Eve of New Year's Eve....

Despite my stuffed nose and nasal speech, I did not let my post-assignments-break go to waste. In fact, I just had the ball of a time today. Nellie (who was on a post-rotation leave) and I yakked away for about 3 hours +++ this afternoon! Over Taiwanese fast-food and pearl-milk tea.

Uh-huh. We were mostly discussing girlie-wurlie stuff (we screamed with laughter at the most random times too), so I shan't bore you with the details. But I must assure you, my dear readers - it was therapeutic!

Driving back home, I was listening to one of Michael Nyman's (an English composer of minimalist music) albums... trying to determine what is it exactly in his music that evokes different ranges of emotions in people. The tune was basically the same in most of the tracks on the album - but because it was played differently using different instruments, tempo, chord patterns or modulations - each song had a different feel to it - and made me imagine a great many different things.

It reminded me... how important it is to use tact in words when motivating a person to grow. Affirming one's strengths is more important than harshly putting down the person for his/her weaknesses. Ultimately, an encouraged person seeks ways to grow himself/herself...