes, we hung up. The interesting thing is, besides SMS, none of my other friends picked up on that sadness. Either that, or my other friends discreetly did not discuss the matter. Perhaps because SMS had gone through a divorce and an affair-that-turned-sour that he could pick up on the grief? I do not know. I only know that SMS seems to have a knack for reaching out to me and my hidden grief (even years down the road).

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(B) A walk in the forest

Somewhere along the way, before the millennium Late in 1999, AL had another short business trip to Singapore. [I was not working at that time, so it was before the millennium.] Once again, AL contacted me to hang out.

I think I had almost recovered from my depression at that time. In any case, I was on the recovery path. By then, I had another of those interesting paranormal experience. It turned around my desire to die.

Since I was planning to join a social group for a walk in the forest of one of the water catchment areas, I suggested to AL that he joined us. I was in two-minds about re-connecting with AL and decided it was best not to be with him on a one-to-one meet-up. AL asked if we could meet up in another setting. I do not recall what I told him, but I know that I somehow declined his request.

We met the group and I introduced AL as "a friend". AL had discreetly removed his wedding ring. I think the group had simply assumed that we were dating. AL was his usual thoughtful and caring self, although we chatted very little (unlike how we used to be) throughout the walk. The walk lasted several hours. Initially, I went ahead and hung out with the kids in the group, leaving AL to mingle with the other members of the group.

Then we met some darker/slippery stretches where AL once again held my hands with our fingers inter-twined. At some points, he released some of my fingers and re-twined our fingers, but with his middle finger pointing upwards, rubbing the tip of his middle finger upon the palm of my hand. He did it several times. I was a blur sotong -- I had no idea then that it was supposed to be a hand signal, probably for "sexual intercourse". I think I even asked him why he was "tickling" my hand. When we were near the end of the walk, exiting onto the road, he let go of my hand.

I don't remember if we had dinner together thereafter. But I know that I went home (i.e. my parents' home) that evening. I did not go to his hotel room.

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Recovering from depression was an interesting period. Somewhere along the way, I decided that I would do whatever that I had wanted to do since young.

E.g. I wanted to be a vegetarian since watching my chicken "friend" being slaughtered for a prayer sacrifice and a celebratory meal when I was a kindergarten kid. Thus, I became a vegetarian, albeit a "closet" one initially.

E.g. I always enjoyed drawing cartoons from young. Thus, I read the newspaper and spent some time drawing a cartoon daily or weekly. My mother was getting frustrated at this stay-at-home bum, nagging me, demanding why I was not looking for a job instead of wasting time reading the newspaper from cover-to-cover daily and drawing useless pictures. E.g. Once my mother was standing just outside the bedroom door fuming in silence, while I was drawing a cartoon on a makeshift table (i.e. in-bed breakfast tray) while seated on the floor. I turned around and shouted at her (in Cantonese), “莫吵啦！” ["Don't shout!"] She looked at me with a shocked and scared expression.

E.g. I knew at that time that I no longer wanted to be a career high-achiever. All I wanted was to be able to spend hours observing the world -- just like what I did as a child; watching rays of sunlight beaming through the air-well, the shadows on the wall dancing with each breeze blowing at the fallen leaves, at my paternal grandparents' Chinatown shophouse home.

[1990 or 1991. Air-well in the Chinatown shophouse, 

which I spent many of my childhood hours staring at]

I did not want to return to the Information Technology world before the millennium arrived. Too many of the I.T. jobs then were for the boring task of making systems safe for the millennium date transition. I decided that I might as well enjoy and celebrate the millennium, in case the millennium did bring the world to an end. I also made a promise to myself that if the world did not end with the millennium, I would save up enough money to have a roof of my own. Then I would rent out one room, and live my life as a frugal freelance artist (click here and here for related stuff).

[1989. 2 of the 4-page illustrated letter 

that I wrote to my then-BFF, 

which she subsequently displayed in her hostel room]

[1st-Jan-2000, My silhouette 

with the millennium sunrise as backdrop, 

East Coast Park, Singapore]

Canadian experience and qualifications

I met a fellow immigrant, let's call her JL, over brunch with a social group yesterday.

JL migrated from France about 2 years ago. She has worked as a Technical Marketing Manager in Metro Vancouver but has lost her job recently due to company restructuring. JL has several degrees (including an MBA) from European universities and lots of transferable skills. She has worked for MNCs and when she was based in Europe, she used to travel frequently to Asia for work. She speaks 3 languages fluently* (English, French and German).

*Note: By "fluently", I mean at almost native-speaker standard. I am not using the "discounted expectations" that Vancouverites often have when they complement foreigners (especially visible minority) as "fluent English speakers". This is the thing that PRCs in Metro Vancouver often do not understand. They are told by the ever-so-polite Canadians that their English is "good/excellent", even when they cannot understand the Canadian accent spoken at normal pace and vice versa (i.e. the Canadians have a tough time with the PRCs' Chinese/Mandarin-accented English). Thus, PRC immigrants have a tendency to complain of racism when they do not get a job, instead of recognizing a deficiency in their English language ability (especially spoken English). From my observation, the same is true of some Filipino immigrants who take pride in their "excellent" (but in reality, heavily Filipino-accented) English.

Over lunch, JL shared her frustration over the lack of progress in her job search. She has not had any success in finding an equivalent position as her previous job. Despite having many "informational interviews" with potential recruiters and having worked for a firm in Metro Vancouver, she is still advised (by the recruiters and others in-touch with the Canadian job-market) of the need for her to gain more "Canadian experience" and "Canadian qualifications". As JL puts it, when she looked at the course content of the short courses that some advised her to take, she felt that she knew enough and had enough related work experience to be the instructor at those courses. So JL felt that she was up against a wall -- one that prized Canadian experience and qualifications, and did not value the non-Canadian equivalent.

IMHO, PRCs who complain about racism in their Canadian job search should talk to people like JL. JL is a French/German Caucasian -- as "white" as they come. Yet she faces the same issues in her job search as the PRC immigrants. However, from my observations, many (although not all) PRC immigrants tend to cluster amongst their own kind and reinforce each other's perceived experience of "anti-Chinese" racism. Some of them even tried to convince me of this "anti-Chinese" racism, but I usually don't pay heed to their ill-informed conclusions. Note: JL is not the only Caucasian whom I've met who faced such job search issues.

I shared with JL that her experience was not unique. I offered to link her up with some friends (and I did), but frankly I don't know how much luck JL would have with her job search, ceteris paribus (i.e. keeping everything else the same). The norm here is indeed "the Canadian way, or the highway".

My point here is that "Skilled Worker" immigrants to Canada should be aware of this Canadian norm. Of course, not everyone would face such problems -- some lucky folks did land on professional jobs equivalent to their previous professions quite quickly. However, I have heard/met enough immigrants who aren't so lucky to know that it is something that a potential immigrant should consider in his/her S.W.O.T. analysis before coming to Canada.

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If you should find yourself in JL's position -- being an immigrant in Metro Vancouver, Canada, or having lost a job due to no fault of your own -- here are some links that might be of use to you.

Employment Insurance

If you lost your job due to company restructuring or other valid reasons, you're probably eligible to claim EI benefits. It is important to apply ASAP (as soon as possible), and not wait until you need the money. I have a friend who had some difficulty with the paperwork because she had delayed her application for EI benefits. Fortunately, she settled it and received her EI benefits in the end. The Canadian Bar Association (B.C.) website gives a good overview with links to Services Canada for the actual details.

http://www.cba.org/bc/public_media/employment/282.aspx

Skills Connect

The federal government funds this program to provide career counselling and some funds to new immigrants to obtain Canadian jobs equivalent to their previous profession. There are various groups that handle this. I applied through MOSAIC at Grant Street (along Commercial Drive), Vancouver. My case is now closed since I have spent the entire budget on nursing related courses. The amount is not much ($1,500 or $2,300 depending on one's previous industry), but some "free money" is still good. In addition, one can get one's English assessed for free through them, so that one can have a Canadian paper showing one's fluency in Canadian English. Note: Those born-and-educated in Singapore are viewed as fluent in English and therefore not required to undergo the Canadian English assessment.

http://www.skillsconnect.ca/

Foreign Credential Recognition Loan

The S.U.C.C.E.S.S. B.C. Richmond office runs this project, which is funded by the government (I am not sure if it is funded at the federal or provincial level). The idea is to provide financial support to Internationally Trained Professionals as they go about getting employment in their field in Canada. One can obtain a low-interest rate loan ranging from $500 to $15,000 for training, exams, qualification accreditation/assessments, joining professional associations, books or study materials, and living allowance. Note: IMHO, applicants should exercise financial self-discipline with the loan granted. I am aware of someone who utilized the loan granted to him for unrelated purposes and then finding himself back in a "financially broke" situation.

http://www.successbc.ca/eng/component/option,com_mtree/task,viewlink/link_id,1222/

BCIT International Credential Evaluation Service (ICES)
Quote from their website: "ICES evaluates formal for-credit educational programs of study for people who have studied in other provinces or countries and determines comparable levels in British Columbian and Canadian terms. The results of an ICES assessment are provided in evaluation reports that are objective, consistent, and reliable."
Note: Fees are applicable for the above service. The fee charged depends on the evaluation needed to be done.
http://www.bcit.ca/ices/

[Addendum on 27-Jul-2012: A friend mentioned this program to me.]
YWCA Metro Vancouver Mentorship Program for Women
You do not have to be a Christian to join the program. In fact, both the YMCA and YWCA in Metro Vancouver are social organizations, not religious ones. Quote from the YWCA website: "This free mentoring program for women in Vancouver connects professional female mentors with unemployed women aged 19 and over who are entering or re-entering professional or skilled careers. Mentees come from a variety of backgrounds. They are women who are starting their careers, returning to the workforce or newly entering the Canadian job market."
http://www.ywcavan.org/content/Connect_to_Success_Mentorship_Program/343

A love story - Part 7

Writing about my life brings up an interesting observation about the way memory works. It is not sequential. Often what is remembered vividly are stuff that carry strong emotional links. From there, related memories slowly trickle back.

So yes, I missed out on something that chronologically speaking should belong to Part 6. I will share it here instead.

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Part 7 - Mr SMS intervenes

Some background information: This is the same Mr SMS whom I mentioned on LIFT's blog entry "Jessica's story". First off, let's drop off the honorific and call him SMS. We call each other by first name. Despite the differences in our background, I consider SMS my peer -- i.e. my equal. I got to know SMS through my 2nd job, he was based in Europe, working with the vendor managing/monitoring networks, while I was based in Singapore as the second-level regional technical support. Whenever there is a issue with a bank (our clients) in Singapore (and sometimes in the region), I would get a page from SMS or his colleagues to attend to the issue. [Yeah, those were the days when paging was commonplace, only big bosses like Directors or Chief-whatever-Officer would carry mobile phones.]

In late 1990's, after my final work-trip to Hong Kong, not long after his marriage, AL came to Singapore on a short work-trip. He contacted me and we met up for dinner after work. As before when we were office buddies, we had so much to share and talk about that we continued on past midnight without realizing the elapsed time (I think it was around 1+am). Then AL suggested that I stay over at his hotel room -- we were chatting over drinks at one of the hotel's restaurants -- instead of heading home.

When we got to his hotel room, we started were kissing and caressing each other, but this time AL paused and did not undress either of us. I was disappointed, things have changed, we could not go on as before. Thus, I went out to the balcony to have a breath of air, to break away from his presence for a while to cool down. I sat on the balcony looking down at the tiny cars running around in the night below -- that's how I take my mind off things; don't think, just switch to "observation" mode. AL watched over me from inside the room. After a while, he repeatedly persuaded me to get away from the cold night air and return to the room. He even came to the balcony to get me. I thought (and still think) that he was worried that I would jump -- and what an awful mess that would be. Anyway, I suggested that perhaps I should call for a taxi and head home, but AL persuaded me to stay for the night. We slept on the double bed. Nothing happened between us.

The next day was a weekend. I was about to leave for home when suddenly AL decided to make out again. Given my disappointment the night before, I resisted somewhat initially, but he was determined. His eyes betrayed his desire as he kissed and caressed me with fervour. Then I thought, "This might be the last time that we ever meet, so what the heck, let's go all the way." I proceeded to take off his top and he took off mine. We were about to proceed further when suddenly my work pager beeped.

I put on my clothes, checked with AL, and returned the page by calling the network monitoring centre. SMS was on-duty. Instead of coming straight to the point about what was to be done, SMS chatted with me over nothing of consequence -- about his growing up experiences, his swimming abilities and medals, etc. I found it awkward to interrupt him or to hang up since he sounded so happy and excited reminiscing his experiences, so I listened for about 5-10 minutes before asking, "So SMS, why did you page me? Is there a problem at any bank?"

SMS replied negative, he just called to chat. At which point, I told him abruptly, "I have to go, I have something to attend to" and hung up.

I turned my attention back to AL. He was fully dressed again. He had changed his mind.

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Years later, when SMS and I were dating, I asked him about that page and phone call. Why did he page me out of the blue? SMS told me that he was bored as he was the only one on-duty for that graveyard shift. He decided to chat with someone in Asia (since it was daytime in Asia) and our international calls were toll-free given the company's leased line subscription. There were 2 persons from Asia that SMS especially enjoyed chatting with -- I was one, and the other was a lady at the Call Centre Help-desk (i.e. 1st-level support). Since the Help-desk was not working on a weekend, whereas the 2nd-level support was on-call 24x7, he decided to page me for a chat.