Counting blessings

After a long hiatus, ramblings...

2011-01-24T14:06:00.005+08:00

Well, well, well blogs seem a tad bit out of fashion now but just in case pple still pop by occasionally thought i'd update it for fun.

Let's start by recapping..

2010 saw the end of my employment after 4+ of service. My illness (wilson's disease) has affected me in some way i guess but i take it as part and parcel of life.

Well, i did have suicidal thoughts at one pt when i was depressed in 09 tried to jump but something held me back. Probably God and His angels. It's a very scary process to want to die. i dun know how to explain it but when one's depressed things just seem to go wrong. u feel useless and unworthy in every way.

Was admitted into IMH for being hyper (manic) they call it. Often after a long phase of depression it happens. it's funny when one's hyper they feel invincible nothing scares them and they r often oblivious to other pple's feelings. at least i was. stepped on quite a few toes at that phase. to all whom i may hv offended unknowingly, i truly apologise.

i dont know the cause of it, it could have been a spiritual attack, or it could hv been a manifestation of my wilson's disease. who knows? i dun... i guess the impt thing is that God has blessed me with a very supportive husband. Not forgetting good family support. loving parents and sister as well as my in-laws. i'm truly blessed...

pple often viewed me as a very strong girl but really i'm very weak. i guess that's why God can give me strength. i used to be quite 'capable' and to suddenly be 'useless' it was difficult. many pple often ask 'why God?' i prefer to ask 'what r u teaching me Lord?'

i realise that in life u meet all sorts of pple and God in His magnity has made really a vast number of types of pple. some u can just click with there n then, others u just cant stand. i've learnt that u can never change another person so how do i cope? i instead try to change my perspective. if i look at things fr a broader perspective they r all just fellow human beings co-existing in this temporary world.

and then God's commandment of asking us to love our enemies becomes so clear. in life we hv few friends whom we can really count on. i hv less than 5 super close friends whom i have somewhat neglected after falling ill. (sorry girls u know who u r) but pple i dislike or disapprove of their behaviours i hv plenty. now they may be friends or aquaintances but it's always easier to dislike or disapprove than to like i feel.

and i guess one has to then exercise a lot of wisdom in knowing how to behave around these not too likeable pple. or i can choose the easier option of cutting them oout fr my life. hmmm... human relations r so difficult. pple tend to hv double standards and i guess that's why the Bible's wise in saying, to look at the plank in ur own eye b4 looking at the speck in another's. i'm often guilty of the latter and it's a constant struggle to live my life in a holy and blameless way.

thank God for His love and His protection. sometimes i think it's great to be a bit dumb (like me) and be oblivious to the things around. when u dun notice things then u wun get hurt so much. think that's how i got thru my primarysch life. without any friends. other girls had clicks i was always the lone ranger (the strict one who abided by all the sch rules) made quite a few enemies i believe by being a prefect all the years possible cos to me a rule is to be abided by not broken.

i've certainly mellowed over the years but in many cases one's first impression is hard to shake. hence my friendless life continued until sec 3 when i finally got close to my friend magdalene. she used to find me v annoying in pri sch but now we're still firm friends. a little tougher to keep in touch now that we've grown up but still gd friends. thanks for ur friendship maggie!

also only had one good friend from jc casey whom we try to catch up once a year or twice when we're lucky. but it's the kinda friendship whereby u can meet after a loooong time and still hv tonnes to say and fully enjoy each other's company.

in uni i thank God for winnie who i happened to sit next to one public relations lesson and voila we hit it off. she's really pretty and very tall and had a very 'dau' air abt her at first but being a trained 'E type personality we got talking. she's another really good friend who i know cares abt me and i abt her.

at work there was angela... an unlikely pairing considering she was so much older than me and has a very intimidating stance. she's a real softie and it's so nice being able to count on her for her support and her love. thanks dear!

there r a few more close friends but these are the four that i truly treasure and know i can always count on.... God really provides my NEEDs huh? one good friend for every maj phase. =)

last but not least there's my closest friend my husband. who's always so wonderfully supportive and patient with me. who is such a funny guy and makes me laugh. who loves me unconditionally and was my pillar of strength when i was ill. who supports me financially as i'm not ready to face the working world as yet. thanku my dearest xiang for being there for me all this time.

i truly thank God for everything that has happened to me. as it implies Genesis (Joseph's story) what the world meant for evil God meant for good.

Praise God for His glorious ways which are way above my ways. I do not know what the future holds but i know that i'm safe in His hands. and i thank God for loved ones who will walk it with me. =) Glory be to God always.

time to start counting blessings once again

2010-04-13T15:38:00.002+08:00

ithankGod4...

1. a wonderful hubby who slogs away at work to yang wo...
2. providing for our family
3. wonderful and caring and super duper doting parents
4. my nice lil hdb flat which i fail to clean
5. being a frugal taitai
6. the experience of working in a big charity
7. for the releasing from the comfy job
8. a brand new chapter
9. $6.50 weekday movies and dad's senior citizen movies
10. brains to be able to enjoy life
11. my ability to take decent photographs and get a kick out of it
12. freedom to worship Him in Sg
13. my cell group who r growing up some more than others but at least they're growing
14. the opportunity to work alongside 7 other great pple in my youth comm in church
15. the ability to be in the church board fr a very tender age of 23/24
16. loving me just as i am
17. my stint at imh which taught me countless life lessons
18. for disciplining me cos He only disciplines those whom He loves
19. an eye for beauty and the not so beautiful
20. teaching me not to take life so seriously
21. for keeping me alive
22. placing me where i am at right now at this juncture in life
23. having no idea abt tomorrow for tomorrow will bring its own problems and joys
24. an optimistic nature
25. good friends who've stuck by me when i was down and depressed
26. old friends who i've lost contact with but thru fb am regaining back
27. for His great and wonderful grace that no one can ever take away fr me
28. His peace and joy
29. humour.. i find many things funny and am easily tickled
30. for u for having read my thanksgivings and sharing my life with me... =)

what does one do in life?

2010-04-10T08:59:00.002+08:00

have been pondering over the above question for quie a while now. especially since i haven't got a job anymore.

i find myself forgetting my purpose in life and that being to praise and worship God. To share His word with all i know.

it's so easy to forget. when one is unemployed it's even easier to forget these things because really one gets lazy when one wakes up in the morning with no job...

i tell pple that i'm now gainfully unemployed. it's funny to take a break after slogging for almost five years consecutive. i guess God just wanted me to rest. really rest...

A new beginning

2010-04-01T23:00:00.001+08:00

1st April 2010

Thank you Lord for this new beginning!

A brand new chapter just for u my dear Lord... Just for you... =)

I am not mad

2010-03-29T18:14:00.002+08:00

I despise the way pple look at me...

I despise the way my own father looks at me...

I despise the pity I see in his eyes...

That is why i thank God for God. there's no one else that understands me like my Lord does.

Dear Lord, please deliver me from this ache in my heart... =) i love You Lord! =)

I praise You for i'm fearfully n wonderfully made...

Help me dear Lord!

grant me the serenity to accept the things i cannot change, courage to change the things i can and wisdom to know the difference...

love,
emay

Help is rarely taken when freely given

2010-03-20T10:29:00.002+08:00

Hey all,

I'm beginning to wonder what's wrong with everyone else i this world. or maybe the problem lies with me?

Is there no such thing as a free lunch? i say the only free lunch is the gift of salvation thru Jesus Christ. =)

=) =) =)

Did i mention how mmuch I love Singapore? Pple say that we are fast-paced, i say that you don't know how to pace urself. Nobody pointed a gun to ur head asking u to be fast-paced. I think it's up to everyone's personal choice. All of us have a choice to make. Even the littlest of things. Like whether to wake up already, or to sleep in for just another 5 min.

In life we mmust be very careful in making the right choices. then there are those that say that there's no right or wrong choice, only a choice. If that's how u wanna look at it, it's fine by me. However, what I can say is that I know when I do certain things there is a right and wrong. Just look at the entire Jack Neo scandal... why r pple so scandalised? cos there is a moral conscienceness. What makes it even worse is that he is a self-professsed Christian? Why is it that pple are so disillusioned with Christians? Why do pple keep complaining that 'U call urself a Christian?'

that's why I am so picky abt how I live my life. So that I can dare to call myself a Christian. To bear the Lord's name isn't easy in the least. That's how i feel anyway. some say that it's not easy to be a Christian. yeah i agree with that 100%. It's not easy and that'a why God gave us the Holy Spirit to help and guide us. =)

Now you are free to hv ur own views. but this is mine. in life there is only one absolute and that is God. He sent His Son down to die for us and He paid the price for our sins. Now that's the only free lunch in this world... even then if u think abt it, someone did pay the price and that is Jesus.

So now, u go ahead and lead ur life the way u want to 9said in the gentlest of tones) and i'll go ahead and live mine. Just the way i want to.. Just that before i think i'll always ask myself WWJD. =0) Long live Christ the King! =)

Praise The Lord

2009-12-30T08:00:00.003+08:00

What the world meant for evil, God meant for good!

Exodus 50:20

"You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives."

Amen? Amen!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love u all! Thanks for stopping by to read my blog! I thank God for everyone of you! I really do! I may not know you but God knows u ya? Leave me a msg posting or comment if you'd like! I'm more than happy to reply any questions u might have.(no guarantee when I'll reply but I'll do my best okay?)

I may not have the answers to all your questions, but i think i do have a pretty okay grasp of life thanks to God! and even if I don't, somebody i know will... and i can help in whatever way you'd like... (no sex, no drugs, nothing against the teaching of God though... I'm not that kinda gal.)

To God be the glory! =)

everything happens for a reason... =)

2009-12-10T07:00:00.001+08:00

There's gonna be a revival!

2009-12-10T06:58:00.000+08:00

It's a miracle!

2009-12-08T23:30:00.002+08:00

The old has gone, the new has come

2009-12-07T08:37:00.002+08:00

Not sure how many of you still check my blog. But I'm back!

God is totally awesome.

I thank God for...

These past 8 months.

It was such a trying time for me and for my family.

But it's time to move on. Time to come home. =)

Happily ever after

2009-03-21T18:01:00.000+08:00

Today Yi Xiang and I witnessed our friends Uncle Jerry and Linda renew their wedding vows. Uncle Jerry planned the whole thing as a surprise for Auntie Linda. It was so sweet...

It's been about two and a half months since i married the man of my dreams and more. I love married life and I thank God for such a wonderful husband. =)

*muakz darling* (cheche rolls her eyeballs) heehee

the passing on of my sam suk

2009-02-16T16:11:00.002+08:00

Dearest Sam Suk,

Never got to speak to you much lately... But i love you and miss you.

I miss the times when you used to join us for reunion dinner...

I miss your laugh and the way your eyes will crinkle up when you smile. =)

I thank God you came for my wedding.. and got to be there on my happiest day.

Sadly just abt a month later you've left us so suddenly.

May Yew Wai grow up to be a filial son to sarm sarm and be a man you'd be proud of. I'll be there for him as an older cousin... =)

Missing u so much... :~(

Hope you accepted Jesus cos then one day we'll meet again and this parting would be but temporal!

I thank God for you and that you are my uncle. Love you always...

my first chinese dinner!

2009-02-12T22:10:00.002+08:00

i did it! i cooked my first chinese meal today!

Hehee..

1. oyster sauce brocolli with enoki mushrooms.

2. soup with crabstick, pork balls and egg with fish sauce

3. this one i just fried... bought $4 of shao rou

will post pictures when yi xiang finished using the camera...

nvm... it's late. another day then!

the point is i cooked!

on MC

2009-02-06T09:58:00.002+08:00

I've got sore eyes. So i was made to stay home. Positive side is i that i get to rest and spend time with my daddy. negative side is that i was just getting into the groove at work.

oh well, may make a few calls from home to settle an article i need to write by mon.

=)

3 plus 1 is 23

2009-01-28T15:43:00.002+08:00

Yi Xiang used to visit just 3 houses during CNY. Maximum maybe 4. After he married me (hence, the plus 1) we've visited 21 places so far. one more today and another on sunday. =)

Now why do i like cny visiting? Now, in the past when i was little i used to love cny for the same reason many kids did. the food, family, and of cos the ang pows. it was a joy to always gather all my ang pows at the end of visitations, and count my keep. =)

Thus, i've always loved cny. It's a wonderful time for me to meet up with my many uncles and aunties and cousins, nephews and nieces.

So when people look pitifully at me and say 'Orh! this year must give ang pow!" i always reply in sheer honesty, that i find it a joy to be able to give ang pows. cos i remember the joy of receiving. i even chose specially cute ang pows from hong kong. =)

So yes, yi xiang looked exhausted by the end of the first day, poor boy. but i'm very thankful for a sweet and understanding husband who doesn't understand a smidgen of teochew who followed me to visit all my uncles and aunties.

and also, whenever anyone wishes me zao shen gui zi, i receive in joy but i have only one hope and that is that my child or children, will grow up to be G0d-fearing men or women or both, who will love Jesus with all their hearts, soul and mind.

Blessed Chinese New Year everyone. May you be a blessing to all you meet. =)

I'm Mrs Lye!

2009-01-23T22:24:00.000+08:00

woohoo!!! been Mrs Lye for 13 days! cool!

Tomorrow is coming!

2009-01-09T07:22:00.001+08:00

Praise God! He restored my laptop and I managed to back up all my years of photos and data.

=)

I'll be getting my make up done at this very minute tomorrow morning!

*excited*

8 more days!!!

2009-01-02T11:30:00.000+08:00

11 days more!

2008-12-30T08:22:00.000+08:00

*beams*

less than two weeks more

2008-12-28T06:38:00.001+08:00

i'm getting terribly excited about my marriage. =)

It'll be fun!!!!

I had the loveliest Bridal Shower

2008-12-20T22:33:00.003+08:00

I thank God for such an amazing sister and close friend who organised in my view, the best and loveliest Bridal Shower a girl could ever have.

Thank you so much God for my cheche and lingy! =) You're the best in giving me the best dear Jesus!

I also wanna thank all of you who came and made it such a fun, amusing and memorable day for me. I think it was one of my best days of 2008! =) Maybe even the best! =)

Thank you...

Alicia and Jieyi for the yummy chocolate cake! it was such a lovely and thoughtful surprise! =)

Ah ger cheche for the pretty and delicious cupcakes! =)

Nicole for the little gift.. it's now sitting on my dressing table... And of cos for coming! (it's a good thing the last pl we met at was beppu huh? heehee)

Melissa for helping set up the place and i heard you helped cut the pizza too! =) Thanks so much for pointing out that one point that everyone else missed out during the third role play! shows u paid attention! =)

Qing for helping write on the tea set (which i absolutely adore!) and for dressing up so prettily with pretty umbrella, hat and bunny in tow! =)

Rhoda for being so sporting in your role... heehee... thanks also for snapping pictures! must upload on facebook and tag me in all of them even if i'm not in them ok? so that i have all my bridal shower pictures!

Deborah, sorry i didn't know your fav colour! You are a big girl now! didnt get lost! =) thanks for coming down immediately after your lesson.

Eliza for admiring my house and noticing that i placed your Christmas present for me in my bookshelf! And for not asking any difficult questions! Heehee!

Jiahui for asking me an easy question... =) and for the wonderful expressions u gave that were immortalised on camera! hehee...

Crystal for reminding me I should be a good role model for all of u.. so know that i made a mistake at 15 and u don't want to make the same mistake even though most of you are already older... And for laughing so merrily and easily, making the atmosphere so happy!

Ashley for enjoying the food as much as i did.. and we will have one more mentee mentor session before u fly... maybe even two ya? =) and for NOT buying me a keychain from australia... haha...

Last but not least... huifen.. for offering the close door personal chat! and for knowing how to ask the right questions to trigger my memory.

Oh and everyone, the answer for the 2nd part of lingy's first question written for me, i think after pondering my answer is 'not me'.

So once again i had absolutely wonderful bridal shower...

Christmas wish list

2008-12-14T00:22:00.004+08:00

Hello hello, to make life easier for u

to avoid duplicate of gifts, kindly msg me if you're getting me a particular gift of my choice so that i can strike it out to prevent others from buyin the same thing (if it's in red, it's been taken.)

1. Big Paper puncher with the measuring thing so that i don't need to fold the paper to get the paper centralised. Colour, pink or blue

2. A nice set of permanent marker pens

3. Kinokuniya vouchers (no need to inform me)

4. Borders gift card (no need to inform me)

5. good hair brush

6. Those good suction on the wall kinda hooks - good for hanging dish cloths and stuff

7. Body shop vouchers if it exists (no need to inform me)

8. Golden village vouchers (no need to inform me)

9. Love Actually DVD - reserved by a friend already! =) Thanks dear!

Thanks all... anyway, if you think of anything else you'd rather get me, be my guest.. though the stuff i listed above will really help me. =)

Night all...

It's all driven by love

2008-12-09T12:24:00.002+08:00

I've slept only abt 3 hours in the last 54hours.

It's all driven by love.

Just got back from my church's youth retreat.

I thank God for

a) every single person who came

1. Ling
2. Qing
3. Seb
4. Mervin
5. Eliza
6. My cheche
7. Melissa
8. Rhoda
9. Crystal
10. Ashley
11. Alicia
12. Jieyun
13. Nicholas
14. Deborah
15. Zheng Long
16. Xiang
17. Wayne (dropped by)
18. Cheow Sheng (dropped by)
19. Huifen (dropped by)

A big word of thanks to God! All glory goes to Him.

He was indeed the one who helped the planning team through and watched over all of us at the retreat. =)

We were reminded to always ask ourselves, WWJD.

I'm so proud of all 14 retreaters (not campers cos not camp!) who cross stitched their own wwjd bookmarks! I was really touched that all of them tried their best and persevered into the wee hours of the morning to complete their bookmarks. Well done everyone. May it always be a reminder of the wonderful time we had and to always ask ourselves, What Would Jesus Do. =)

Lunch time.. then i'm off to bed... =) =) =)

I thank God for my loved ones

2008-11-12T08:19:00.003+08:00

It's been getting a wee bit stressful of late with all the wedding preparations.

I take my hat off to those who organise events on a regular basis. The amount of planning that's involved can be really overwhelming at times.

However, I thank God for my parents and my sister who have been really supportive and been such a blessing to me of late.

Don't know what I'd do without them...

Wedding photos have been shot and collected. But won't be putting them up here or on facebook till after the wedding. Otherwise no surprise liao right? Heehee...

Alrightey, please pray for my cell members who are finishing up with their O levels and one's doing his A levels.

gastric

2008-11-04T20:40:00.002+08:00

Hey everyone...

yes, had gastric today. don't know what's wrong but i thank God for a good supervisor who let me leave work an hour early to rest today.

Feel better now that i've taken the right medication. Initially thought it was food poisoning so took a diff medication which left me in pain the entire afternoon.

Anyway, i was pia-ing through my work with the nagging pain that was eating my tummy, then suddenly my excel went kapoot! and i hadn't clicked save yet, so the document i spent about 2 and a half hours on went back to blank.

oh well, i thank God i wasnt upset and decided to take my manager's offer to leave work early. as a result i didn't get drenched in the heavy downpour which took place at my usual reaching home time.

also thank God that my friend whom i was supposed to meet for dinner was so nice and understanding as to postpone our appt. as it turned out she wasn't feeling too good either. so it was nice to know she was going to make the effort to come and meet me despite her not feeling too well. =)

so if you're reading this, please pray for me to recover fully cos work's piling up and lots of wedding stuff to prepare for and church christmas and youth programmes to run...

=) have a beautiful morning, afternoon and evening (whenever you read this..) =)

Wedding photo shoot check

2008-11-03T05:46:00.002+08:00

Dear All,

How has everyone been?

I've been really busy of late and thus the lack the blogging.

Went for my bridal photo shoot on Sat. It was quite fun. Hope the shots turn out great but even if it doesn't, i must say my husband-to-be looked very shuai in his suit and with his hair nicely styled up. =) =) =)

Happy bride... to-be!

It's in about two months!

Wow... scary... exciting... exhilirating... all rolled into one! lol...

kk... gotta go get ready for work.

have a blessed week everyone!

Thank you God!

2008-09-30T08:35:00.002+08:00

Thank you God for helping me solve my problem at work!

thank u for the gift God

2008-09-25T21:32:00.001+08:00

ok, for those of you who know abt the fluff friends in facebook,

I had a rough and tiring day, so as i was treasure hunting i told myself, how nice it'd be if God could encourage me by letting me find a ya-rubly.

and ta-da!!!!!

my 217th gem!

God has a nice way for brightening up my day! praise God for cheering me up and for reassuring me He knows my every thought... =)

God is watching over me

2008-09-25T20:50:00.002+08:00

i thank God for...

1. helping me through my staff appraisal today
2. a colleague who's now a friend
3. a cell group i can sms to ask for prayer
4. letting the plant i gave my mummy have a flower bloom today
5. for her sms to tell me so
6. a caring boss and supervisor
7. encouraging me
8. being there for me in a seemingly uncertain situation at work

can't seem to solve an issue at work. if you're reading this, please pray that it can be resolved tomorrow!

thanks for praying! =) i thank God for you!

praise God for a sound sleep

2008-09-25T08:21:00.002+08:00

this past week or so i've been waking up in the middle of the night at abt 3plus or 4plus in the morning to use the bathroom.

in the past when this happened, the moment i returned to my bed and my head hit the pillow, i'd fall promptly back to sleep.

this past week however, i haven't been able to get back to sleep, so it was a little frustrating and tiring for me. but i thank God cos last night i was able to sleep through. i actually woke up at 1plus to use the bathroom, and i was thinking, oh no! Dear God pls help me to fall asleep easily. and i did! praise Him for a good rest. plus i'm lunching out with colleagues today so i didn't have to prepare my salad for lunch so had a nice and relaxing morning.

=) had some cramps in the middle of the night and was still about to sleep after that. so it's pretty amazing how God answered my prayers. He soothed out my leg, back and shoulder cramps pretty fast.

have a blessed day everyone!

sweet note

2008-09-24T21:03:00.000+08:00

i thank God for

Crystal... she's so sweet!

thanks for tagging my dear! =)

time is flying by!

2008-09-24T08:26:00.002+08:00

hey everyone,

it's been some time since i've blogged. a month and 6 days to be exact.

i thank God for

1. my wonderful family whom i'm sooooo gonna miss when i get married. yes i'm still their daughter and sister but it's not the same!
2. my wonderful fiance whom i'll be married to in less than 4 months who'll comfort me and be there for me as i deal with the separation from my family
3. my cell group and all my cell members who've been coming so faithfully for cell and for being such a swell bunch!
4. a brand new day
5. holding the rain out and letting it only pour the moment i stepped into shelter. could hear it literally get way heavier just behind me as i stepped underneath shelter. =)
6. a new wedding coordinator at raffles town club who seems very nice and helpful thus far
7. a fun teambuilding session last friday with my department at work
8. helping me in all that i do and loving me just the way i am

Every step I take I take in You

2008-08-18T08:07:00.004+08:00

Every step I take I take in You Jesus!

I was very troubled since Friday due to some work-related events. And yet deep down a small voice kept saying, have no fear. Why are you so scared Emay? There's nothing to be scared or worried about for Jesus is with You.

This morning I thank God for opening my eyes to see that He is indeed with me. So although my problem at work is not resolved, I'm so thankful that I can go into my week, knowing that my Lord will not forsake make and will carry me through this.

I can smile and praise Him for He knows my thoughts and He's the awesome creator. If He can create something as lovely as a little bird, and think of how to make a little bird a bird, then He can definitely know how to make everything according to His plan and purposes in my life.

Laying it all down at His feet and surrendering it all to Him, sets me free. Interesting how when you surrender to anyone else, you're a captive. but to surrender to Jesus makes one free. Free of worries and a heavy burden. He doesn't cast me away because of my imperfection, but He's moulding me for His purposes and plans.

He who began a good work in me will be faithful to complete it. =)

Praise God for a brand new day.

Praise God for life.

Praise God for my family and for Xiang.

Praise God for placing joy in my heart despite a difficult situation at work.

Praise God for Singapore's silver medal in table tennis.

Praise God for allowing me to see 5 of my cell members be baptised and my mentee be baptised. And a childhood church friend be baptised. =) As they shared their testimonies, it was so lovely a reminder to see how God has worked in all their lives. =)

Praise God for a few church friends I've been working with to serve the Youths in our church.

Praise God for my church!!!!! =)

Praise God for my Pastor

Praise God for you! Cos you came to read a bit about my life. So I thank God for you too! =)

Have a blessed week ahead!

4 months and 4 weeks more!

2008-08-13T13:28:00.003+08:00

It's only 4 months and 4 weeks more to my wedding! Time seems to just be zipping by. Have quite a few things I've yet to settle. Must settle them soon.

Anyway, just thought I'm due for a counting blessings session...

I thank God for...

A brand new day
Letting me develop a liking for the salads i've been making for lunch
My new cell members, Crystal, Jiahui and Alicia
My exiting cell members for being so great while they were in my cell, Ling, Seb and Wayne
This Sunday's baptism! Quite a few of them are taking the step to be baptised! Praise God!
Dinner with my childhood friend, Samantha. She's so nice and bubbly... So glad I got to catch up with her yesterday.
Stopping the rain in the evening yesterday as I needed to buy some stuff for an event at work from Bras Basah. Upong reaching City hall, it was pouring! But shortly after, the rain stopped! =)
Had some fun times watching the olympics with my family. Daddy's really into weightlifting. those weightlifters are really amazing!
Being able to celebrate my 5th year with yi xiang. =) =) =)
Finally catching Batman. Thought it was a good movie but awfully depressing. The cast was great.
My sleeping panda on facebook! =) for those of you who don't fluff on facebook wouldn't know what i'm talking abt. ignore me... but i'm thrilled abt it!
Renovations going smoothly
Letting xiang choose nice lights for our home
My new DS game as a gift from xiang... altho i'm terrible at it... was never good at mario.. lol...
My long belated dinner appts coming up soon with two good friends... hopefully they materialise! =)

Yeah... so there are always things to thank God for. If you're having a bad day, week or month, just know that our Creator is watching over you. =)

Praise God

2008-07-22T20:56:00.002+08:00

I thank God for...

1. A day's rest of MC as I was feeling fluey this morning.

2. Helping me finish some tasks for the church board.

3. Helping me plan for my chapel session this Thu.

4. Renovations having started. though the bill seems to be growing, I just pray that all the work will be done well and that I'll always just look on the brighter side of things.

5. Caring parents who are constantly planning for my wedding.

6. My church youth who were super nice and understanding about Sunday's laser quest outing. Think other youths would have been complaining and griping but all of them seemed to understand that it was beyond our control. so nice of them... thank God for each of them.

7. Being able to sleep soon! yay!!! bed time!

A beautiful day

2008-07-19T20:27:00.002+08:00

I thank God for the lovely day I've just had...

Had quite a fun tuition session teaching my boy about Man and the Environment. =)

Then grabbed a free shuttle to Chinatown, praise God for making it in time for the earlier shuttle.

Wanted to watch Red Cliff or Batman at Vivo but the furthest back i could get was second row from the front. so that was out of the question for such action heavy shows.

initially was a little bit bummed by a day's plan ruined, but the afternoon flew by at a relaxed pace with lunch, then just walking around with xiang. have really missed him these last few weeks with him being so busy with work.

so I guess God knew best and allowed for us to spend quality time chit chatting and stuff. =)

then i came home and while xiang surfed his fish sites occasionally asking me to see a fish now and then (altho some were awfully scary looking to me!), i managed to make my room look decent again. when i'm stressed, i become an absolute slob at home. lol... plus with new house stuff being stored in my room now, it looked esp cluttered. so every possible clearable surface has been cleared, and i'm now feeling very accomplished and satisfied.

thank God for the beautiful day. =)

Peace

2008-07-16T13:28:00.002+08:00

It's been quite a trying time of late. What with the renovation decisions, last minute change of wedding day plans and now the hdb loan repayment.

Sat i went for lunch with xiang's family and there was a small waterfall-like feature at the place we were eating. And since I was early i was just standing there, staring at it. And i remembered a beautiful picture was painted to me in an email.

Peace can't be depicted by a serene quiet lake. Peace is more aptly depicted when it's of a mother bird sitting on her nest behind a waterfall. While all the water's gushing around her, she's simply sitting there, totally at peace despite the seemingly chaotic environment.

So even though things aren't going smooth, i'm so thankful that I still have so much I can thank Him for.

I thank God for

1. holding the rain yesterday
2. helping choose the tiles etc for my new place
3. yi xiang as he's been supportive of this very frazzled bride-to-be
4. being able to spend time with my daddy yesterday
5. being able to spend an entire day out with my mummy on saturday
6. my cheche and her lovely wedding gift for me
7. helping me through more than 3 years of work
8. allowing me to secure a place for my church wedding in such a short time
9. yi xiang's family who care for me like their own
10. good night's rest last night cos i haven't been sleeping very well of late
11. reminding me that He is with me every step of the way
12. a good contractor who really does his best in helping us. he was so funny. after we finally decided on the tiles and everything a few hours later, he called to say that he was thinking of it and thought he better let me know that if i chose such tiles etcetcetc... it's a rare to find a contractor who's so thoughtful that even while he's driving to think about the tiles i've chosen. usually many of them will be like, your house, your choice, your business. =)
13. my wonderful cell group mates whose blogs have made my heart smile
14. rhoda who was so wonderfully understanding about my cancellation on dinner cos i took leave to take care of daddy yesterday

praise God for the many blessings!

6 months to go!

2008-07-10T08:40:00.002+08:00

Wow... was going to start work then i saw my ticker say '6 months until our wedding!'

time is ticking by. so much to do! I really thank God for helping us settle quite a few things earlier. if not think it'd be an even madder rush now.

contractor contractor contractor... such a tough thing to decide on. =) renovation work is a real big task!

well, it'll be over soon! getting our keys officially this sunday from the owner... yay!

please keep us in your prayers!

marriage prep session 1

2008-06-29T07:39:00.003+08:00

yesterday xiang and i went to my pastor's place for our first serious marriage prep session. It was fun. Pastor gave us a quiz of sort. a list of 22 statements in which we had to circle 1 to 5 to indicate if we strongly agreed to strongly disagreed. lol... it was quite fun. =)

i was looking at a friend's wedding photos earlier, and she looked so pretty on her wedding day. hope my make-up artist, gown and hairstyles turn out good too...

k... gtg to church soon. =)

later today we're bringing a contractor up to our place to see what sort of reno work we'll be doing. pls pray for us to have wisdom! =)

So many things to be thankful for...

2008-06-26T08:17:00.002+08:00

Yesterday, Xiang and I spent quite a fair bit of time discussing the material given by our Pastor for our pre-marital counselling course.

Through our sharing, i realised what a negative person i've become. Many things that happen, i tend to discount all the other good and focus on the bad. ironically my blog's called counting blessings.

So I shall strive to let the negative slide and focus on good stuff. Not that bad stuff doesn't exist or doesn't matter, but I think my overemphasis on it makes me lacking in joy.

I'm so glad I've got xiang who can be open enough with me to share truthfully. i believe we've both grown so much over these last few years. hopefully this will be but the first of many more deep sharings to come in future. just 6 months, 2 weeks and a day to our wedding.

so as i began my day, i thought to myself, today I shall approach it differently. I want the Lord's joy to ring loud and clear in me. =)

what better way than to start counting my blessings.

1. I thank God for a beautiful peaceful morning
2. I thank God for the fact that i have parents who can hear me when i greet them good morning.
3. I thank God for my sister who shares so animatedly about things that excite her... =)
4. I thank God for the wonderful sharing yixiang and I had last night. I've missed talking with him.
5. I thank God that I have a job to come to.
6. I thank God that most days I can knock off promptly.
7. I thank God for my mummy who carried this very heavy thermal pot all the way from orchard to her clinic because she loves me and wants to give me the best in preparation for my marriage.
8. I thank God that He is faithful in reminding me that I'm not perfect. And that's the beauty of it. That Jesus who was perfect could die for my sins so that I can be reconciled with God. That it's ok to not be perfect. Cos He loves me just the same and for who I am.
9. I thank God for the refreshing worship music i was listening to on my way to work.
10. I thank God that i've got so much to be thankful for.
11. I thank God for Ning's, Nick's and Crystal's message. Ning: I miss u too! Nick and Crystal: hello hello!!! thanks for popping by...

I thank God that by the end of the day, I'll have a lot more to thank Him for. =)

House, check check

2008-06-18T21:15:00.003+08:00

We had our second appointment and sealed everything with regards to our house technically yesterday.

However, our sellers requested they move out slightly under a month later and seeing that they were so nice and willing to push back our first appt and all, we agreed.

so we are proud owners of a four room hdb flat now. =) =) =)

wedding gown design check

2008-06-18T21:08:00.002+08:00

went to try wedding gowns on monday.

my sister had a fun time while i tried my best to suck in my breath! lol... i guess there are just far too many petite brides.. either that or bridal studios enjoy seeing brides-to-be feel like sinking to the ground in embarrassment, or they just like saving money on material!

anyway, so i've chosen my designs and they'll spend the next three months sewing it together as it's made-to-measure.

wasn't allowed to take photos tho.. so you'll just need to wait till much later... =)

daddy's much better now

2008-06-06T13:35:00.002+08:00

hey everyone, thanks for praying for my daddy. He's better now. there's still something on his face but the swelling's all gone.

I really thank God for my mummy. My dad was admitted on a monday right? well, tue night i was hit by quite a bad bout of food poisoning. my mummy actually took leave to take care of me! it was then that i began to think of many who do not have such a privilege and how much i have to thank God for. she has really very little leave annually but she did not hesitate in taking one full day just to nurse me back to health. =)

plus the food poisoning wasn't all that bad as it resulted in some weight loss which i'm working hard to keep by eating salad for lunch almost everyday. it's tough at times tho... heehee... never been a very veggie person.. so to have gotten by on 8 days of salad over 10 days is no mean feat! praise God I haven't given up! heehee...

but i miss all my sinful food like bak kua! chicken wings! yummy yum yum... must stop thinking abt it! lol...

it's just slightly over 7 months to my wedding! had my first premarital counselling session. the idea of marriage can be quite overwhelming at times. really praying i'll be a good, loving and supportive wife. =)

alrightey, lunchtime's over. must start my work again.. so thank God for a job so that i have to return to work to. =) that's one way of looking at it... =) a much happier way... heehee...

daddy's in hospital

2008-05-19T22:12:00.003+08:00

although my daddy's in hospital, i thank God for

1. letting his infection subside a little since morning
2. keeping me safe as i drove to and from hospital the whole of today
3. the availability of parking lots
4. for the many friends who came to visit daddy
5. the caring nurses and doctors
6. daddy's cheerfulness

so please pray that my daddy will recover fully and be up and about as usual again. That there'll be no complications and that he can sleep well at night cos he needs to sleep at a 45degree angle to keep the infection from swelling up.

found out a colleague passed away last night. =( she was battling breast cancer. so please pray for her family as they deal with the loss of their loved one. we can only find comfort in knowing that she knew the Lord and that she's now with Jesus and without pain anymore.

discipline

2008-05-11T22:53:00.002+08:00

it's so easy to lack discipline.

sometimes i try really really really hard to keep at things. and inevitably i slip up.

then it's an arduous task trying to get back on track.

and yet at the back of my mind... or should i say tucked away in a lil corner of my heart, i know that when i start my day right, and ask God to teach me how to lead my life, things ALWAYS get better.

get better may not translate into problem/issue disappearing into thin air, but the way i look at it, makes it that way.

today my pastor shared abt how we need to shut the doors to paths we've trodden on in bad habits/ungodly ways and start a new path...

i hope i'll do my bit and turn to God everyday, every hour, every minute if necessary... to rely on God fully is quite a difficult thing to do. always like to do things on my own strength. and yet once my perspective shifts and i see God as the centre, i've always got renewed strength and vigour to carry on.

so if u're like me. stuck in a path you know u shouldn't be taking. u CAN go back, block it off. and start a new path. this time start the path right with God as your guiding factor. =) Spend time with Him daily, talk to Him often and read what He has to say. I realise when i fail to build my relationship with Him, i find it hard to know what is right in His eyes cos i dun know what's in His eyes. the world has full of temptations. But the Bible says that God promises us that He will not let us be tempted beyond what we can bear.

God and discipline. that's what i need. in all aspects of my life right now.

side-note: yes my hdb first appt's over! =) appealing for something at the moment. pls pray that things will go smoothly. it's less than 8 months to my wedding which will make the start of a life-time commitment! =) =) =)

050508 =)

2008-05-05T07:33:00.002+08:00

If any of you are wondering why that date looks familiar, yes it has been exactly a year since I said 'Yes' to Yi Xiang's proposal.

Yesterday he gave me such a lovely surprise. I had two back to back meetings in church after service. After my first service I asked quite a lot of people if they knew where Yi Xiang was. But no one knew a thing. Noticed Wayne wasn't around so figured they went to lim a kopi or something. well, I was right abt the Wayne bit, but never did I expect Wayne to be his partner in crime as they secretly drove out to Novena just so that Yi Xiang could present such a lovely bouquet of roses to me after my meeting. I was so surprised! More than pleasantly surprise. It's hard to surprise me cos I usually anticipate quite accurately when I can expect a nice gift or even a lil gift.

So this one was such a surprise! Heehee...

We had a nice dinner at a little Japanese restaurant in the evening. But what i really enjoyed was being able to talk to him. As in really talk to him. =) We've been rather busy of late, especially the poor guy who's been working till late these last couple of weeks, so sometimes meaningful conversations are tough to maintain.

Thanks Xiang for making yesterday so special! =) =) =)

Side issues:

A)
Childhood friend got married on Saturday. I cried when he did. Yes the groom and not the bride broke down in tears when HE thanked his parents. but it was so sweet... having known him for so long. always knew his family meant a lot to him... I'm so emotional! Lol... after the ceremony, my wedding emcee-to-be happily quipped "You better make sure you have a jiemei in charge of your make-up!" Before I could even sputter out my answer she asked "Make sure you have waterproof mascara" and before i could respond fully, she added "and eye-liner!" so those of you who are coming to my wedding, pls bring good quality tissue! this bride-to-be is likely to need it...

B)
After dinner yesterday, taking the lift up to my home, i asked xiang, "do you really think i'll cry at our wedding?" without a moment's hesitation "yah..." oh well, hopefully i tear prettily then!

C)
This coming Saturday's our first appointment with HDB. Please pray that everything goes smoothly. =)

keeping on track

2008-04-30T08:18:00.002+08:00

I know that there are many days when I'm not a good child of God.

I let Him down in so many ways.

There are choices I make knowing full well it goes against His ways and does not please Him.

Well today I hope to get back on track.

Cos what I tell my friends is true. When God is in the centre everything else falls into place. But if i only placed Him in the centre only because I want everything else to fall into place, that doesn't really place Him in the centre does it?

So it really stems from my heart.

I pray that today will be a fresh beginning. One that tonight before I go to sleep, I can look back and know that through His strength and guidance I was able to lead a day that's pleasing to Him.

I thank God that I can start anew and know that He forgives when I say I'm sorry.

I thank God for putting up with me despite my endless flaws and still reminds me that He made me unique and in His image.

I thank God for being able to take leave to stay home with mummy who wasn't well yesterday but is better today already.

I thank God for a brand new day.

I thank God for opening my eyes to see I don't have to take the wrong track and that I can return to His track.

I thank God for strength in doing all the things I need to do.

I thank God for His provision. He has given me a family who loves me and I love. He has given me a wonderful husband-to-be who knows my flaws and accepts me as I am. He has given me a church which I can serve Him in. He has given me a cell group that gives me the opportunity to serve Him and invest time and effort in their lives. He has given me good friends who've written me notes, letters and smses that bring smiles to my face. He has given me enough to eat and wear, I needn't worry about my next meal. He has given me a job that is more than a job. He has given me the ability to stand up against the trials I've faced in life. He has given me the ability to give thanks and for things to give thanks for.

My God is truly great. And I love Him and hope that today I can love Him not just through words but also in everything and every thought that I do and have.

Have a blessed day everyone. =) May you too be able to thank the Lord for your life.

furniture check!

2008-04-09T13:05:00.002+08:00

hey all,

haven't been blogging very much of late. was too busy racing my fluffpet on facebook. lol...

so right now waiting for my HDB first appt which will be on 10th May. and in abt two months after that, we'll get the keys to our very own place. *thrilled*

but having said that, i'm still getting used to the idea that no longer will i be going home to my daddy, mummy and cheche... yes, it's exciting to start a new chapter, but at the same time, i know things will no longer be the same. i'll now be someone's wife... no doubt i'll still be their daughter and sister, but it's just not the same.

i hope i'm not going to weep buckets on the day of my wedding! lol... so bring along additional kleenex or beautex or paseo on the day for this potential crying bride! lol...

anyway, on a brighter note, xiang and i have decided on our honeymoon destination. Hong Kong!

And for all of you out there who react just like everyone else who has heard of our choice, here's why...

1. never been there, have always wanted to
2. i love spending time with yi xiang in coffeeshops just chilling and talking over a good cup of teh c
3. we love dim sum
4. i've always wanted to see The Peak
5. i want to visit Ocean Park
6. good that there's disneyland tho i heard it's not fantastic
7. there're quaint lil shops i can get knick knacks and what-have-yous
8. there's a fish street which yi xiang really is looking forward to as his hobby is keeping fish and they've got good ones there
9. we wanted cool weather, so that's knocked out the southern hemisphere in Jan
10. we knocked out europe and states too far, too ex
11. i didn't fancy japan, taiwan, china or korea

looking forward to it. currently cutting down the leave i use to carry over as many as possible to 2009. as it is, if everything goes according to plan, my current lack of a rest will not be in vain. i plan to take the entire month of jan off!!! yay!!!! nice looooong break.. think i'll prob dread returning to work after that! lol...

and yes as my heading goes, we've got some furniture. just the basic ones which are now sitting in the warehouse waiting to be delivered. yes i work early and i work fast.

essential to a stress-free bride i believe.

been dutifully going to the gym every mon, wed and friday morning before work. yes hardly any of u are awake by the time i'm done with the session i reckon... lol... but such is the life of an early sleeper and early riser. =)

i dread having no weekday nights to myself so one day my friend mentioned morning sessions as my gym opens at 6am... from the sound of it, thought my friend also frequents the gym in the morning.. so i was like, well, yeah! that's an idea... then i found out it only took place in the mind of my friend so i had no kaki! but oh well, no kaki but i found out that i really like morning sessions. the gym's practically empty... so no need to line up for machines or the shower rooms. great way to start the day. =)

as for wedding prep, now sourcing for a photographer... =) contemplating on whether i should do a meaningful slideshow and waiting for my bridal studio to call...

i thank God for:

1. my lovely family
2. my loving fiance
3. my cousin who gave me the great book 'Sacred Marriage' which really helps me see marriage thru a different perspective
4. work going well
5. being able to stick to gym schedule and healthier diet
6. facebook which has connected me with some old and dear friends
7. my new cell group... they're such a great bunch!
8. providing us with a warm and lovely place of our own
9. helping us get nice pieces of furniture at quite a steal
10. enabling me to learn how to make muah chee which my family enjoys eating
11. it's only 9 months and a day more to my wedding, the first step in beginning a journey that will take me till the end of my lifetime

House, check!

2008-02-17T06:44:00.003+08:00

Yup, you read the title right!

God has blessed us with a really wonderful place to live when we get married.

After several viewings, we paid our deposit yesterday for a place we can now call our own.

Thank you to all of you who have been praying!

We really praise God for His provision and faithfulness.

Please pray with us as we work through this whole HDB process, that everything will go smoothly and all our applications will be approved. =)

update on bday gifts

2008-01-28T22:16:00.000+08:00

Well, only one person's told me what she wants to get from me for the list but it's a pooled gift, so i thank those of you who are going to chip in for it in advance! i love it! haha... will definitely use it very often!

The ones in black are still up for grabs! heehee...

Pricier stuff that you can pool for!

1. Jewellery box (you know, the kind that looks like a baby wardrobe? that'll be nice)
2. Body shop Vitamin C Skin Boost - u.p. $36.90
3. A nice big gym bag (my huge black multipurpose bag's getting kinda grubby and nua-ed) - bought by friends! not sure who yet tho. haha... thanks lingy for organising! =)
4. A nice set of magic markers
5. I Love Lucy DVD set (very pricey, but one can always hope. heehee...)
5. Kinokuniya vouchers
6. Borders gift card

Small less pricey stuff that always perk me up!

1. I love stickers! furry ones, cute textured ones, puffy ones! as long as it's cute lah.. heehee...
2. A nice penknife (my eeyore one's all grubby)
3. A shaker mechanical pencil (pink/purple/blue)

Mid-price range
1. Worship CDs - I love my Paul Baloche "A Greater Song" and Philip Craig and Dean's"The Ultimate Collection"
2. VCDs - Love Actually, Mulan, Uptown Girls, I am Sam, Ratatouille, Look who's talking 2
3. Baby Blues comic books. I have till book 13. One with Wren would be nice

Ok, been thick-skinned enough... if u want dibs on any particular gift, let me know so that i can post it and others won't get the same thing! hehee... i know, not so surprising, but practical isn't it? u happy cos no need to crack head, i happy cos i get my requests! =)

Stuff i have quite a lot of:
Bags
Body shop shower gels
Cups
Costume jewellery
Cute figurines

it's official! just 366 days more!

2008-01-10T20:19:00.000+08:00

wow... only a year more to go...

thanks for the ticker thing james! =)

thanks eliza and weixiong for your comment and tag respectively! feel so cared for! =)

ok... in less than a month i'll be turning 26!

so here's my birthday wish list! heehee... super thick skin...

Pricier stuff that you can pool for!

1. Jewellery box (you know, the kind that looks like a baby wardrobe? that'll be nice)
2. Body shop Vitamin C Skin Boost - u.p. $36.90
3. A nice big gym bag (my huge black multipurpose bag's getting kinda grubby and nua-ed)
4. A nice set of magic markers
5. I Love Lucy DVD set (very pricey, but one can always hope. heehee...)
5. Kinokuniya vouchers
6. Borders gift card

Small less pricey stuff that always perk me up!

1. I love stickers! furry ones, cute textured ones, puffy ones! as long as it's cute lah.. heehee...
2. A nice penknife (my eeyore one's all grubby)
3. A shaker mechanical pencil (pink/purple/blue)

Mid-price range
1. Worship CDs - I love my Paul Baloche "A Greater Song" and Philip Craig and Dean's"The Ultimate Collection"
2. VCDs - Love Actually, Mulan, Uptown Girls, I am Sam, Ratatouille, Look who's talking 2
3. Baby Blues comic books. I have till book 13. One with Wren would be nice

Ok, been thick-skinned enough... if u want dibs on any particular gift, let me know so that i can post it and others won't get the same thing! hehee... i know, not so surprising, but practical isn't it? u happy cos no need to crack head, i happy cos i get my requests! =)

Stuff i have quite a lot of:
Bags
Body shop shower gels
Cups
Costume jewellery
Cute figurines

tomorrow - 366 days

2008-01-09T10:23:00.000+08:00

i've started a countdown in my diary. it's packed with tuition, appts with friends and yesterday i was filling in using a very nice pink pen (gift from a friend) and started marking the days to the wedding. tomorrow it'll be 10 Jan... so in 10 jan 09 is when i say I do... heehee...

times flies awfully fast at times... i remember when yi xiang did the whole amazing race proposal it seemed near and yet far... now it just seems near... lol...

now i ought to find some countdown thing to put on my blog. =)

soya bean

2008-01-08T17:25:00.000+08:00

it was like a soya bean.

albeit a very red one.

u see, i had a tumor/growth removed from my thigh this afternoon. now it's being sent for testing. the doc does say that this kinda tumor isn't cancerous but since we were removing it, best to send it for tests.

so two surgeries in a pretty short span of time.

just had a cyst removed from my mouth a coupla months back, and as i sat in the dentist's chair i thought, hmm... my first surgery, i ought to be freaked out a little. but i wasn't. think God gave me peace. =)

today as i lay on the table looking at the cold and white room, it occurred to me that i never asked how it was going to be done. so i just lay there. the injections were of course more painful than the incision (as it should be) but could feel the knife/blade whatever she was using, stopped myself from looking and it did hurt. it was like something was getting dug out. so cut cut here and cut cut there... then ta-da! out came a very bloody but rather huge bean-like object. i was quite shocked to see that it was pretty big. then it was the stitching. i saw the thread that was supposed to be used and boy was it odd to know i was getting sewn together. or rather, the probably gaping bleeding hole in my thigh. lol... so now i've got blue knots in a row on my leg. not that i can see it. it's under some huge plaster now.. ok not that huge but it's those nice water-resistant sorts.

so that's the story of the soya bean. now sitting in a plastic bottle.

wedding bands check! a rainbow! grim reminder

2007-11-14T06:28:00.000+08:00

Yes, wedding bands have been purchased. we simply haven't engraved anything yet.

The bands themselves were a blessing from God as they fitted all our requirements. Asymmetrical, two tone and affordable. They were more than affordable really. =) So praise God for such a steal!

last friday I had quite an upsetting day at work and tho i was fine soon after the incident, mood wasn't in tip top form. but as i took a four bus stop ride from my office to the mrt, i looked out (i usually never look out that way cos the bus is usually empty and i'm standing at the no chair area looking to the right of the bus). and the minute i looked out of the window, there was a rainbow. we often lament abt the LAST time we saw a rainbow... but as i stared at it, admiring its colours and the significance of seeing the rainbow that particular day, i wonder if i've missed out the many rainbows in my life simply because i never looked.

yesterday i got a mail that really affected me. i'm sure some of you have received it before. i'm usually unaffected by forwarded mails, often i hardly even open them. but i was clearing my inbox yesterday so opened one or two forwarded mails. this one, showed people starving till they were literally skin and bones. one was of a child, maybe even a baby... but the thing that shook me, that though the child had such young eyes, it was no better than a skeleton with skin. the pulitzer prize-winning photo of a vulture waiting for a baby to die was also depressing. the photographer committed suicide three months after the photo from depression. not sure if it was related. could be, couldn't it?

so i decided, enough with wasting food and water. we really should conserve what we can and not take all that we have for granted. shame on me who always leaves a pile of rice on the plate. shame on me for turning my nose up at vegetable dishes. shame on me for not finishing the water i've poured into my cup. every grain of rice, every drop of water's so precious and can never be gotten back once wasted.

it was a grim reminder at how i take the life i lead for granted. so the next time you go order your lunch or dinner, don't over order. there really are starving people dying everyday.

i thank God for providing for me. I thank Him for opening my eyes to see how i've wasted His many blessings each time i throw good edible food away. i'm appalled i resorted to extreme measures to lose weight in the past, when there are people who don't even have any flesh to keep them warm.

may we all learn how to fully appreciate what the Lord has blessed us in abundance with and always think of our actions so that we won't waste.

my 100th post! heehee

2007-11-09T06:54:00.000+08:00

hey everyone... hope you've all been fine. think many are having a good time on facebook. considered starting it so that i won't be left behind, but the amount of time i am actually online is so minimal these days, just doesn't make sense to start. maybe when xiang starts his pupilage and i haven't anything else to do. then again, maybe not.

updating this blog is already a challenge most days. obvious by the lack of entries.

well, here's what I've been thanking God for lately

still my wonderful family
xiang of cos
in the past two weeks, i've stayed back for more hours than the whole time i've been at my current workplace combined. heehee... so really thankful that God saw me through those tedious nights and i managed to complete what i needed to
work's been busy but it's satisfying when i know i'm like thinking and contributing. at least i feel like i've been. maybe i haven't! but at least in my brain, it sure feels like it. heehee...
keeping me healthy and free of illnesses. twice in the past month has a flu been threatening to come upon me. yesterday was one of them. but praise God! He helped fend off the flu and i'm functioning if not tip top, in a normal condition. =) too much work to fall ill and miss days of work at the moment.
for my 2008 diary. ok, technically it's just a book. but i printed out my months and stuck em in it. it's cute! got sesame street characters all over it! heehee... used up the last of my kino vouchers (gift from a fren) and paid a mere little 80cents for such a lovely book.
so being such a J according to the MBTI test, i faifthfully transferred all impt details such as birthdays (many of you who actually read this, are in it! heehee... if it's not, then you haven't told me your birthday!) and having reached the last birthday of the year, it was of cos xiang's! this 31st dec baby... but what was intriguing, that in 10 days after his 2008 birthday, we'd be getting married! wow... talk abt a year whizzing by... heehee..
we bought our wedding bands really really really cheap.. well, to us it was a steal anyway. nothing fancy... no big name, no diamonds.. but it satisfied our requirements and was at less than half the price of the last pair we sorta fancied. all thanks to my mummy who informed me of this shop having a moving out sale... so yup... =)
for everyone of you who bother to still check this less than frequently updated blog! thanks for caring! =)

morning person

2007-10-06T06:00:00.000+08:00

morning everyone... haha... tho it's either really wee hours of the morning or late into the night that most of you read my posts...

just a very morning person... slept well so thought i'd wake up to do some stuff before i head off to work today. yup... need to work today... but it's a photography course thing arranged by my colleague... so should be fun... nothing high tech or extremely cheem i believe...

work's been great this week. been busy and given some tasks that i've never been given before... and the authority to do stuff with it... not just a liaison person... so praying that God will grant me wisdom and lead me through, and hope it'll bear fruit... =) it's great working knowing that you spend every minute doing work... decided on and was very convicted at how i used my time at work... so basically set out to use every minute to worship and honour God by giving of my best at work. slip up now and then, but that's just the time to confess my sin and set my focus right and get right back and serve Him at work.

it's amazing how He works when i go with such an attitude... Spending time with Him opens new perspectives for me and i thank God for revealing such impt truths to me. It's truly all Him, and none of me...every blessing is wonderful, every problem an opportunity to be moulded... when i look at life this way, everything's good... and indeed it is... cos He gives good gifts, He knows my every thought and His ways are above my ways, His plans above my plans.

All i can do i to love Him with all my heart, my soul and my mind. that alone keeps me busy and yearning everyday...

Praise God for His bountiful love and grace... Have been learning about patience this week. Makrothumia... it's patience in dealing with people with mercy... i am ashamed at how merciless i can be towards pple. left unchecked, i believe we all judge others almost everyday... but as the Word says, we often make a big deal abt the speck in someone's eye and blatantly ignore the plank in our own... seeing how unmerciless i can be, i look to God and realise how merciful He is to man who have snubbed Him, blamed Him, bochapped Him and grieved Him... We probably will never be able to comprehend the full extent of His love and grace, but we can appreciate it and learn not to take it for granted.

May we glorify Him with our lives in everything that we do. May our lives be a sweet sacrifice unto Him daily... Through us, may He do great and marvellous things... May He work through our unworthy lives to bring glory to His name and others to know of His goodness and grace.

I thank God for my loving family, wonderful fiance, great friends, colleagues who care and for every single minute of breath.

thank God for a complaint

2007-10-03T07:19:00.000+08:00

to receive a complaint means i'm alive to receive it
to hear the complaint means i can hear
to take the call means that i have hands that can hold the phone
to cry means i have eyes and tears
to be overwhelmed to tears means i am not an unfeeling piece of metal
to be at the brunt of a complaint at work means that i have a job

i know that God has a plan and a purpose and i thank Him for taking the time to teach me valuable lessons.

For I know that He is with me and to be able to view a seemingly unfair situation through His eyes is truly an amazing eye-opener.

So thank God for the complaint.

Looking at a complaint this way really shows me how much i have to be thankful for. I'm not complaining... =)

Hotel, check! Bridal Studio Package, check!

2007-09-29T10:08:00.000+08:00

Well, 15 months away and so far we've settled our wedding banquet place and our bridal studio package.

our wedding preparations happen in spurts. well, for me anyway... i'll be excited and do all my research intensively and settle on something. then boom, select, downpayment, settled. then i'll usually wait a week or two before starting the next intensive. haha...

the next thing on our list, is our wedding ceremony venue. already have a place in mind, so just gotta view it and ping! one more down...

yes, i'm quite an extreme J type personality according to the MBTI test, as such, preparation (in orderly fashion) runs through my veins! lol... btw, my wedding list is all done... every single one of my 100 over relatives, written out in descending age, groups according to families, all done. now just need to type it into a spread sheet and i'm all ready... lol... so far so good...

wanna thank eliza for the lovely surprise gift of a wedding magazine! xiang also got me one... but haven't poured over every single page yet... now it's time to decide what sorta gown i want, but will be taking my time on that one cos wedding shoot won't be till at least middle of next year anyway. =)

had my staff appraisal too and praise God for letting everything go really well. I marvel at how God has worked in my life and at my work place. work will inevitably have trying moments, but i praise God for His faithfulness in all things, and no matter the circumstance, i'm sure that if my mind is focused on Him, He will be glorified through it all.

so that's my life in a nutshell these last three to four weeks. blogging a lot less cos i'm really not a night person, and mornings have been busy as well... so this is a rare occasion that i get to blog on a saturday morning. =)

august - fast or slow?

2007-09-04T06:25:00.000+08:00

was telling xiang the other day that august seemed awfully slow. and yet it was such a hectic month! in my experience hectic months are usually deemed as fast!

how odd! perhaps so many things were squeezed into it, that it seemed a lot longer than it was.

take the last week of august for instance. our parents finally met to discuss all the wedding stuff. and with that we were finally able to proceed to search for suitable venues and what have you. in a span of two nights we visited four places... so much so that by sunday when cell members asked 'how'd the parents' meeting session go?' did i pause to realise that it was just a mere 7 days ago.

after visiting four places, and many searches online and requests for bridal packages to be emailed over, we've found our place. going to their bridal fair this coming 23rd, and likely to sign up the day itself.

and no it's not that early (as most pple have exclaimed heehee) cos if u think abt it, it's already september, and our wedding in 2009 isn't in the last quarter, the third or the second. it's 10days into the new year. so nope, not too early in my opinion.

august also saw myself taking on a new mentee and being a close friend's accountability partner. plus my tuition kid's CAs meant going down 7 times, and plus the other tuition kid it was a total of 10 times the entire month. 10 nights of tuition, with 3 nights for mentee and accountability, partner, 1 day to remove a cyst in my mouth and recuperate from mini surgery, celebrated 4 years with xiang, met up with a few friends, wedding banquet venue search took a week... it was truly a packed month.

in the last week, the days i do get home straight after work i found myself going to bed at 8.30pm. nice long restful sleeps they were... just had one last night. lol... looking at my planner, sept is going to be equally busy. but at least no more wedding banquet venue searches.

anyone know any good photographers, church reception caterers and bridal studios?

here's what i thank God for in the past month and a half that i've been missing from blogspot

shared Christ with another colleague and she's since signed up for the alpha course! =)
met up with a dear friend and ex-colleague early aug
4 years with xiang! (wow...)
meeting up with my mentee and seeing how God worked in putting us together
catching up with a close friend which has resulted in us committing to spend time studying God's Word together
swift and painless removal of the cyst in my mouth. it's healing beautifully and really praise God for that!
helping xiang and i find a suitable venue that we both like very very very much
giving me the strength to help mum lug groceries around the market and subsequently help dad wash his car
the safe return of a cell member from china
the answered prayers to a dear friend's fast
catching up with a newly wedded friend and learning so much from her... she's like the no. 1 bargain-er!

alrightey, gotta head off to work... =)

celebrations

2007-07-18T13:18:00.000+08:00

July has been a month of celebrations.

I know 7 people whose birthdays fall in July.

2nd July was a fellow colleague's birthday. Managed to do a little mini surprise dinner for him. =)

another colleague's birthday on 12th.

my mum's birthday on 13th.

xiang's sis' birthday on 14th.

my dept colleague's birthday yesterday and it was also xiang's dad's birthday.

and next friday's my dear uni friend's birthday!

so lotsa birthdays!

my cousin also got married on 14th July!

Xiang treated me to a sumptuous dinner on 7th July that included chilli crab and shark's fin from jumbo seafood. yumyum...

mum's birthday dinner was yummy too... plus i managed to surprise her by taking half day's leave and baking her a cake. will post pictures when i'm at home cos haven't downloaded them off my phone.

xiang's dad's birthday dinner was on sun and we had steamboat. shabushabu (not sure if i've spelt it right) beef is really good! first time i've ever had. and durian cake from angie's was also yummy yummy!

but i think the most joyous occasion of all was a brand new birthday of 15th July. a very very very nice church friend came to accept Jesus as his Lord and Saviour. So happy!!!!!!!!!!!!!

caught transformers with xiang on monday. enjoyed it. saw the trailer for rush hour 3, think we'll be catching it too.

plus i managed to catch up with my close friend over dinner last week and we had spagheddies! yumyum...

but other than all the talk on food, i thank God for sustaining me through my fast. i fast lunch. so the moment i'm done with breakfast i don't eat anything till dinner. just water... yupyup! praise God for sustaining me cos i was on the verge of falling ill last week, but thank God I got better quickly. The last two years i was unable to complete my fast because of bad bouts of flu which included antibiotics and as with most antibiotics, they need to be taken after food.

oh yes! and my sister was so sweet and treated me to a nice breakfast at coffeebean cos i wasn't in the best of spirits on sat. *hugs*

an angel

2007-06-26T04:36:00.000+08:00

met an angel on sunday.

my sister's laptop was going bonkers and would have died in the near future. thus xiang, my sis and i made a trip down to funan after church in a bid to get her a new one.

so we made our way through several shops and looked at quite a few laptops before deciding on one that we decided suited all her requirements and there was a $150 cash back. so why not?

being told that we needed to get our cash back from the service hub on the 6th floor and they closed at 3pm on Sundays, (it was then 2.50pm) we made our way upstairs while they were readying the laptop for use etc.

To our horror there was a HUGE mass of people all waiting at the service hub. so we got our queue number and it read 1398. we looked at the number currently being served and to our even greater horror realised it was 1303!!!!!!!

but hey, it was $150 right? so we decided that my sis would go down and have the shop set whatever settings she needed and wanted, then come back up since there was still quite a looooong way to go before our turn.

After seeing about 4 people being served, i had a brain wave of coming back another day to claim the cash back and wondered if this was a possibility (which was highly attractive cos i'm still nursing back my health and did just walk all the way from church to funan and trudged thru a fair number of computer shops). so dialed my sister's number and asked her to check with the shop on returning another day.

i remember i was kinda facing xiang at that time and simply speaking normally into the phone.. not one of those who shriek into the phone or informs the entire bus or train carriage on what they had for dinner last night. so as we were contemplating on the best course of action, someone tapped me on the arm and grabbed my queue number and slid another into my hand in one swift action. (note: he took my number first, without even knowing what it was!)

so while i was speaking...."so you'll be too busy to come back another ah??..... eerrr.... someone just gave me another queue number..." and as i was coming to terms with this new queue number, my brain began to register the number and it read 1314... i looked up at the person and in complete shock i looked questioningly at him. he kinda shrugged and smiled... so i put the phone down and asked "errr... why did you change queue numbers with me? my number's really big you know?" and again he shrugged, gestured at his huge macdonalds drink and said simply with a smile 'i can wait...' but i found it incomprehensible that someone would trade a 1314 (when at that time they were serving 1309) for my 1398! so i asked again "but my number's really very big!" and he just smiled again and said "i haven't finished my drink..." speechless i stood there dumbfounded and he continued "make sure you've got your receipts, ic and everything otherwise they can't help you..." so all i could do really was graciously accept his offer and thanked him profusely...

he walked towards another area of the crowd...

i called my sis and asked her to come up cos we needed her ic etc... so up she came and within minutes it was our turn, within a minute everything was done... three $50 notes were handed to her... and we were out in a jiffy. but he was gone... i wanted to point him out so that my sis could add her thanks... but he was no where in sight.

while i know he's probably a human being, but to me, he was an angel. a stranger doing a good deed and not getting a single thing out of it.

most people i know wouldn't mind helping at their convenience... but this gentleman helped with no advantage or convenience to him. he was simply nice.

earlier on in the day, we screened a cartoon on the good samaritan. i believe i met one that afternoon. and in this clear object lesson i had, i now know what it means to be a good samaritan and hope that one day, i too can be one. =)

family

2007-06-18T20:27:00.000+08:00

firstly, i'd like to state for the record that i sorely missed my family last week. u see while i was sick and miserable at home, i really was all alone. no one else was home. sis had gone off on a school trip for a coupla days to batam and my parents had joined my uncle's church for their church camp. so wed, thu and fri i was all alone at home!!!!!

now wed was pretty ok.. u know, it's quite a cool thing to be able to hang around the house without a care in the world and just chill and do whatever i felt like doing (tho slightly marred by my ailment) but once night fell, i realised even when i wanted to talk to someone i only had the bunny wabbit to talk to. and while she's cute and fuzzy, somehow she lacks the conversational finesse of a human being and the warmth of someone i call mummy, daddy or cheche...

plus i was sick! and there was no one to pat pat me... to tell me i'll be ok... to check if i needed anything.. to remind me to drink more water. to chase me to bed to ensure i get more rest... to explain in great details why nadal is soooo cute! =P etcetcetc...

so yes, i missed my family... and more than ever it made me realise how loved i am. that even one day without anyone else in the house, not hearing the usual slippers wander around the house... the cup being taken down the shelf, the sound of water running... all evidences that there are people in the house.. just one day and i knew i always take the simplest things for granted. to wake up and know that i can wish daddy and mummy good morning.. to lay in bed and know my cheche will come in and sprawl on my bed to talk abt everything and anything... there was nothing. just me, my tellie and the bunny wabbit.

i've been trying for like half a year now to convince my family to go away on a short holiday. just the four of us. cos once 09 comes, things are going to be very different, cos i'll not only be their daughter and sister, but also someone's wife. then he will have to come first as we start our own family. so while things are still as they are, i just wish we could just spend a few days as a family. but they seem to think it's a silly notion. that we already spend time together here. why spend money and go away and sit in a hotel to do it. i guess for me, many years down the road, and if my parents aren't around anymore, i want to have something to remember that my family did together.

but perhaps they're right. we don't need a holiday. right now, i just try and remember things. like i'll take a moment to study my mum when she's choosing a fish in the market. i look at my dad as he's reading the papers. i look at my sis as she sat across me all sun burnt and telling me all abt her trip to batam. i sit in the car and remember how things are. daddy at the driver's seat, mummy next to him, cheche behind mummy cos that's her preferred seat and me, behind daddy. meal times, the look on their faces as they laugh... i guess we don't have to make memories... but to simply take a step back and put lil incidences into our memory bank.

i guess i'm a bit of a silly nilly... but i know that when i'm old and gray, i'll remember my mummy's smile... my daddy's laughter when he watches just for laughs... my sister's enthusiasm as she shares another nugget of information... that's my family! and i love them. =)

long rest

2007-06-15T09:45:00.000+08:00

yup, still at home... took leave on wed to rest. yesterday saw the doc again for the third time in two weeks cos i still am hacking out tonnes of phlegm.

and was given two days MC and told to rest lots. so that's a 5 days stretch of rest. this last batch of medication seems to work somewhat. this morning i hacked out a third worth of yesterday's phelgm. so that's a good start! lol... it's a pain to have to drag myself out of bed after all that drowsy medication tho. but no choice, need to take my breakfast before i can take my antibiotics.

it's raining now... nice weather to sleep in. and i'm glad it's raining cos i think i smelt some haze/smoke thing earlier. hope the rain clears the smoke.

last night i totally bummed in front of the tellie. heehee... watched judging amy, er and wire in the blood back to back on the hallmark channel. it's so funny cos nathan from heroes was in judging amy as her love interest. and all i could think of was that he's from heroes... er was great... it's so early in the season with carter just having started work... mark green and susan going on disastrous blind dates only to meet while on blind dates and having their respective blind dates get on like house on fire... wire in the blood was a series that never came to channel 5... too morbid maybe? or too short? on season's got like 4 episodes? and many of the stories need to drag thru two episodes. i caught it by accident one or two years back on cable... and last night it was on again. thing is, since i never got to catch the show as my mum has a thing abt me watching shows with morbid deaths and murders and suicides etc, i had to be content with reading transcripts. so whatever was shown last night, i already knew... even tho it was the first parter i already know who's the killer and why and stuff... but seeing it on screen was pretty freaky. think the way it's filmed etc.. the simplicity, the suggestions... just plain freaky. think i'll stick to transcripts unless there's someone to watch it with me.

lol... yes i'm a chicken... lalalala....

well, have a good work day folks... while i nurse my health back into order. =)

doing work at 7am

2007-06-13T10:26:00.000+08:00

woke up this morning hacking phlegm as i have been the entire night. the thick disgusting yellow goo clogs up my throat and nasal cavity which inevitably causes hacking fits.

thus as i lay in bed decided to take urgent leave to just stay home, chill and rest. something everyone's been telling me i need. however i did actually need to write an article very urgently for work. so instead of dilly dallying, i got out of bed at 7 and began pondering over my laptop. amazingly and i really thank God for the clear head and inspiration, finished the article in less than an hour. now just hope the party that needs to vet it will revert soon!

so now it's a whole day to myself to just rest and recuperate. it's only half past ten so plenty of time to go. =) so pleased....

was given a bridal magazine by my sister's friend and it's actually a fun thing to pour thru such magazines. fun fun... =)

ok, i'm off to lie in bed and read my favourite baby blues comic book.

mervin and huifen's wedding!

2007-06-09T20:56:00.000+08:00

some shots i took with my lil camera phone... some aren't too clear cos they weren't the stillest of objects to take!

but yeah, when huifen was walking down the aisle with her daddy... me *sniffle*... so sweet! my two friends were going to say their vows to be man and wife! this time last week, i was running around the restaurant! whew... that was quite a day! =) they're happily honeymooning in china now... should be back soon... =)

poor mervin getting tortured. his 'brothers' had to wear this incredibly red lipstick and plant kisses all over his face! look at his face! the poor guy inevitably came out of it scarred for life! kissed by meng yang some more! aiyoyo!

he had to kneel... on rocks! and sing this love song from Adam Sandler's The Wedding Singer... something abt growing old together, and him wanting her... mushy mushy lovey dovey stuff... and of cos huifen happily let him know the first round wasn't good enough, so he had to sing it again... lol...

after all that, he finally got his bride! and he was so gleeful he wanted to carry her out immediately much to the horror of hf's family cos there was still all the traditional stuff to be done... lol... very funny...

Merf: "Yup, i want that beautiful bride."

hf's wifely instincts kicking in... wiping his brow... altogether now... "awwww..."

Off to the church! I'm getting married!
(the stool u see here was used by mervin who sneakily climbed in through the windows, his accomplice - the bride's mum and brother)

the only shot of its kind on the day. i'm really a trigger happy girl! don't think anyone else got a shot like this one... heehee!

the handsome couple... heading to their new place to say hello!

hf in her tea ceremony dress...

hf and her bridesmaid claudia... waiting for the church solemnization service to begin

the dazzling bride with a new hairdo for the dinner (didn't have time to take pics of her evening gown tho.. it was a ple pink one... tube dress too i think... sweet sweet... but was too tired and phone was low battery liao...)

finally! me in the shot! lol

and lastly... my fav shot of the day... after the church wedding on the way back to hf's place to rest before dinner....

heh... =D

fish fish fish

2007-06-09T20:34:00.000+08:00

had a rather fishy day today... as in literally... xiang mentioned qianhu had a exhibition at bugis today and wanted to go check it out. declined at first but after deciding i wanted to get daddy a lcd monitor for his fathers' day gift gave in. so we circled the teeny exhibition... got him a log for his upcoming tank (he already has two, now waiting to start a third and yes, he REALLY likes fish).

last last week just went to aquarama with him and that's where he got his free one foot tank. took some pics of goldfish. this is the nicest one i found. it's huge! bigger than my whole hand!

and after we were at qianhu, i was feeling very generous and accompanied him to another fish shop which had his fav chichlids. i really need to learn to appreciate them. he's always asking if i think they're pretty, and i go 'errr... no...' trying... but they really aren't very pretty to me... one or two and passable... but as we realised today, i look at the fish in its entirety before i decide if it's nice.. for him, he looks for unique features, colours... oh well, whatever keeps him happy. =) so yeah.. he keeps wanting to buy me a baby tank of guppies... lol... but my qc very high... hard to find guppies that pass in my eyes. lol... the goldfish above was only one of the MANY at the exhibition. but i only found him/her cute. lol... but what do i know? lol...

caught ocean's 13... liked it. =)

but what i really liked today was that i got to spend time with xiang. he finally started his pupilage on 1st June, so i haven't seen him since Sunday. missed him... i guess i now know why couples still go out and squeeze with crowds yadayada on weekends. it's the only time they've got really. yet a new phase for us. will take getting use to.

been reading a lot this past week. partly cos i fell ill again. i've been falling ill fairly often. need to build up my immunity. but this one was pretty bad. my fever stayed at 39degrees celcius for quite some time. kept icing myself and was so afraid i'd get brain damage or something. but thank God after several hours of torture, it finally came down. the worst kind of fever is when u feel extremely hot and yet cold at the same time. u wanna kick of the blankets cos you're burning up and yet you're too cold to do that. so it's sheer torture! yuck yuck yuck... glad it's over... still nursing my cough tho. but way better now. =)

Time to count my blessings

2007-05-28T12:53:00.000+08:00

I thank God for...

such an amazing proposal
by the sweetest guy
with an equally amazing n sweet bling bling ie. the rock
our ability to weigh out our choices and come to an agreement
the many well wishes of friends
another month having flown by
friendships that are still strong despite different jobs and phases of life
the air con that has helped made the hot and humid nights nice and allowed me to stay snug under my blanket
an air-conditioned office
a brand new kopitiam near my office that has some pretty good stalls and has added to my choices during lunch
being able to chill out with xiang quite a fair bit this past month during his hols
bringing a worship team member back safely to Singapore.. missed her!
a nice brunch session with my cheche on sat... u know, we can both be taking turns to talk abt vastly different topics but it all still makes sense to us... lol...
a nice not so surprising bridal shower for my cell mate yesterday... she was showered with sugary and spicy gifts! heh...
His intervention and helping a friend who's had trouble sleeping these last few months, sleep soundly over since Thu... =)
my latest gadget, and ipod nano which has been great company on train rides and has somewhat made trips seem shorter!
stopping my weird unexplainable body cramps... we think it's this immunity boosting supplement that i took which caused these cramps... not sure tho.. but seems to have ceased since i stopped taking it... but it was really good for immunity boosting tho... didn't fall sick once while i was taking it. but guess i was sensitive and as a result developed cramps which made me double over in pain relatively often. heehee! so this may also mean i can start donating blood proper again! yay!
having learnt to eat five new fruits thanks to giving tuition cos my kid's mum always gives me a whole plate of fruits... so i now eat cherries, strawberries, kiwis, plums and pears! things i never touched in the past!
safety as i drove around a couple of times these last few weeks... esp the trip i made to kovan then seng kang! and another when i went to genting lane (without a street directory!) with just scribbled directions... not easy for a visual person like me...
two more deacons who were elected at the last agm! had our first board meeting... so nice to have more people to serve God alongside with!
my darling fiance who'll be picking me up from work today! yay!

050507 grin finale

2007-05-16T18:06:00.000+08:00

i'm terribly sorry about the last entry. well, hopefully I'll have time to finish this... if not i guess i just won't publish it till i'm done. =)

Ok, realised I left the background out of clue #9

Background to clue #9

Xiang and I have been friends for 10 years now... through secondary sch till he was in NS we kept in touch meeting up now and then. As my sister can testify, I was exasperated with the guy. He had such wrong views about God and the bible and we'd argue and find ourselves not talking for the longest time. The funny thing was each time we'd contact each other again it'd be at the same time we both think of getting in touch.

so i think he mentioned he didn't really enjoy going to his church and that Christmas I was acting as Mary in a simple play in church. so i invited him. didn't expect him to say yes tho.. but he did come. still remember he sat on the extreme right chair closest to the window.

and cos i wasn't bowled over by him, following the Christmas service after calling him once or twice to ask if he was coming to church, i stopped asking. cos my thinking was 'u know where and what time my church service is, so u'll come if you're interested.' and he kept coming. many were convinced he came because of me, but nope, not true at all. haha... he came cos he enjoyed the messages as he said those at his previous church were extremely boring.

in fact i had to navigate him once to the nearby carpark on one of his first few visits to church and as i boarded his car (dad's) to me it was huge! it was a camry u see.. and i said 'wow, ur car's so big' and he went 'no lah, quite small' and i thought 'show off...' haha... so yes, we weren't exactly close... lol...

so the last clue was because that's how he started coming to my church and thus started a closer walk with God... and i guess if he didn't we probably wouldn't have gotten together cos we'd still barely know one another.

so background ends here... and *bing* i'm standing in front of my church door... fumble for keys, hold my breath and open the door... now i was half afraid that i'd find all my church mates in it going surprise! and him whipping the ring out and proposing in front of more than a dozen pple cos i really didn't want a public proposal... i find a proposal too personal to be done in front of a whole bunch of pple and contrary to popular belief, i'm actually a reserved person... just a trained extrovert... not a true extrovert...

so when it was all dark inside, i let out a sigh of relief... turned on the lights and we're both standing in church just outside the admin office... i ask for my next task, and he says 'we're going to play treasure hunt... somewhere in church lies your valentines day gift and final task. to receive your gift you must find it and you'll get your prize on completion of the final task.'

now, i know my church is not big.. nope... a nice small cozy family church with four rooms, an open area and a sanctuary is all it has... but to look for something without even knowing what i was looking for was a tall order... oh well... no choice! want present and prize must search lor!

being the J personality i quickly decided to go room by room... walking to the last room (our CG room which I personally decorated with a church mate a couple of years ago) i open the door and flick on the lights... and tada! there lay on the table the sweetest red rose arrangement with a pink envelope with my name written as prettily as a guy can do it with a shiny purple pen on it...

so i opened the envelope, fished out the paper and there was my final task

Task #9

Say "Yes"

The next thing i knew he had this red little box with a red bow on it, and he opened it and there was my friend!

"Will you marry me?" he asked

"ok!" i chirped

and he said "u must say yes!"

"oh! yes!... YES!" lol....

then he slipped it on my finger...

the feeling was indescribable... it's something i wanted to happen, couldn't believe it happened, and made me realise how it meant a whole new chapter in life... i looked at him... the person that i've grown to love so much over these last few years...

a boy i once knew, who will be the man I'm going to spend the rest of my life with...

we've gone through so much these last few years... the 3 years of him being away... the adjustment of him coming back... there were so many points when it could have just ended. but it didn't... cos I've finally found someone who truly loves me and makes the choice to love me. not someone who's giddily in love with me and would do anything for me just because he's driven by emotion to do so...

i told him 'wait...'

i ran off to my bag and whipped out his engagement ring.. and came back and opened it..

"just in case you decided to propose today..." heehee...

u see... i knew he'd propose somewhere in may... i just didn't know when... i had hoped it'd be on 050507 but as all hopes, there was a chance of it being let down...

instead, he made it one of the most memorable days of my life... one that would begin with him walking on the path with me as well...

so we're looking to have our wedding in January 2009... thank you for journeying with me through these past five entries... heehee... it's taken quite a while to finish... but it's finally done...

Us after a looooong amazing race! Heehee...

All dressed up for dinner at a French restaurant to celebrate

that's all folks! heehee... thanks for reading! hope you enjoyed it and that it wasn't a let down! lol...

050507 grin part 4

2007-05-15T13:17:00.000+08:00

Yay! Blogger's working normally again...

Ok, thanks for waiting for this final entry. Purposely came back early fr lunch to start this entry!

So he handed me my final clue, clue #9

Clue #9

Long time ago in Bethlehem
The Holy Bible says

Mary's boy child Jesus Christ
Was born on Christmas day

I couldn't think of anywhere with a special meaning related to Jesus other than church, so I shrugged and asked 'Church?' Yup! That was the answer!

Hearing it was correct I wailed "why didn't you insist we cross over to clarke quay and let me head back half of robertson quay?"

His defense "I tried hinting by suggesting to go over, but you didn't take the hint..."

Indignantly I quipped "well, you should have been more persuasive! if there isn't a tunnel on this side of the river.... bish bish bish!"

Thankfully for him, there was... so i dragged my sore feet along as we approached our final destination.

In the lift, he made a boo boo. He took out his keys... But being nice I played the innocent gf and asked him wide-eyed "why'd you take out your keys dear? this isn't home, it's church..." then he mumbled some lame excuse but i nodded...

'bing!' lift door opens... and there my final pit stop lay in front of me.

(oops.. lunch time over...)

050507 grin part 3

2007-05-12T07:51:00.000+08:00

it's been a week since that wonderful day... =)

having completed task #3, i was handed clue #4.

Clue #4
Where there's sun, sea and sand

Background to clue #4
Now, firstly i got distracted cos it's usually phrased as 'the sun, the sand and the sea' heehee... but anyway, then i realised no pt getting distracted cos if i didn't solve it i wouldn't get to move on to next stop.

but of cos being like all the places of the day, i'd guessed we'd end up there anyway.

East Coast Park.

Why ECP? Cos on 1 Aug 2003, we went blading. or rather he bladed, i attempted to blade and he attempted to teach me... and that day was the day he realised he liked me! cos after blading i think i kinda fell ill or something, then as he said it his 'heart pain'... lol...

just learnt something new tho, he was digging up his old blog's entry cos i was asking him for the exact day we went ecp, then he showed me a para on him denying that we were an item, which we weren't... lol... then abt a week after he realised why he was unhappy the whole week.. (just asked him why he was unhappy and his answer 'cos i liked you' and i said 'and that's an unhappy thing?' and he replied 'no but you didn't like me ;)' awwww... poor thing!) but as things would unfold, we did get together on 080803... lol... so yes, ECP is a very special place to the both of us.

pls note, i never bladed again after. lol... i'm not very good on blades or skates... lol...

ok, on with the task of having to direct him from qianhu in ulu-ville to ECP. decided on kje, bke exit near bukit timah and head down to the aye entry from clementi... join to ecp and tada!!!! lol... talk abt travelling across singapore... so yup, nice comfy ride in aircon listening to worship songs cruising along the expressways was in itself sweet and just plain comfy... =)

and like the qianhu task, i told him as we were nearing ecp 'I'm not blading... nope... uh uh... no blading!' and he went 'lalala' with a cheeky grin.

so we pulled up into a carpark lot, and he gave me my task #4.

It reads

Either: a) Teach me how to cycle b)Roller blade from one end of the car park to the other

i was like 'arrrrrrrrgggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhh!' lol... then whine whine whine...

i tried cycling on a double bike with yi xiang before and it was NOT good. think cos i seldom cycle so while i can successfully get myself moving, i'm not very steady myself... so when i tried double cycling with him at the back... aiyoyo! it was a terrible experience! lol... he can't cycle. at all! so... to have to do that again, would have been very very very tough...

then there was the roller blading! i cannot roller blade! and i wasn't dressed for it either... no socks! and definitely not game for blading! lol....

so as we stood there in the carpark, i felt really helpless cos i honestly couldn't do either task! so looked up at him and with all sincerity and big puppy dogs eyes, i shook my head solemnly and said 'i can't do it... cannot...' in a what i hoped would be a pouty, cutesy, whiny voice! lol... worked.. cos he put me out of my misery by telling me this was the bogus task of the race. he let me know when we first started in the morning that there'd be one bogus task which i wouldn't have to do. honestly didn't think he was going to let me off that easily... lol... but he did! whoopee!

so we chilled at macs... where we hung out that memorable day when 'zap zap' went his heart! lol... poor fella... never knew what hit him...

when asked, he had guessed that i would have chosen blading over teaching him how to cycle. but he was wrong.

lol... i really really really didn't want to blade so i'd rather teach him how to cycle. plus the clue didn't say i had to succeed! lol...

so chilled we did... then it was time for clue #5.

Clue #5

The opposite of serene. A crazy knave cooks up a storm.

Answer: Mad Jack

Got it really fast... for those of u clueless abt the first bit of the clue, basically it's opposite serene centre (first pit stop).

Mad Jack is a place we wanted to eat at for like the longest time but just never got round to doing it. so he wove it into the already amazing day...

Task #5

Eat lunch.

That was easy! heehee...

Clue #6

Pictures of buttons of an arcade console

Answer: Marina Sq Arcade

Background to clue #6

(he actually went all the way down to Marina Sq on Thu, 3rd May just to take that picture and to ensure the game i liked was still there)

for those of you who know me, know i get into these crazes... one of which was neoprints (maggie and ling would be rolling eyeballs and nodding remembering all the times i dragged them into neoprint machines), another was bowling, another pool and last but not least there was the arcade! i loved the arcade! i like a variety of games tho the ones i'm good at i'm not fantastic at... but decent... so there was this nine button music game... lol... i remember the first time i tried it i was with maggie.. we decided to ditch our usual games that day and try something different! so we tried it... it'll play music and the screen will show these lil face like discs dropping down and whenever it reached the baseline, we'd need to press the corresponding button. we were terrible! spent a good $10 maybe just trying to pass the first stage... i was crazy abt the game... so much so found ways of doing it all by myself... lol... like making use of elbows etc! heehee... well, xiang was one of the poor things that had to accompany me while i was perfecting my skills at the machine. heehee...

so task #6 was

Complete three stages successfully

It felt so odd to play that game again. think it must have been quite a few years since i'd played it... lol... well, got thru the first two stages successfully but accidentally chose the wrong third song, so failed it... miserably... was quite sad... but he let me put in another 50cent coin and i completed the third stage... ah well... maybe i should have tried to do all three all over again. but there was a bunch of youth at the machine next to ours and very distracting they were... so didn't bother to... heehee...

by this time it was getting late... i think it was abt 3ish... so xiang said that we were too late not to skip a stop and too early to proceed to the next one. so we played some arcade tho he wasn't too good with the lil bouncing egg and chick game.. heehee... but he was great at this other one that was a guy vs girl doing various tasks... something like bishee bashee but with joystick-like contraptions instead. and at abt half past three it was off to pit stop 8... skipped 7...

he showed me the clue tho...

Clue #7

Where would you go if you were told to find what is between 2 and 3? (Don't get lost!)

This one stumped me the longest... heehee... sounded familiar and yet i couldn't put my finger on it. so after maybe 5 min i finally got it...

Cathay building near PS.

Heehee...

Background to clue #7

We rediscovered counter strike earlier this year... and we went down pretty often for a while just to play at emax... cos tho slightly pricier than the usual lan shops, this one had comfy couple sofas where we could while away 2 hours or more of our time playing counter strike! heehee...

the clue came about cos once after playing with friends, we went off for dinner.. but to do that we needed to find the car... now the carpark at cathay was tricky... it had mezzanine floors... which we didn't know off.. so it was like we were in some twilight zone cos we circled the carpark from top to bottom and no car!!!! haha... so finally after like half an hour we found the car parked on 2M! heehee... no joke looking for that car. our other group of friends who parked in a diff building had already arrived at the dinner place just as we pulled out of the carpark! heehee...

Task #7 which was skipped was

Let's play an hour of Counterstrike: Source

It was just as well we skipped this stop cos currently my craze for CS has been waning... tho it was nice to know he treasured the times we spent together playing CS tho it was the the lim teh sessions down at the basement of cathay that was really relaxing and a nice way to chill.

Clue #8 (yay... we're finishing this soon... heehee)

A picture of fireworks

Answer: River near robertson quay

Background to clue #8

Xiang and i hang out by the river sometimes... we'd park at the open carpark at our church which is free after 10pm on weekdays and we'd take a stroll and sit somewhere opposite the lively crowd along robertson quay...

we'd admire the the nice by the river condos and talk abt anything and everything... or sometimes we'd just sit there and enjoy the company... =) on a good night, there'd be a cool breeze too...

fireworks was the clue cos 080806 we were sitting there and just as we were going to leave at abt 9pm, we heard 'bong! bong bong bong' and he said 'thunder' and i said 'no! fireworks! we turned and we saw the most beautiful display of fireworks... it was breathtaking... there's something to said about fireworks... they're just beautiful aren't they? it was a lovely ending to a lovely day... we had spent the day out as it was our 3rd year being together!

noticed i stopped giving driving directions? heehee.. yup he relented and drove me around after i navigated him from qianhu to ecp! heehee...

upon reaching i asked for my task.. but he didn't want to give it to me! he said we needed to walk to this particular colourful bridge further down first. whine whine whine.. but walk we did... now the weather was lovely so i couldn't use that as an excuse to cut short the walk. the sun hid behind the clouds, the breeze was blowing... so walk lor! heehee

on the bridge he gave me my 8th task...

Task #8

Take a nice relaxing stroll down the length of the river and back

Now my feet were hurting liao... but he was pretty fixed that i had to stroll the length of the river... so we walked walked walked... and walked to the place we stood at admiring the fireworks.. and i steered him towards UE square where we had parked the car. but he wanted to walk over to clarke quay... i whined and said my feet hurt... so he relented (or so i thought) and said ok, we would just need to walk back to the bridge (cos that was the task) but i kept whining so he relented somemore (or so i thought) and said we could stop when we reached a particular spot.

then he handed me my final clue, clue #9

to be continued... rather tired... heehee... been on my comp since 7.30am! it's now 10.42am! heehee...

050507 grin part 2

2007-05-10T10:49:00.000+08:00

there's something very wrong with my blogger. all my icons for alignment, font colour etc are all dead. and i can't edit previous posts and thus have to start a new post for part 2... sorry all... so if you want to read it from scratch read "050507 *grin*" first then part 2, part 3 etc.... depending on how many posts it takes to finish this.

ok, so after feeding the turtles and we were heading back to the car, he handed me clue #3.

Clue #3

"Darling, I have a request... For example..."

Background to clue #3
We had dinner on 2 May, the day he finished his last exam. During dinner, he basically asked me this request... He hoped that I'd be more enthusiastic and supportive of his hobbies, namely fish at the moment. Like how going to Qianhu twice in a couple of months wasn't that much. so i agreed. in a relationship it's all abt giving and taking. xiang has been abt the sweetest guy always giving in to my crazes like Counter Strike, bowling, pool etc... not because he likes them but because he loves me so he does them with me as he knows i like these activities. so i figured hearing him talk abt fish and going to do 'fish stuff' with him is only fair and cos i love him too, want him to be happy too!

deeper background, while i have a wonderful memory abt things and faces I've seen, i seldom remember exact conversations like xiang does. so when that phrase appeared as the clue i said "Qianhu?" he was pretty sad that i guessed it so easily cos he had envisioned me having problems with that clue.

lol... but i had pretty much guessed when told that the general rule of the day would be places that mean something to us, that we'd end up at qianhu somehow. this was the place he and his dad dragged me to earlier this year to make the birthday surprise party happen! heehee... and we spent 2nd jan there too buying fish for my house's tank!

now the problem... i needed to navigate him via the street directory there! BUT i didn't know where on earth Qianhu was! i only knew we took a shuttle from choa chu kang! of cos xiang helped a lot by quipping "so now don't you regret not taking note of the route the shuttle bus took?" thanks!!! :P

so i flipped to choa chu kang way... map 41... looked all around it, no qianhu in sight. decided to follow the map upwards... searched... no qianhu... went back to map 41 joined downwards... NO qianhu!!!! whine whine whine... so finally flipped the page to map 40... and tada!!!!!!!!!!!!!! there it was sitting just there! right splat in the middle of the map and the place is pretty ulu so not much else there!

but knowing where it was and knowing how to get there were completely two different things. but i vaguely remember being able to travel by upp bukit timah cos i had to drive there to visit one of my org's centres some time in jan.... so off we went with xiang cooperating nicely knowing when to filter into which lanes and exiting where etc... heehee... whining helps! lol...

just as we turned into jalan lekar, i told him "i'm NOT going to put my feet in the fish spa!" and he gave me his usual shrug and "maybe"

parked and i got my next task.

Task #3

Either: a) Catch 20 fish in the "longkang fishing" b) Go through 1 "fish spa" session

Needless to say i chose a. heehee...

Now it was really tricky. cos one the net was bright pink! two the net was so shallow! three there were kids trying to catch fish as well! four there are many places for the fish to swim to!

ironically the fishes easiest to spot were the white ones, but they were the fastest. so those i caught out of the 20, 17 were dark ones mostly black... only three were coloured... at fish no. 19, xiang offered to let me stop! but i was just one miserable little longkang fish away, so i refused and continued waving the little net around till i caught my 20th fishy! muahahahaha! *brong brong brong*

technically i could have had the fish bagged and brought home but they all looked so ugly and some half dead... suspect one of them even died in my lil tank... so i gave the three coloured ones away to a nearby grandma trying to fish for her grandson (one of those who scared the fishies senseless with his frantic waving of his red net) and let the rest go free back into the fake longkang.

with that i caught clue #4...

to be continued... muahahhahahhahaha.... stay tuned folks!

050507 grin

2007-05-09T10:08:00.001+08:00

thank you to all of you who've tagged, smsed, commented, wished in person all your congratulations. =) I'm glad you're able to share Yi Xiang's and my joy as we begin this new phase.

anyway, i promised to blog about Saturday so here i am... actually fell very sick on mon night and have been on mc since... so figured i might as well do something other than lie down and feel fluey.

abbreviated version is that he took me to places that mean something to us via amazing race style with pitstops, clues and tasks. some tasks easier than others... ultimately landing up in church where he proposed!

long version... ahem... clears throat... stretches fingers... (sorry no pics of the various places cos i didn't know it'd end up with such a nice ending... heehee...)

7 am i'm up cos i know xiang has planned a day full of activity... okok, don't laugh now, we were celebrating v-day. yup! u read it right... we figured we'd space out our celebrations with my bday being so close to vday just didn't seem to make sense... so 1st may we decided will be the day we celebrate vday... lol... but of cos as things would turn out, his exams were on 30th april and 2nd may... so we pushed it to 5th may. (here i must say thank you to mervin and huifen because they specially pushed back their pre-wedding meeting with all their helpers just for us! thanks thanks! truly appreciate it!)

so showered, dressed (was given specific instructions to wear t-shirt, berms and comfortable shoes... and i was thinking.. oh oh! what are we going to be doing?!??!) and waited... he appeared early! supposed to go out at 8.30am but he arrived at abt 8.15am...

he looks at me and with a laugh he asked "so, are you ready?" and i go 'uhuh' not knowing what to expect... with that he continues "today you're going to play amazing race!" and i burst out laughing feeling very touched that he actually went through all that trouble and effort to planning an amazing race just for me!

"you'll be given clues and tasks. the clues will lead you to a pit stop, and upon reaching the pit stop, you'll receive a task. there are 9 pit stops, and one of the tasks is a bogus task. you must use the street directory and direct me to get from pit stop to pit stop. if you choose a wrong destination, so be it and we'll just go get lost... (yes his daddy lent us his car the whole day) here's your first clue"

but he handed me the wrong colour envelope... heehee... purple ones were the clues, pink ones were the tasks. so i got to see my first task by accident. it said "buy a loaf of gardenia bread" and being me my mind kept racing and thought of all the possibilities.. were we going to make sandwiches? but the excitement of the day was overwhelming so i just left it at that and waited for my first proper clue.

clue #1

A man dies and finds himself in front of 2 gates, each guarded by an angel. He is told by a voice that one of the angels tells only the truth and guards the gate to heaven, while the other angel tells only lies and guards the gate to hell. He is allowed to ask the angels only one question, after which he has to make a choice and enter one of the gates to face his eternal destiny. Can you help him think of a question to ask?

background to clue #1
when we were in secondary sch, xiang and i would meet up occasionally as friends. one of the attempts to study made me prepare this for him hoping he'd take ages to solve it and thus leave me free to study... but he solved it in half a minute! lol... ah well...

my guess:

serene centre

and it's correct! so off we go... and u see, while i can get fr destination to destination by car, i needed to direct him. problem is when i direct pple it's usually by what i see, and not road names... so that was a wee bit tricky... but serene centre wasn't too difficult. now i was hungry and was delighted to know we'd have my fav breakfast, MACDONALDS!!!! heehee...

so we had a nice relaxing chat over breakfast... just enjoying spending time together... and i got my official task #1 when we were done with breakfast.

task #1
Buy a loaf of Gardenia bread

I asked 'are we going to eat it?' and he just smiles and goes 'maybe!' his fav answer in the last few months whenever i asked if he was going to propose that day... lol... so it was with this same frustrating answer that i had to go buy a loaf of Gardenia bread.

so we proceeded to the Tierney's upstairs and to my horror they had lots of sunshine bread but only raisin gardenia bread! now for those of u who know my eating preferences, you'd know that i don't eat cooked fruit in any form, so the thought of eating that one was a big nono!

now xiang told me there were other options as to where i could purchase the bread... and i mentioned there was a cold storage nearby much to his disappointed cos he had hoped i'd walk all the way to the coronation plaza ntuc... so far!!! but yeah, cold storage we went and this time he was nice enough to nod and say we could get white bread instead of just shrugging and going maybe... after buying the bread (he paid for everything that day) he gave me my next clue

Clue #2
Raphael, Crush, Poke, Koopa, Tickle

i stood there in cold storage, i knew they were turtles... lotsa turtles... so i guessed his sister's room... cos she really likes turtles and tortoises and has plenty of them... that's when he relented and said he'd tell me if my guess is wrong. guess he didn't want me rushing to his house and shaking his sister out of bed saying "what's my next clue?!?!" heehee...

so i was thinking out loud... turtle turtle turtle TURTLE! BREAD! feed turtles at botanic gardens! (this was xiang's fav moment cos apparently my eyes suddenly brightened up as i beamed and held up the loaf of bread, happy to have made the connection)

so as we walked back to the car, with me feeling very pleased with myself i suddenly realised i faced a problem. i know botanic gardens is nearby but how are we to drive there from serene?! so i flipped open the directory and to my dismay all the small roads were just where the maps ended and joined so it was quite hard to tell which road joined where... but i knew we had to go to cluny park road... we came to the t-junction and he asked me, left or right, i peered both ways and whined "i don't know!!!" he sighed and indicated right... hehehee.... whining helps! plus another car was coming so he couldn't just pause at a t-junction when there weren't any cars in our way... heehee... and ta da! we were there!

as we approached the turtle pond, i was wondering what my task would be... would it be to spot the odd shaped turtle we saw last time? or to count how many there were... altho that would have been plain impossible... i didn't know...

background to this pitstop was that we used to love going to that pond and feed those turtles. many like feeding the swans but these turtles are just too funny for words... esp the baby ones! they'd grab a piece and they'd swim away for dear life and i'd imagine thought bubbles going *pant pant pant... mine mine mine! bread mine!*

task #2
Feed the turtles. Take your time, have fun!

heehee... he's too sweet lah... he was afraid i'd just toss all the bread in and rush off since it was the amazing race... heehee... fun fun...

whoa... this is taking a really really really long time to blog... shall keep u all in suspense for the remaining 7... gotta go see a doctor now... stay tuned!!! heehee....

amazing race with a bling

2007-05-05T23:22:00.000+08:00

an amazing day racing through 8 pit stops and various tasks ended with this task.

and with the task came my prize... THE bling bling! =)

blog more about it soon... too tired... was out for about 14 hours today and it's way past my bed time. but it's a brand new chapter in life!

Tagged by Megan

2007-04-30T12:43:00.000+08:00

Rules of the game:

Each player of this game starts off with ten weird things or habits or little known facts about yourself.
People who get tagged must write in a blog of their own ten weird things or habits or little known facts as well as state this rule clearly.
At the end you must choose six people to be tagged and list their names.
No tagbacks!

Ok, so here it goes... =)

1. Before i open a packet of pepper at macdonalds, I flick it three times to knock all the pepper down before i tear it open

2. I adapted a picture on my childhood dinner plate and won 2nd prize in an art competition. Got a medal and a box of sakura crayons!

3. I dressed up as ursula in a fancy dress competition in primary school. Wore a tube (sewn by mummy) at the tender age of 8

4. I used to make a big fuss when my family, daddy, mummy, cheche and me didn't close our car doors in rapid succession to create a 'bong! bong! bong! bong!' sound

5. The way I eat is clear off food on my plate ordering to preference, starting from the least preferred. as such it's always vegetables, rice, average dish by my liking and ending off with fav bits of the meal (eg. roasted duck skin, tho my daddy always threatens to steal em off my plate and i have to fend off any forks zooming in on my prized pile)

6. I like shark's fin (sorry to those who like to save animals and are against cruelty to animals) but i only like those lower grade ones that u get at wedding banquets. i once had good shark's fin, when u actually see a whole piece of it, and wondered 'where's the shark's fin i love? sniffle!'

7. Practically all my stuff toys have names, and most have personalities, some odd and some even more odd! there's a turtle that can't sing to save his shell, a blue monkey with a short term memory, a precious keepers turtle who lost his voice and now speaks with a really odd accent, a crocodile who keeps wanting to befriend all my pigs for one sole purpose, a clever pig who lisps, a star who keeps saying she's kawaii... you get my drift? =)

8. I get gastric on sunday mornings if i dont have breakfast but weekdays are fine

9. 10.30pm is considered late for my bed time

10. For about 23 years of my life i never knew what the smell of fart was. Was told it smells like shit and had to take everyone's word for it (unanimous answer each time i asked). Of late i've finally caught a whiff or two but sometimes the smell still escapes me. thank God for that! =)

Heehee... yup, so those are the ten things about me!

You've been tagged! -> Cheche (aka Elaine to everyone else), Meng Yang, Eliza, Mervin, Huifen and Codfishy

let's count some blessings

2007-04-26T07:41:00.000+08:00

it's been a while since i had a list... =)

I thank God for

life
a brand new day
the rain cos this means we've got water to drink and our plants get to drink too!
my family
xiang
helping me through april especially last week
watching over me
being able to have some time to chill and catch a movie with xiang last night
being able to meet up with busy maggie over the weekend
finding a nice chinese restaurant with my colleagues and eating yummy crispy spring chicken, hotplate tofu and sambal kang kong! yumyum
bringing a colleague safely back from his mission trip
helping me complete my work daily
the idea of eating dinner prior to my tuition sessions in the evening as it helps me have a lot more patience!
that i'm a morning person and i feel nice and awake this morning! =)

Memories of a dear uncle

2007-04-19T09:56:00.000+08:00

Increasingly I'm realising the importance of memories. Every memory is unique and once yours can never be taken away.

As I lost a dear church uncle yesterday after his tough fight with cancer, I sat in the funeral service pulling every single memory I have of him.

The day he first walked into church with his family. I remember his smile as he saw me play with his youngest son.

As a worship leader, I remember seeing him standing with arms stretched wide worshipping our Heavenly Father with sincerity and a heart of worship at his usual seat.

I remember his courage. He told his doctor when first told of his cancer that he wanted to go for his church camp before coming back for treatment. reason he said 'I'm getting baptised!'

I remember his fervour for the Lord as he clung to his faith and trusted the Lord to watch over Him.

I'm glad we sat at the same table during one of the rest stops for our church camp last year and shared durians.

I remember his laughter as he played with baby Joshua in the bus. How he insisted that the reason why joshua fell asleep in my arms was because i bored the baby to sleep. =)

The image of him playing spongebob uno with the children at camp is so vivid it seems like only yesterday i saw him sitting by the window sill at fraser's hill.

Recently as his condition got worse and he'd sit at the corner of the sofa in church, I sat down and had a chat with him. What we spoke about is unimportant. What's important is that we spent time together. Two people once strangers, now friends and in God's family, talking.

Although he's no longer physically here, he will remain in my thoughts and heart and one day I know I'll get to see him again.

It brings me comfort to know that he's now safe in the arms of our Lord and that where he is now there is no more pain and suffering.

I'll miss you Uncle Jeffrey... Will miss the gleam in your eyes when you talk about kong bak pau... Will miss being able to call 'Uncle Jeffrey'... but i know this separation is but temporal...

you have indeed fought the good fight, ran the race and kept the faith.

a lioness befriends an oryx

2007-04-14T09:04:00.000+08:00

when i watch animal shows on cable, the wonder of God's creation never ceases to amaze me. every animal has a structure in place for how it lives, eats, reproduces and survives predators. there are animals or species of animals out there that man doesn't even know of and yet they too have such a structure in place.

did u know that an elephant shrew's defence against the hawk is to memorise a racetrack it develops itself? it spends all its free time zipping down shrew made tracks, removing any new obstacles and when the hawk does strike, with great speed this lil shrew just a fraction the weight of the hawk, and speed abt half the hawk's, races for his life. knowing his track saves his life... switching tracks last minute helps him escape the clutches of the hawk.

people tend to balk at the idea of big cats attacking helpless deers, elks etc... but seriously if these predators weren't around, all these grazers would get far too numerous...

last night i watched a documentary on how a three year old lioness 'adopted' an oryx... the oryx was a baby itself... its horns barely growing... it was an amazing relationship. sadly, because the two of them didn't have enough food and thus no energy, as the lioness was resting, the baby oryx got attacked by another lion. the lioness being so much smaller couldn't do anything but mourned the lost of her 'baby' just like a lioness mourns the loss of her baby cub.

fascinating... thank God for His creation. He put thought into everything. Just like how He put thought into creating you and me. we're all unique... and all loved just as we are. =)

emay, have you got a dress?

2007-03-18T20:32:00.000+08:00

my colleague asked me on thu 'emay, have you got a dress?' and i paused for a moment and realised that aside from two formal dresses i've worn for weddings and formal functions, and two old spaghetti strap dress both of which are collecting dust in my cupboard, i actually don't wear dresses.

i don't sashay down the streets in nice flowy dresses which seem to be quite the rage these days, esp coupled with black tights... black tights and emay just don't go together due to incredibly huge calves and thighs... but a dress i had to find for something work related. and it had to be a casual dress that one could wear to the beach! aiyoyo!

i actually called my good friend who knows fashion at her fingertips and asked her 'what's a sundress look like?' i had all of one evening to buy one... so i hit far east plaza hoping that somehow one of the many tiny girly shops in there would have a choice find for a tight budget of $20 (the amt i was willing to spend for something i didn't intend to buy)

so i headed for this fashion first. cos it's known for more affordable items. but after searching every single rack that had anything that remotely resembled a sundress i found nothing... so i wove in and out of the many shops and found some pretty ones (which were like $69.90! and the salesgirl was explaining it was fr korea and a good buy... no way!) and some hideous ones (who wears such things????) and finally tucked in a lil cornered i spied some dresses... many of them spotted a really low neck line... but xiang said one of them was pretty and asked me to just try it on. *gulp* first dress in ages!

and i tried it... and it was such a pretty dress... think there's something abt dresses that makes a girl feel awfully feminine. and it was such a soft satin-like material that swished around as i moved... a nice retro design with bold orange and brown floral prints on white... and it was $25! 25% more than what i had hoped for, but i was desperate... tired.. and hungry... so i agreed... and to my amazement, there was a storewide discount of 20%! so God provided me with a pretty dress for the exact price i was willing to fork out! amazing!!!! praise God!

heehee... now i might just explore more dresses... =)

Music & Lyrics & a Confession (be ready for what you're about to read)

2007-03-09T12:58:00.000+08:00

Loved it... Hugh Grant's comic timing is simply perfect. And the songs were nice too! Yummy show...

took the afternoon off yesterday cos I realised I haven't had a single moment of a good break since sept last year i believe. so yes and afternoon & evening of fun and food with xiang was delightful!

had my work review on tue as my six months in my new position ended last month. i didn't even have time to sit down and write my report (basically telling them why i'm needed here! lol) till the day itself. in fact it was by His grace that i put together a page and a half of ramblings in the time my other colleague had her work review with my boss. lol... the review went well and i'm glad and very thankful... =)

meeting up with a dear friend later on.. haven't caught up with her with what seems like an eternity now... got a meeting to run to in the afternoon tho.. hope that goes well. cos as far as i'm concerned, still kinda clueless as to my role in this whole project.

u know, lately when people tell me 'hey emay you've lost so much weight' i tend to think 'yeah right!' and my answer is always 'well, don't know if i have but what's impt is that you think that i LOOK like i've lost weight'... and i always daren't step onto the scales for fear of what the figure would turn out to be.

so u see, when my parents asked me to go weigh myself yesterday i refused. i absolutely detest standing on those scales as i usually have a huge dip in my esteem da blahblah whenever i do. then this morning my mum asked me to again! now i'm really curious as to why she's so insistent on my doing so. and then it comes out 'you better check your weight and don't lose anymore otherwise you might be anorexic'.

now why did that thought pop into her mind? well, for those of you who don't know, i went through the whole anorexia and bullemia thing... not to the extreme of needing to go to the hospital, but extreme enough to know that i could throw up as and when i wanted to and with ease and without a mess. extreme enough that whenever i felt ill i knew i wouldn't throw up simply because it was done so often that it was effortless.

so why am i sharing this? well, you see, i realised over the years that my self-worth is not measured by how much i weigh, but rather that i'm created in His image and as long as I'm healthy, happy and not overweight, i'm content.

that was several years ago, so this morning when my mother said that with fear in her eyes, i realised what i must have put her through then. i doubt she ever knew the extent of the torture i was putting myself through, and i don't think i'll ever tell her and i don't think she'll ever read this so hence i've placed my thoughts here.

it came as a complete shock to me that she suspected i wasn't eating again... so i assured her that i have. and i have been... i merely have cut down on my fast food and as much as possible i try to eat soup noodles and avoid snacking. so to assure her, i told myself i would step on the scales to show her my weight remains the same and she has nothing to fear.

so stepped on the scales i did. and to my surprise, i really did lose weight... on my home scales, i was about 4-5kg lighter than what i was end of last year. so i think a change in diet really helped. i'm amazed... and very glad... and even more glad that i no longer think of resorting to awful extreme measures in losing weight.

lalala... now all of you know... and i hope you will never have to go through the torture i put myself through for something so superficial.

thus if you ever doubted me lately when i said i didn't know if i lost weight and attributed it to healthier choices of food, it's 100% true. ask xiang. he shudders at how often i can eat soup mee tai mak without oil!

bottom line is... the next time u think of making a 'someone is fat or someone has put on so much weight' joke. think twice... cos there just might be another teenager out there who makes a bad decision because of that joke.

thai or malay?

2007-02-23T21:17:00.000+08:00

whew... cny's over... this year i understood the joy of helping out at home. i mean i've helped out at home before for cny but never like this year's. i took two and days worth of leave to help at home... burned two weekends to help make our home spick and span and ready to usher in the new year and have relatives over.

with all that's been happening at home with my parents not being very well and all, i'm glad i finally had the sense to be more dutiful at home. but boy was i tired. plus my left hand's middle finger had its nail snapped back and it broke! think nails were brittle from all the scrubbing and washing of tiles etc... so it was byebye hopes of getting a french manicure. oh well... it hurt really badly tho... but i'm glad after two days i was able to help with the dishes etc again.

no wonder the bible says, when one part of the body hurts, the whole body hurts... it's true... just a teeny weeny bit of flesh being exposed and i felt such pain! i guess, that's how the church ought to be... to be there for one another and to love one another and look at everyone as part of one body and not as different ministries or even churches...

well, i thank God that the weekend's here... this week was a lil topsy turvy cos i kept thinking wed was mon, or i'd think it was thu cos it was chu si. and today i was like, it's fri??? heehee...

was reading some of my previous posts and i realised i still haven't decided whether to pick up thai or malay... any suggestions anyone? or know of anywhere i can learn either of the languages?

Loved

2007-02-05T20:58:00.000+08:00

Me opening up yi xiang's room door to find many heads and balloons in a sea of darkness! plus mervin placing my fav cake in my hands with a lit candle

still not quite believing it was real...

see pretty balloons! all blown by err... mouths! no pumps! lol...

the spread! yi xiang got his mum to prepare my fav food... pizza, oven baked pasta, karage chicken, ribena! yumyumyum...

qing got me nice socks and laces to match my new pink running shoes!

cheche got me the most lovely earrings

yi xiang helping me wear the pretty bracelet with pink crystals he bought for me

Nice group shot... thanks everyone! you've made me feel really special and loved!

my very first surprise party... for me!!!!!!!! =)

wanted to blog abt it much earlier cos it actually took place on 3rd feb... but just didn't have the time to as i was helping out a lot at home with cny preparations and spring cleaning.

basically xiang kept me busy the whole day... poor fella had to wreck his brains as to how to keep me out... so huifen strategically asked to lead worship that week, mel conveniently couldn't make it to play, so i had to turn up for practice and this was after tuition, and after marketing with my mum... so i was really tired. so to ensure that i stayed out yi xiang roped in his dad so that i wouldn't be able to whine and ask to go home mid way... and guess where we went? qian hu!!!! aiyoyo... i have never dealt with so much fish, dead and alive as i have these past 8 weeks! lol... dead cos i've been helping to clear away the groceries after marketing... dead cos lil fishies are highly susceptible to illnesses when u first get them... and alive cos currently i've got 73 lively fishies in my tank... so yes, it's really been quite a 'nian nian you yu' for me thus far...

so there i was, dragged off to qian hu! and i was kept there for nearly two hours! and they still wanted to take me to another fish shop in clementi had the whole entourage not arrive yet by the time qian hu closed! but thankfully for me, they did... so off we headed back for yi xiang's pl...

i was thinking that there was a remote possibility of them throwing me a surprise having planned quite a few last year, but the house really threw me off cos it was really a typical evening at his place... they even remembered to hide their shoes! so no traces of any of them lurking abt the house! lol...

and the rest, you can see from the pics... just lots of laughter... food... and played word games to finish up the abundant amount of food... =)

very loved... =)

i thank God for xiang, cheche, mervin, huifen, daffy, eliza, qing, mel and xiang's family...

turning 25 soon!

2007-02-02T12:47:00.000+08:00

lol... since i'm turning 25, here's a list of 25 things i thank God for over the years... digging into my memory here!

I thank God for

Letting me come into this world and for placing me right where i am. i can't ask for a greater family than mine. true we have our squabbles now and then but when i actually sit down and think abt them and how much they love me, i know i've been richly richly richly blessed.
My mummy... who gave up the working world for me when i was a tiny tot... for all the heartaches that i put her through... for everything that she's done because she loves me... for teaching me how to clear the groceries, for cooking my requests when i just mention what i miss eating... for being her...
My daddy... that finally after i grew up we got closer. wasn't very close to daddy in the past cos he was always at work. i mean i loved him but i never quite understood him or appreciated him as much as i do now. thank God for stay home study during the A levels, otherwise i would never have gotten closer to daddy
My cheche... for all the times she got scoldings because of my mischief, for all the times she played with me even though i had an insatiable appetite for games, for the many sessions of playing with my stuff toys with me even now! the time she bought me a bright orange hamtaro when i was a mess, more recently her willingness to lend a listening ear when i needed someone older and wiser...
Xiang... for being there... for his laughter... for pointing out the most painful truths about myself... for trying so hard... for loving me for who i am... for all the lim teh sessions... for all the nua-out in front my tv sessions... for outings to more interesting places like the zoo and qianhu (no darling, we arent going there on my birthday! lol) for bowling and playing pool with me even tho he doesn't really like it... for teaching me how to twirl a pen right... for the countless emails, smses and gifts that have always brightened my days... for letting me kidnap the toys i bought for him and making them PRs in my home!
Maggie... for the solid friendship that we've shared these past 10 years! our many outings after school during mg days, our constant meeting up during jc days, working late into the night with you on that model thing, going to the arcade so many times! for always agreeing to take neoprints when i had a neoprint fetish! lol... for being maggie...
Ning... my shepherdess! for keeping in touch even after all these years... for the many touching and sweet notes and cards she's scribbled all these years...
Hannah... though you were away for quite a few years, i thank God we got to meet up quite a bit that one holiday when we spent like practically the entire day together and u got glued to my church's drum set... for popping by my blog and tagging every now and then...
Winnie... a true friend who always makes the time to meet up even after we left uni... she always remembers my birthday and she even surprised me once when we had to have a lecture on my birthday! she's so sweet!!!!
My wonderful cell group... mervin, huifen, eliza and daffy... it's been a real privilege being a part of the same cell and i look forward to more time spent together and in growing together as a cell closer to our Lord! we had a good 2006 yeah? the survival packs for huifen and daffy, the super huge cake for mervin, the surprise party for eliza and ling... but you all ah! neber wish my cheche happy birthday leh!!! notti notti! save for eliza of cos...
letting me pick up bowling as a sport
the children i taught during my hols when i was 17 and 19... really miss some of them, but memories are something that i can take with my for all time
the opportunity of working in church. it was really a joy being able to serve in church...
the opportunity of serving in church in various ministries... i've learned a lot from it, and look forward to serving Him more in any way that i can...
my room set! heheee.. it was done up several years ago and i love it! lots of storage space...
Pippy boy! he was the sweetest funniest hamster ever... miss him... but ah well.. he lived a good good life... =)
for my colleagues now... some of which have become friends! =)
angela... tho she's now working elsewhere, i'm so glad we clicked and that even now we still catch up and meet up ever so often!
my tuition teachers! for without them, i wouldn't have been able to grapple with my studies!
teachers who have been very dear to me... namely Mrs Diana Goh of MGS, Ms GK Goh who has since gone to be with the Lord, Ms Narindar from my JC... i've had nice teachers, but of them all, these three have stood out in my life.
auntie siew kwun for leading me in the sinner's prayer when i was 8!
the privilege of growing up in sunday school
my current job
my sister's new bunny
for many more things in future that i'm sure i can and will thank the Lord for!

we got a new bunny!

2007-01-28T20:33:00.000+08:00

a real one!

it's so sweet!!!!!!!!!

i like!

my sister bought it... and she now owes me a lot of money cos i went to the shop and bought it on her behalf... lol...

but it's really the sweetest little thing!

here it is! we won't know if it's a boy or girl bunny till a month later. it's about 2 months old now... =)

i like! =) =) =)

Revelation

2007-01-19T12:59:00.000+08:00

think i've discovered the cause of my cramps and its increased intensity of late...

now, don't let my case deter you ya? it could simply be me...

my dad mentioned that it could be due to my blood donations. having said that, pleas

e don't stop if you're a blood donor and don't let this deter you if you're thinking of becoming a blood donor.

at first i thought there wasn't any truth in it but perhaps my body didn't manage to replace the necessary minerals etc before i went for my subsequent blood donations. so i've got no choice but to cut down the number of times i go to donate blood.

quite sad about it... sigh... after waiting 24 years i finally decide to become a regular blood donor only to suffer from such severe cramps... but anyway, this is just a possibility... so if i skip my next donation which is supposed to be at the end of april, and my cramps persist, it's probably not related to my blood donations...

will keep u all informed...

as of now, trying my best to change my diet to replenish any minerals that might have been lost or lacking... think it's helping...

oh! my fish tank is so lovely now... we've got so many lil fishies! all sorts in various colours... so pretty! i can just sit and stare... never really liked watching fish before but my xiang's quite the fish lover so thought i'd try adn appreciate them too... some of their antics can be really funny... like there's this rather mad blue one that chases anyone away from this particular area in the tank... not a very friendly fella he is..

my dad just bought a couple more fish yesterday and i'm not too sure how to spell it, but the way they move their fins is really cute! like propellers! very cute... heehee...

can be rather therapeutic to just watch them swim around...

speaking of pets, I MISS PIPPY BOY! sigh...

thinking of things that i miss...

i miss hanging out with my friends after school... gone are the days when we can meet up and the malls are still empty and quiet...

i miss baking! sorry i haven't been baking much of late... the ingredients need a fair amount of cash to purchase so i'm kinda resting the pocket a little now...

i miss my badminton sessions with my cell mates!

i miss the mg canteen... the fishcake pieces doused in chilli sauce on a cold morning was especially delightful.

i miss bowling with my team mates in jc.

i miss school holidays...

ah well... just reminiscing...

anyway i thank God for the following...

for being able to fight of the temptation to eat carls junior yesterday! exceeded my fast food quota already when i bought a macs sausage mcmuffin on tue...
that vegetables are now less of a pain to eat though i still don't particularly love them
bringing the rain to a drizzle in the time it took for me and xiang to walk from my office to the bus stop yesterday
that i get to meet up with my ex colleague whom i miss very dearly tomorrow!
the revelation of the cause of my cramps... tho it's not for certain yet it seems to make sense... and very likely...
it's the weekend again! woohoo!
keeping me in good health despite people around me falling ill

alrightey, have a great weekend all! =)

Blessings...

2007-01-13T22:02:00.000+08:00

I thank God for...

1. Helping me and my mum find the aussino shop in centrepoint and managed to get three sets of bedsheets at great prices today!

2. For bus 16 which came promptly both going to town and from town to home...

3. Although i'm still cramping occasionally at various places, it's for shorter durations and the pain relief pills given by the doc seem to kick in really fast... so i thank God for that. =)

4. His protection as I drove today after not having driven since Nov i think... almost thank Him for watching over me when I drive... and no cars honked at me impatiently either!

5. The rain... though i know some pple find the rainy weather a pain, i honestly thank God for the water it has brought. =) heard from a colleague that there'll be places that'll suffer from drought this year so I thank God for giving us fresh water! =)

6. Yet another week at work... for easing my worries and problems... for letting me look at situations from different perspectives and know that some things are really just out of my control...

7. Helping me keep to my eating healthier resolution. Lol... yes i've decided to eat healthier cos maybe its something i lack or something i eat too much of that's causing my cramps... well, i've already maxed out my fast food quota for the month, so please don't suggest fast food if you're out with me, cos it's sheer torture! lol... i've started to eat my greens too! so far so good... still don't love em, but i'm trying to eat em... and eat more of em! =D

8. My room... it's still neat from the time i cleared it on Christmas... so at least I packed it well enough for it to be maintained! =)

9. Helping my sister through her jap test... tho it didn't matter if she passed or not, cos she would still have been able to move to the next module. heehee...

10. letting my dad find the fishies he liked and he bought a couple more fishies... =)

11. The time i spent shopping with mummy today...

Yeah... many blessings... very grateful for each of them... tomorrow will be going for a buffet lunch with my cell group. =) haven't hung out with them for a while now... should be fun! =)

Now if you're reading this before sunday 14 Jan, please pray for me cos i'm playing the keyboard for worship tomorrow and there are some really challenging songs that i have great difficulty in playing... and feel extremely inadequate...

alrightey, it's some reading time and it's off to zzzzz land for me! =) i like the rainy weather... it's wonderful for sleeping! heehee

a new beginning

2007-01-10T08:47:00.000+08:00

it's more than a week into the new year now... interesting how the years seem to fly by once one's out of school. i guess it's cos there aren't the milestones to reach anymore... it's all lumped under 'adult' now. lol...

i mean the first was to reach primary school. then it was the PSLE... then the 'O' levels, followed by the 'A' levels and finally graduation from university. i marvel at those who wish to continue their studies and get their masters etcetcetc. many ask me whether i'll study again... honestly i can't think of why i'd want to do it again, but people change, so maybe i'll change my mind in time to come.

what i do wanna pick up now tho is a new language... still considering if i ought to learn malay or thai... malay cos for the longest time strangers have always thought i was malay! so why not learn it and actually be able to understand them when they speak to me in malay? thai because of my church's direction to go into missions and our tie up with a Christian over in thailand... hmm... haven't decided...

this morning was my first time going to the polyclinic! the number of people that visit the polyclinic's simply amazing... quite an experience i must say... gotta go again next week. not looking forward to it cos of the wait. but no choice i guess...

on sunday went to my cell mate's new house in seng kang... that has started an ongoing discussion with xiang as to where we'd like to live in future... lol... as attractive as it is to get such a huge apartment for an affordable price, think we've both agreed that we'd like to live nearer town area... think i've been pampered by living in quite a central area for many years now.. since i was two actually! all the aunties and uncles in my block have seen me grow up... it's awfully funny when i meet them at the lift lobby and i chirped 'auntie! uncle!' and all these newly moved in folks will stare at me and wonder what's a grown up calling people who don't look all that old auntie and uncle! lol... it's funny... but it's the culture of my block i guess... in fact quite of a few of those young ones these days don't call anymore... guess that's not wrong, just not what i'm used to perhaps... but u know you're getting older when the younger parents ask their kids to call you auntie instead of cheche! lol...

Christmas is over!

2006-12-26T20:09:00.000+08:00

haha... i never thought i'd be this happy for Christmas to be over. don't get me wrong, it was a nice season, just an extremely tiring one.

the whole lead up to Christmas was sheer craziness! i was reading a friend's card to me and realised the sad truth of not being able to be as carefree and meet up with friends on a much regular basis. =( oh well, at least I still got to catch up with quite a few this year... a few more times than others...

anyway, my Christmas day was a very odd one. I basically spent the entire day packing my room! that's right... and it wasn't one of those stuff items into drawers and closets to make the surfaces tidy, it was a dig everything out and repack them neatly and get rid of those unnecessary stuff kinda packing. absolutely crazy! i started at 10.40am... at about 3pm, i was too far gone to change my mind... so the only way to go was to finish it all... and finish i did... at 11.45pm! lol... so it was a good 12 hours of packing cos i spent abt an hour on my meals... well, my room is really really really neat now. save for my dressing table drawers. but that's just four drawers, so it shouldn't be too bad. prob do it some sat morning or something. before chinese new year anyway.

listening to the best of frank sinatra... love his songs and his voice.. so classic... =) really much his era of songs as opposed to the music of this day and age... i find most of it rather tuneless and noisy.. but that's just my opinion... perhaps i don't listen enough to know of the good ones.

anyway, here's what I thank God for in 2006...

1. my family... who've always stood by me and ready to dish out advice (altho not all the time well accepted! lol) and who love me... *hugs*

2. xiang... he's got to be deserving of the most long suffering boyfriend to be able to put up with my crankiness and my ability to be completely unreasonable when i'm tired... and at times even when i'm NOT tired! *wink* though he's back for good, adjusting to him being in singapore 24/7 wasn't the easiest of things to do. but glad he's back anyway...

3. a new post at work which has opened up new challenges and made my job more fulfilling and satisfying.

4. friends at work. my sis was telling me 'colleagues are colleagues... when you actually find a friend from amongst them, it's just a bonus' well, i'm glad i've got 3 bonuses then! =)

5. everyone a part of my church's worship ministry... they've all come such a long way and i look forward to working with them to further improve our team's unity and heart of worship!

6. my lovely cell group... it's such a zany and supportive bunch.. plus regular in meeting up too!

7. my sweet girls in my sunday school class... they've brought me a lot of joy this year... and for 2007 i'm teaching my lil ones again.. they're 5 i think... so cute!!! the way they blink blink at me so cute! heehee...

8. His provision and wisdom. provision is so clear to me when i packed my room yesterday and realised i honestly don't need anything. i've got such an abundance of everything! wisdom because the bible says not to store up treasures on earth.. it's so true!!! all the stuff i own is really not impt at all and i definitely can't take it up to heaven with me... so the impt thing is to set my eyes on things above and remain focused on Him! =D

9. letting me take a step into baking! it's been a joy being able to bring others joy by sharing what i bake... =) plus my parents for buying me the oven!

10. all my Christmas gifts and cards... in my earlier entry i spoke of a friend i was speaking to about what Christmas gifts i wanted... well everything i mentioned in got! she combined with her sis and another friend! *sniffle* so touched! so now i've got cookie cutters, a cooling rack (a nice big one!!!), a chiffon cake tray and a Mr Bean bag! the new Mr Bean cartoon is so cute! the bag was a bonus... but it's really adorable!!!!! heehee... Mr Bean not as in rowan atkinson but the one that sells soya bean products.. heehee... i got two name card holders, both pink! lol... lovely... my sister bought me pictionary mania! sounds fun! my parents got me a bag and my mum added a surprise of bak kwa! lol.... xiang's mum got me a really nice bag too.. and so did a church auntie... so surprised... cos i was just lamenting that my bag's getting really crummy and all the threads are showing etc... and ta-daaa!!! i get three! actually four cos at my office party, the gift i drew was a bag too!!!! God provides! and many many many more gifts... plus some of the Christmas cards were really sweet... thank you thank you thank you... you've all been a blessing!

alrightey.. i'm sleepy! haha... yes it's really early but i've been having too many late nights. time to rest early for a change! =)

Blessed Christmas and New Year all! =) =) =)

Shopping spree

2006-12-15T13:33:00.000+08:00

Yesterday I left work punctually and hopped over to J8 to do some Christmas shopping. In a mere hour I bought 11 gifts. Then I stopped by Tiong Bahru Plaza and got another 11 in about 15 minutes. Lol...

Yes, the gifts were speaking to me yesterday... well sorta... think some of them don't fall under the 'perfect gift' category but nice gift at least. i hope... lol...

now i'm just left with my sister's gift... she keeps bugging me to get a gift for her... and even tells me what exactly she wants... i keep ignoring her... where got pple keep bugging others for gifts one??!!?!?! lol... i know she reads this... =D

then last night i wrapped a total of 17 gifts... after which i was too tired to continue... =) Christmas is just round the corner! =) =) =)

Christmas is coming!

2006-12-02T13:57:00.000+08:00

Heehee... this year I got into the festive mood pretty early cos I was involved in a event at work that was Christmas centered somewhat... so it was the whole Christmas music thing... plus i had to order the buffet dinner for my church's Christmas service... so yes... in a Christmas mood...

now it's a matter of finding the appropriate gifts for dear friends and family... haha, talking to a friend about gifts right this instant. asking her what she wants and she's asking me what i want in return...

baking stuff's good but if u do want to get any, it'll be good to just ask me cos i've got a fair bit of stuff already... anyway, if u do get me baking stuff, u'll benefit too cos i'll bake more! lol...

if not borders, kino or popular vouchers are very useful... =)

cook book for pastries and pies are nice too... i've got got one for biscuits and another for cakes and yet another for pizzas... so pastries and pies would be nice... savoury pies, not fruit ones tho... but then again maybe they're all in the same book.

no stuff toys tho please... all my toys are already vying for my attention so anymore would simply add to their misery. lol... and gone is my fascination with pigs, so unless it's absolutely adorable or useful, no need to get pigs ya?

a namecard holder would be useful. the one i've got is so thin it can barely hold any...

nice notebooks are good too...

lalala... anyway, i'm just being presumptuous that anyone even wants to buy me presents! haha....

tempted to bake later, but my mum doesn't seem too thrilled at the idea... wonder what i'm gonna do the whole of today... sigh...

not much of a life lately... so sad...

but i did catch the new bond movie... tho my family absolutely hates it and found it an utter waste of time, when i caught it with xiang yesterday, we rather liked it! heehee.... ah well... think a contributing factor was that i finally did something after a period of staying home every night.

badminton again!

2006-11-12T19:11:00.000+08:00

played badminton with my church mates again today. aiyo! so jialat! i haven't played since end august so i'm like =P!!!!!! lol....

but it was good fun... going again next week. missed hanging out with them and having a good laugh at funny shots. only problem is i cramp real easy when i play... sigh.. been having this problem for several months now. hope it isn't anything but a lack of sufficient warming up tho today i made sure i had a round of proper stretching... at this rate i'll probably need to stretch for half an hour! and drink a litre of h-2-o... at least i think that's what it's called...

suddenly can't remember the name of that drink. just had a nice relaxing bath and feel all clean again. but it was a good workout tho i pengsan-ed like after a mere hour. lol...

alrightey, xiang's done with his bath too.. mum mum time! yumyum! =)

surprise surprise surprise

2006-11-07T19:32:00.000+08:00

this year has been a year of surprise gifts and parties for me... as in organised by moi! the latest one was the most elaborate one thus far. i realise i'm someone who likes to better myself in the things i do... the recent party which i organised took place just on sat... plans were in the works about more than a month ago... lol...

anyway, it went well and i really thank God for it. so many things could have gone wrong, but it didn't... an additional surprise of having her family appear at the party worked out. the friends involved were all a great help...

thanks...

xiang for going shopping with me tho u had no idea what was running thru my mind as i kept looking for things to speak to me. thanks for preparing all the sushi stuff and even raising the idea of having sushi in the first place. it was a smashing idea and i think everyone enjoyed it...

ling for coming so early to help. the card was beautiful! =)

huifen for helping wrap the presents so prettily! and for appearing in the decoy video and for coming early

mervin for coming early to help and for going with xiang to buy all the stuff at meidiya despite being ill... for NOT hiding behind any couch with pple u aren't supposed to hide with! lol

qing for suggesting to use the worship practice time as the party time and for trying so hard to reach eliza's family... =) and you took great photos and videos of the party... =)

daffy for baking the cake and coming on time as planned...

kelvin for lighting the candle of the cake

auntie (eliza's mummy) for coming!!!!

uncle david and auntie justina for coming too! and for keeping it from your children... =) auntie justina, thanks for bringing the cake out too!

charmaine, carter and clinton for being so adorable... and for being so quiet when u came out to surprise eliza jiejie! u kids really livened up the party... =)

eliza for being one surprised birthday girl! *hugs*

yeah... it was a good party... lotsa laughter and good food... we were all so stuffed by the end... =) but it was rather grand for a surprise party... so i think i shall take a year's hiatus from surprise parties... brain juices all used up liao!

more than a month

2006-10-31T13:37:00.000+08:00

hello hello... been a while since i've blogged. so as you can tell, i didn't have the luxury of sitting down to do up any entries. whew...

was really packed with mission trip meetings and tuition. but the mission trip's over... it went really well, praise God for that! and i spent a total of 14 hours on sat to do up a 10min powerpoint presentation for my church. it was tiring.

tom's my last day of tuition for the year... so yeah! nov and dec ought to be a little less mad and i'll have time to do craft and bake etc... =) looking forward to it.

but year end's busy at office... oh well... better just having one busy than having everything busy.

been so busy that i barely even had time to spend time with xiang. i know.. it's terrible of me. but simply haven't the energy. but nov's here, so finally can be a bit more sane and amiable... lol... poor chap had to put up with my nonsense... lol...

lately i've a few friends who are doing a long-distance or will be having long distance relationships. i can't help but look back to sep 03 when everyone told me 'ldr's very tough. i won't be surprised if it doesn't work out'. some flat out told me it wouldn't work... well, i've got a very diff tune to sing to my friends who are now in the midst of ldrs... ldrs are possible. it's not even that difficult really. just takes commitment and the willingness to communicate more to make up for the lack of face to face meet ups.

in fact adjusting to 'normal' dating life has been a challenge too... so i believe any kind of relationship long distance or not, simply requires that commitment to sort out differences, know each other more and communicate in a way that will get the msg thru to the other party.

k.. gtg... lunch time's over... =)

peace in the midst of a busy schedule

2006-10-04T07:48:00.000+08:00

hey all... for those of you who've met me this last week, the first thing that comes out of my lips is 'i'm so tired' or 'i've been so busy'... but as i sit here and ponder about what my week has been like, i realise that despite my busy schedule, i had a peace deep down knowing that Jesus is with me.

last friday my mission trip leader (MTL) challenged us to share 'steps to peace with God' with one person by this friday. when i heard it, i felt excited, worried and anxious all at the same time. excited because while i shared the gospel before (not that many times) i never like used a little booklet like this one, nor have i had such a real guidance in sharing it before either. my MTL has shared with so many before and her joy in having shared the gospel at God's prompting is contagious. worried and anxious because being asian perhaps there's that chance of 'losing face' if the person doesn't accept Jesus or doesn't even want to hear or doesn't even want to be your friend anymore cos they feel you are pushy. and yet as worry flit thru my mind, my MTL reminded us that we'll never be on the losing end when we share Christ with others. why? number one, the seed was sown... two if the person gives u a reason as to why he/she can't or won't receive Christ you'll know a specific prayer need for that person. and i just thought of a third, it makes my faith grow as i take that step of faith to share with someone dear to me. i thank God for this challenge and today's the day i hope to meet this challenge. i've been pondering and praying since the challenge was issued and feel that the time has come. i'm kinda jittery and have mass smsed quite a lot of people to ask for prayer, cos i know that so many things can go wrong, or i may just chicken out at the slightest excuse... so if you're reading this, please pray for me! pray that i'll have the peace and boldness to share Christ with my friend today. that i'll be sensitive to the Holy Spirit and sensitive to my friend's feelings. if u've said a little prayer for me, i thank God for that prayer, and i thank God for you!

so anyway this past week i thank God for

giving me the chance to bake two batches of cookies even tho i was busy
teaching me how to rest
rest on sunday afternoon and monday night
the opportunity to catch Forbidden City on its last night. it was good and i enjoyed it
letting me be able to donate blood and do my little bit in helping another who needs it
making me His child
a colleague who shared some cookies SHE baked with me this morning
yet another brand new day
friends i know i can count on
His help in getting my work completed

ok, will end off here... so please pray for me!!!! i hope my next entry will be one that can share with you some good news! =)

I baked choc chip mint cookies!

2006-09-26T22:55:00.000+08:00

I'm sooooo pleased! i successfully baked cookies! i haven't baked for years because we don't have an oven. tho recently my mum told me that this contraption we have, the chef delight ought to be able to since it can roast a chicken and do oven baked pasta...

so i tried it out! *oops!* gotta go take another batch out cos it's pretty small so i can only fit like 7 cookies at a time!

ok... about three more batches to go... lol... think i'll only get to sleep past midnight today... and for those who know me, yes emay's actually staying up late today! haha.. i'm such an early bird. always sleeping at like 10plus max. but i guess the excitement of baking cookies has kept me awake.

gonna be bringing them to office and a few fortunate ones will get to taste them, only a few cos i'm bringing most of them to my mission trip meeting. heehee... hopefully there'll be enough.

xiang, my dad and sis got the first set of 7.. i ate one too! lol... yummy! the receipe's simple and good... but alas my sis doesn't like mint. sigh... nvm... more cookies to come soon! will try out funky receipes... i've already got icing sugar. all ready to try out something new! =)

k... so i thank God for....

HELPING ME BAKE MY COOKIES SUCCESSFULLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! *beams*

praise God

2006-09-26T13:37:00.000+08:00

I thank and praise God for

Dinner with a very dear colleague last friday
helping me through all my running sessions thus far. still slowly increasing and being able to achieve my targets!
my spanking new pair of running shoes! it's so nice running in them! =) helps that they're pretty too!
good friends who listened to me pour my heart out
my family who helped me realise certain truths about the situation i was in
helping me resolve the issue
clearing my perception this morning of my view of life
being with me through all the things that i've been going through and His assurance that He's always here with me
my sweet daddy who sent me all the way to work despite having just travelled to and from bishan yesterday morning cos of the rain
a nice and simple catch up session with my uni friend over dinner yesterday
letting xiang and i have a nice relaxing time on sunday afternoon watching Men of Honour... good show! loved it! watched it quite a long time ago... cuba gooding jr did a really great job as well as robert de niro.. go watch it if you haven't!
my new cook book! yup... bought a book called 'gorgeous biscuits'... hope i succeed in making them! =)
my mummy.. she taught me how to clean out a duck on sat! tough work!

Thai Coup

2006-09-22T08:00:00.000+08:00

Dear friends, please keep me and my mission trip mates in your prayers. As u should have read by now, a coup took place in Bangkok on Tuesday. As a team we're watching and praying. On the Thailand end, there's a possibility that the students who were supposed to attend the english camp we're organising may go back home instead of staying in bangkok for the camp. So please pray that we will follow the Lord's wisdom and guidance. It's all very tricky and plus all our air tickets have been bought and mission trip meetings have all been settled. yup, so will appreciate your prayers.

As for the rest of my life. Met my second run's target... Today will be my third run. The distance is getting further (still not far at all by many people's standards) so really pray that i can keep at it.

I thank God for

friends
xiang who bought me a simple dinner last night
daddy who's going to accompany me later during my run and send me to church thereafter
the weekend! it's here again!
helping complete the tasks i set out to do this week at work
His word that really shows me that He's watching over me

running target schedule all set

2006-09-18T12:26:00.000+08:00

ello... yes i finally sat down to do my running schedule. so if i remain disciplined and run all the times stipulated for running and achieve the distances set, i should be all set for hitting the 10km on 3rd Dec. Lol... sounds good in theory... keep coming back here to see my progress!

anyway, as I was charting out my running schedule I just realised for the next SEVEN weeks, every single weekday night has something on. if it's not running, it's tuition. if it's not tuition it's my mission trip preparation meeting, if not it's a combination of running and mission trip meetings. in fact even my saturdays have things too... hmm... only my sundays are 'free' but of cos those are filled with church service, cell group, cell badminton, running and going out with xiang. feel tired just thinking of these next seven weeks. lol... msged a friend asking how she was and at the same time told her abt my busy schedule, and she said and i quote 'your life sounds packed and fun!' hmm... packed definitely... fun... not all of it that's for sure... i suspect tuition will be tiring cos we're gonna be busy preparing for his finals. running will be tiring physically... mission trip meetings ought to be ok tho... so yeah... not that fun...

alrightey, heading for my very last tennis lesson later. judging from the hectic schedule i doubt i'll be able to join my new found tennis friends for any tennis any time soon.

well, despite all this, i thank God for

the opportunity to learn tennis
one more person going for our mission trip
a successful birthday surprise for a dear friend last friday
a good rest yesterday afternoon
His strength to keep going when the going gets tough

i signed up for a marathon! (only 10km lah...)

2006-09-13T13:20:00.000+08:00

hello hello... yes your eyes did not play tricks on you. emay... the one who absolutely detests running and truly believes she's simply not built for running has indeed signed up for the scb marathon this coming dec.

why? cos while i utterly can't stand the thought of running, once upon a time, back in sec 2, i challenged myself to pick up running... i was hopeless! the first day i tried, i couldn't even complete more than 3/4 my school running track (not even 400m) without having to stop to walk. it was terrible... but i kept it up, and before i knew it -tho i can't quite remember how long it took- i was running six rounds without breaking much of a sweat. the feeling was great... in fact i enjoyed running so much then, that if it weren't for my school bag, i'd have jogged home i think.. attempted to anyway. my sch was in bukit timah. and i life in tiong bahru... get the pic? lol...

so anyway, the idea of signing up for this marathon which will take place on dec 3rd, came to me while i was at a durian/famous geylang beef kuay teow feast last friday with my colleagues. The irony! Think we started talking abt it, cos someone in the group was wearing a t-shirt that said 'finisher of marathon 42.blahblahkm...' something like that. and somehow the idea clicked. altho i know it's impossible to do the full marathon this year... but i did toy with half a marathon. but given that i've got less than three months to train, it was decided that it's best that i do 10km first. who knows, am almost keen on doing half next year. for a full year of training, it ought to be attainable. =)

am thinking of doing it in aid of charity... so if i get round to getting the license, must support k?!?!?! =) will keep u updated.

anyway, was on course mon and tue, which was a nice change from coming into office. Tho things are getting pretty busy in office so actually it wasn't the best of times to be out. the course was pretty fun tho. trainer was relatively entertaining... and picked up some useful tips. =)

so since I last blogged, i thank God for

the boldness in signing up for the marathon
the strength in completing one full round after not having run since 18yrs old yesterday... one round in the park is equivalent to 800m... so the park map tells me anyway. i was pretty surprised i managed to do one round cos as i mentioned earlier, am hopeless at running. perhaps all the exercising via badmintom, tennis etc have helped... lol...
a nice date with xiang on sat after some quality time with mummy in the day... x and i had such a good time chatting we chatted for like two hours over teh at river valley and didn't even know it was two hours since we reached the kopitiam.
the bowling session with my cell mates on sunday... amazingly i bowled pretty ok with a 8to9 pound houseball... makes me wonder why i bother having my own gear... was too lazy to lug my bowling ball to church so just brought my shoes... but it was fun... my sister passed the 100th mark by a significant amount! so proud of her... =)
the durian/beef kuay teow outing with my colleagues and xiang last friday was fun... the durian was sadap!!!!!!!!! hope i spelt that malay word right... it was truly yummilicious!!!! *drool* and usually we eat beef kuay teow before durian, but we switched it on friday and it turned out so much better... =) yum yum yum!
for a tuition break this week... kid's got remedials till pretty late this week, so no tuition this week! whoopee doo... =D
this friday is drawing near, and it's my cell bbq!!!! fun fun fun! food food food! play play play! ought to be great!
it's almost 3 months since i last donated blood. this time will be going with my dear friend angela cos she's also due for a donation... =) yay... no need to go alone
my sis! she's booked us tickets for forbidden city!!! yay!!!!! =)

*smile*

another work week ahead

2006-09-04T07:46:00.000+08:00

well, it's Monday again... Yet another five days to go before i get rest... Today going for my first outside of office thingy... and it's at Tanjong Pagar not too far off... much nearer than office actually. so i thank God for that.

Anyway, I thank God for

the fact that I'm alive and well to face yet another brand new week
a set of 10 sheets of personalised stickers so now i've got my very own name stickers!!!! =D
the nice leisurely stroll around ikea (amidst quite a crowd) and anchorpoint with xiang...
the small little adventure cos we boarded the wrong bus and headed toward town instead of my place... lol...
ooooh... the yummy chicken wings at ikea...
my thoughtful friend who lent me her ikea friends card so got two free drinks and xiang's swedish meatballs set at a discount... cool!
xiang's dad as he also lent xiang his ikea friends card so we got four free drinks in total... lol... singaporeans sure know how to full use our freebies.. heehee...
a wonderful night's rest
the beach/cycling outing i had with my colleagues... altho i thought it didn't go swimmingly well, and could have been better organised, they were all so sweet and kept telling me they had fun etc.. but who would say 'ur outing was so bad! don't know why i chose to come!' right? ah well.. live and learn... just a very different crowd from what i'm used to... plus the mix of people was pretty large so talking wise wasn't the easiest of groups for ice to break... hmm... i enjoyed the cycling tho... to cycle and feel the breeze blow was so relaxing. able to take any tension out of my shoulders... lol...
the fantastic weather during the cycling thingy... it was cloudy over here at abt 4... it was drizzling at bugis.. but when my friend smsed me to ask about the weather, i told her 'never mind.. let's pray and go in faith'... and the weather was perfect... not too hot and not raining at all... =)

ok... you guys and gals have a very blessed week ahead!