[disclaimer: on no account are you obliged to read through this mammoth piece of rambling nor are you obliged to write something like this :P having said that, if you do read, then i hope it speaks to you and encourages you :)plough on!]
Every year, i look back and am totally amazed at what happened, how so many activities seemed to have been packed into so little time, how the boxes on some days are crammed full of activities and others have a almost joyous blank sheen to it. Thank You Lord for bringing me through yet another year, and 'even as i stand on the threshold of adulthood' (as written in my birthday reflection roughly 10 months ago), that i can declare that i stand in awe of You and Your providence.
If i were to describe 2006 as a year of upheaval and a year of great transitions, then 2007 could be described as a year of tearing down and building up, a year of building on foundations and of questioning. It was a year of moving beyond my comfort zone and a year of finding that when i heed God's call, He provides and provides abundantly. i don't mean results or anything, but more in the line of bestowing personal revelations, peace of heart and mind, giving the words and courage to speak and the love for people. i particularly treasure the peace of mind, for even as i characterised 2006 as a year of great uncertainty and doubt, that has not changed throughout this year, but i feel relatively more peaceful about it. having let go of my future and (trying my best to) surrender(ed) it into God's hand, it's been a rollicking and not always very comfortable journey, but the Operator knows where i am headed, i need not worry my silly head about the destination, just sit back, hold tight onto the railings and enjoy the roller-coaster ride.
'i have decided to follow Jesus, i have decided to follow Jesus, I have decided to follow Jesus, no turning back, no turning back' It also has been, more than any other year (thus far), a year of relationships and of deepening old ones and making new friends. A year of thoughts and of headaches (not that that's new... just that i acquired a new source of headache) and a year of discovering what it means to serve and to lead. i enjoyed all the time i spent with friends and with God, with myself and with a book. i think, it has been a strange mixture of discouragement and encouragement, the people in science, science comm in particular have been very encouraging and a blessing, praying for me (very touched by that). however, i still can't shake off the haunting notion that i haven't done enough, for the inherent/inherited problems were not dealt with. in fact, i'm starting to doubt whether or not they CAN be dealt with, or SHOULD they be dealt with (by me that is). but those are headaches that will persist into the new year and something i shall continue to struggle with. Okies, let me plunge into the maelstrom of activities and events that made up my 2007 and that made me who i am today... it'll be one paragraph per month unless something really warrants a paragraph on its own. expect my usual style of talking and then rambling or reflecting! apologies.
[Jan] The year started off with a celebration of my parents' 21st wedding anniversary, it was a good start to the year, for it was with this wedding that we commemorate that kicked off a stream of events that ended with me plaguing the world with long lengthy emails and annoying countless people. family has been an area with which i need to value more, to remember not to sacrifice my family all the time to the demands of my work, friends and thoughts. it has also been a humbling journey, learning how to swallow my pride, to listen to advice and to meet my parents' expectations. it's not so much of results but more of being a obedient daughter, one who pleases her parents. it has been challenging, trying to discern where that ends and where i am not being true to myself.
The second day of the year was spent with AnnTIC 06 comm, playing tabletop soccer and charades at nelson's place. it was a good continuation to a lasting friendship and i hope that even as this year ends and i spend the second last night with annTIC 06 comm, that we continue to build on this friendship! :) went back to celebrate my brother's birthday...
looking back now, at the very first Science Comm retreat, i can see how God has slowly exposed me to the things which science and science comm is concerned about, in going for that retreat i saw the difficulties the leaders faced, the problems in science and how great the inertia is to change things. it was also a good time of fellowship, it was the first time i met yiwen (whom i've gotten to know much better now, although i can't claim to know her as well as i annoy her :P) and i enjoyed the talks we had. it was something that i had striven to recreate for science comm, but upon serious reflection, i can honestly say that i did not achieve that, science comm is fairly fragmented. or at least, it is not bonded. but i will continue to hope and to pray for that... and to see what i can do, late though this may be.
badminton on friday made me ache during Sat@dover, with my new dg. it's quite a large dg, with about over 20 people, although attendance varies from week to week, with great fluctuations. met quite a few new people as well, it has been exciting and a good time of getting to know people in church better. the material we covered, 'Beta: the next step in your journey with Christ' by Neil T. Anderson; was interesting, i approached it with a rather skeptical attitude actually, because i don't quite like guidebooks like that, i would much rather do a book study together, but along the way, i learnt to subdue my pride and to learn, even though i may not always agree with what is advocated, but that is true for almost all books...
I enjoyed the 1st Westies Supper at Al-Ahazar, it was a good time of meeting CFers from different faculties and talking to them. :) it was a good ending to the holidays, even as school started and lectures slowly started to consume me... haha.
the first week of school was enjoyable, meeting with AC friends, CF friends and nanyang friends...
went for the first sunset prayer of the semester, made then a resolve to go for sunset prayers as much as possible, prayer being something that i felt i should work on... it's been an interesting journey, praying more and finding that i often fail to pray and reading about it...
had an interesting ACSWO (percussion) and ACJC Concert Band (percussion) gathering at Vivocity, with hua guang and taufiq and arthur and eunarco and crystal and the percussion juniors... i felt old =/ nonetheless, it was a good time of catching up and listening to the juniors' nonsense... haha.
sadly, i went for my very first VCF council meeting and well, it was vaguely intimidating being the only year one there (after joel ran off for training). but i found it fascinating, and well, generally i've enjoyed council, much to the surprise of some i guess... haha. i like hearing from other faculties and discussing about issues... get to hear different viewpoints and different perspectives... but it was interesting, quite a bit of discussion. :)
got an opportunity to talk to the crusaders and meet some of them, having bumped into peifen and decided to spend some time there chatting :)
sat came and well, it was interesting having to choose where to eat, being nominated both the food i/c and apparently the class monitress... (not that i did anything haha).
Sunday dawned and it's been a journey of learning to be helpful in small ways, in making myself available... of course, there were times when i made a pig of myself and slept instead but generally, i think i enjoyed the bit of free time before WoW Service. i also (surprisingly)enjoyed helping to fold the bulletins weekly with jane. went back for the packing of second hand books for the Science Club Second Hand Booksale...
it was interesting helping out at this Second Hand Booksale, a lot of work involved and well, i rather enjoyed it actually, hanging out with the welfare people and counting books/striking stuff off/tallying.
on wed, had my first lecture for SSD2213 (which i really really enjoyed, despite having to do a lot of readings and research on my own) and enjoyed taking the module with desmond!
on thurs was the very first AnnTIC 06 Comm Breakfast@Engine. Met fred and edward and had prata, enjoyed ourselves chatting and then met koh ni after that for another hour of chatting.
it was also the day i told Damien that i would be willing to take up science chair (having been approached by him during exam tea last semester). it was after i had a confirmatory sign from God. it's a long story of how i came to be chair and well, don't think i'll elaborate here, since it's sorta deviating from my reflections. so for the long story, i'll be willing to share when anyone asks, but it's not appearing here. haha.
friday was breakfast with melisa and edward after HMCA lecture.
had the first CG of the year, at pgp. it was a scary day, because it was the first time i led worship. and as i look back, i think it's good that God grew me through this, that from being someone who freaked out at the first time i led worship, to being more comfortable with leading worship. :) anyways, that first CG was memorable because of the worship leading (on my part) but also cos ger came for CG! :) *YAY!*
to ger:
think it's been a joy being in the same cg for two semesters running and walking together on this road :) it's also been encouraging to see you enjoying yourself, i look forward to many more semesters of growing together :) on sat, there was dg as usual, went to visit acband before it :) saw the j1s and j2s (darn it's hard to believe i'm j4 this year and soon to be j5) and bumped into the j3s and ben n goush n andrew! :)
Sunday was the second Westies Supper (Ah Mei Kaya Toast), had a long chat with Damien before it about science chairing and talked to Lester and Fern... quite a lot of people went... :) think we hit a record of 18 people... was quite happy talking to people. hui shan brought a cake to celebrate rixin's birthday :) We chatted till quite late, when people were a little high and yiwen was talking nonsense :P Rixin very kindly offered me a lift back, since we left the place at about 12.30am...
the sky was simply gorgeous... Thankful really that God has given clear skies and starry heavens, to gladden my heart and display His artistry and creativity :)
We started the first Science Lunchtime prayer on monday(met up with Damien and Elvin) for prayer... was good, interceding and praying about things :) although throughout the semester, it was rather strange, because we didn't quite know whether there is stuff we need to pray for or not... but it was good nonetheless, training ourselves in discipline and making sure that we commit to this meeting up and seeking God.
met up with gary and min min to chat on tues and FT 5 was on 'completing the Christian Marathon'. was a good message and i enjoyed catching up with people... went for supper with fred and koh ni at clementi (the coffeeshop that's halal and sells the kuah tutu :P) was good catching up, although as always, fred is fishing for more details :P but then, that's an anntic 06 comm's obsession and considering, he behaved fairly well... haha. was nice of fred to send koh ni and then me home... :P got showmanship lol... but koh ni arh, bad sense of direction, got us to go in one big round -_- oh wells, was good talking to fred in the car.
the next anntic event was the 2nd annTIC comm breakfast, with edward fred and koh ni... the last two got me to wear koh ni's clip on earrings and tried to persuade me to wear skirt to school and wear earrings as well... haha. i left rather unconvinced, but they managed to extract an agreement from me that i'll wear a skirt to the next breakfast meet-up. not that i don't like to wear skirt or refuse to, it's just a lot more mafan, cos if i want to run i can't really run with a skirt and sigh... besides, lazy lar, to answer questions on why i wear a skirt lol.
went to do duty at the infusion thingy, which was quite an eye-opening experience, interacting with the people at the booth and sharing about peranakan culture :) i realised a lot of exchange students don't know what peranakan is... most thought it was a nation of its own... guess cultural blinders on my part, assuming people knew what i knew... was fun feeding people nonya food heh.
friday was good, the first practical was very slack, so we sat around the air-con room (with the weighing balances) and talked rubbish together, even the TAs joined in and slacked with us...haha.
CG was on relationship with a focus on singlehood, conducted by Joel Pan, it was an interesting session and brought back food for thought, like whether or not i was ready for a relationship, whether singlehood was a gift or a calling, whether it was the norm or the exception.
went back to rest and prepare for Crossroads 07. [more will be elaborated on in the subsequent paragraph] Sufficient to say that crossroads was from friday to sunday but i went on sat cos i wanted to attend cg.
on the last monday of january, there was a field trip to kampong glam for SSD2213. really really enjoyed myself and learnt a lot about the place, in fact, i think i would probably continue to research and to find out about more about singapore and the architecture in it. the buildings around kampong glam and bugis really is quite interesting, like we went past a leaning mosque, the 'sultanate' and many old shophouses... ended off at beach road, where des imran and i enjoyed the chin chow, which was really good btw.
then i rushed back to school to meet up with fangyu for a nice long chat... think we went to Nicole's at UCC, had the sausage meal which was fabulous... :)
tues dawned, midday was spent in lunchtime prayer with josiah and ended with sunset prayer, took photos of the sunset for GEK1506.
the last day of the month was sent meeting with ruth, elvin and weili for preparation for leading the social action cg... it was really good, an eye-opener and a humbling experience to find out that there is so much that i don't know! but it got me thinking and i dare say that it was a good follow-up from Ruth's Social Action Game at annTIC 2006... jan truly was a busy but enjoyable month, filled with meet-ups and good fellowship, over food, work and nonsense :)
CrossRoads 2006:
had originally decided to go for this for two reasons, first was that Rachel asked me if i wanted to go and the second main reason was that because of the uncertainty i was facing regarding the future, i wanted to see what it was on and how to tackle graduation and life after that… after all, having been rejected from medicine, law and food science, i wasn’t sure at all what i would be doing after NUS and thought it would be good to start early…
so yeps, on Saturday morning, after breakfast at Ghim Moh, munching on pancakes and thosai, off i went to aloha chalet… reached there at about 10.45am, just in time for the talk on guidance, listening to God’s voice and there was time for discussion with our group…
incidentally, a lot of people were very surprised to see me, haiz, seeing as i’m only a mere year 1 who had presumed to attend a camp that graduating seniors attend… haha. But on a serious note, think it’s good to consider things liddat early on and to start praying and seeking God on it. In fact, think it’s probably good to attend about a year before you plan to graduate, so that you can have time to think through and work out your thoughts on it, since the last year is a very packed and busy year and people seldom have time to reflect and consider the issues raised during crossroads…
anyways, i was getting a little aggravated at being introduced to seniors as the year one who came to anntic -_- lunch was good, think i spent it chatting with people like william, evan, linus, tabby, michelle, ruth, weili, fred... :) for one, i really enjoyed crossroads because of the company, spending time chatting and catching up with the graduating seniors was something i prized exceedingly, seeing that i hated it whenever people graduate and leave :(
after lunch was another talk on relationships and the need to maintain close accountable relationships, especially since after graduation, it's a lot harder to make new friends and one's circle of friend drastically shrinks upon entering the workforce... think that really impacted me and inspired me to continue working at building close relationships that last... to be accountable and to help others be accountable... :)
there was enough time for us to play Settlers of Catan, which made me really really happy! :) cos it's the first time i've ever played it, and it's a very fascinating game! but i must say that linus is a very devious fella haha :P double-dealing and trying to cut deals with everyone lol. pity he won us in the end... haha.
dinner with the dinos! junwen played the theme song for jurassic park :P entertaining... haha. sat with the engineers for awhile before going over to talk to the life science dinos who came... met elaine seah and weiqi :) elaine's in healthcare and very happy about it, while weiqi was doing her masters in biochem if i remember correctly. elaine was also a year 2 science chair in her time! :) was a good time in talking and getting to know them... and well, shared with them about my upcoming chairhood and they reassured me that it would be ok and manageable, just need to relax and not stress too much....
after that, talked to fred and gerry and yanchang and gillian for a while, before we all more or less finished and there was a group of us sitting around chatting... haha. then we wanted to go for supper, but took us a long long time to finally make our way there... in the meanwhile, as junwen and mark szeto were playing on the keyboard, i asked junwen if he could remember how to play the theme song for mario the nintendo game... was funny, cos then he started playing all the music for different stages and stuff... like the boss music and the music that's played when mario gets a gold star.
lost a few people just before we went (they decided to sleep) and then when we reached the chalet, there was a group of cfers (eg Yanchang and Ruth and forgot how) who had just had supper and were walking back... so had a nice cup of tehsi and after chatting for a while, walked to the beach with Ivan, Evan, William and Fern... really liked watching the sea at night, can see the dark almost black waves tossing and turning, moving relentlessly in the same pattern but not rigidly in the same way... soothing and the sea breeze that caressed us was so gently and light that i didn't really want to leave the beach... so ivan william and i continued to walk along the beach, enjoying the breeze and seeing where the path led to...
after that, we went back to talk, was a good time of sharing, teasing and finding out about stuff... heh. finally slept at 4am and woke up 4 hours later. there was a talk on what constituted acceptable sacrifice, success and failure. it was good, indeed thought provoking and got us all thinking about our lives so far and what God has done and given us... worship and lunch was good, cleared up, took us quite some time to finish up and to leave... haha. finally, we got on the bus, mrt then bus before finally heading home, tired but very happy and having learnt alot. :) been reflecting on what was learnt during crossroads and well, i really thank God that i went :)
[Feb]Started off with anntic breakfast, where ed, fred, ps, min min and william came :) wore a skirt to school for the first time and well ,it wasn't as aggravating as i thought it would've been haha. met up with weili for prayer and sharing :)
on friday, after lecture, rushed down with yihan to holland village, delifrance to meet fen and gui for a meal, i stopped by provence to get yummy yummy bread and ate it there... hee. after that, went back to school for a meeting with ivan and gary about CNY dinner.
led the bible study on social action, felt it was good that we did discuss things quite in depth :) but haiz, it's always been a slight disappointment that people in science generally don't like to speak up and discuss issues...
sat after DG was lunch at clementi central, had yummy chicken chops and not at all yummy chia tauy quay, ok sugarcane and interesting green tea nata de coco and IQ balls... heh. yum. was a good time of chatting over food as well.
monday had a good chat with fangyu over a meal together, then was the field triple from the temple in the middle of CBD (Wak Hai Cheng Temple, one of the oldest taoist temple, built by pple from guang dong) rows of incense coils/spirals hanging from strung wires across the courtyard. Cast your wishes onto the red pieces of paper and stick them in the center of the coils and as the incense slowly burns, the smoke carries your wishes to the heavens... was interesting learning about the architecture of our buildings in the CBD and the buildings which we think are historical :P haha. was nice climbing up to fort canning hill and gazing at the sprawling city center laid before us... dare i say there might have been delusions of grandeur planted then? thankfully, that was uprooted and des n i went to visit the Armenian Church, to pray there and to admire the architecture. went past the freemasons' building to finally hit raffles city, walked around and parted then, headed back to school to meet elvin for prayer. l
ater, met gary to go to clementi for dinner and to have a meeting on CNY dinner till fairly late...
there was combined prayer with CCC and Navs; went with px and bumped into a lot of people... was rather tiring, but felt that it was good that we came together to pray for each other and to intercede for each other... :) the sky was against magnificent... *sighs happily*
on wed, queued with dom for the 10 cents sub offer that subway had, although i didn't think it was fanfastic. however, the horribly snakey queue was instructive and vaguely alarming, considering at one point in time, there were more than a hundred people in the queue. *blinks* scary!
anntic breakfast on thursday once again, with koh ni ps and min min, slacked together/studied together and then went to study with ruth :)
council was on social action (again) and this was the longest council i've ever been to. we spent quite long debating on the finer points of stuff and well, it was both instructive and puzzling, as i had thought it was a very simple issue. but was fun looking through other people's eyes.
entertaining breakfast with ed, mel and yihan, went for part of the games... met teck tee (silly fern introduced me as sien and that lousy teck tee has been calling me that ever since) didn't get to play though, as i was off to a dinner with family and dad's company and uncle gerhad (forgot how to spell it) and his wife @ Villa Bali (it's oppo psa, near the old sajc). the food was nice! although i think we ordered too much, but uncle gerhad really really liked the ambience of the place and the sky was magnificent, loved the mocktails (didn't want to touch cocktails, although my brother downed like er, 5? *shakes head* tsk tsk) it was a peaceful sorta a place, with good landscaping.
sat was DG and the lunch at Ghim Moh made the discovery of the week, there was a yummy yummy dessert stall! and i brought back prima deli pie... haha. so we had dinner in the garden, ate the pie, spam ham, bread and mushrooms fried with garlic. yum yum yum. *happy*
sunday, played badminton in st francis and then after that, went to Ah Ma's place for reunion dinner. left about 9pm and i went to KAP, where they were having westies supper. that westies supper was a memorable one for med CF, since half of us were from medicine. haha. so funny. talked again till past midnight and managed to squeeze into lester n linus' car... yay!
anntic breakfast on monday (thanks to zizi, who didn't turn up in the end lol) and well, i really thank God for our anntic comm's friendships, that we still met up regularly after anntic 06 was over... :)
on tues, cos my lecture friends who heard about my first skirt day managed to persuade me to wear skirt to schol again... lol. sigh. and to my slight horror,i found out that it was FT day!!! goodness. anyways, God sent carolyn to me, was a good time of catching up with her, praying and sharing :) thank You God. met koh ni for a while, before i went to have dinner with gary and discuss about CNY dinner before heading down to BTC for FT ('social responsibility of the christian student'). was a good FT, although i got a lot of 'wah why today so special, wear skirt?' haha. FOC was fund-raising and bought some stuff from them... yeps. it ended fairly late and when i was waiting for the bus, daddy and mommy came to send me home, so wei chin who had injured his ankle got a lift back... *laughs at what happened in the car*
wed was a presenty day, gave both ger and koh ni their presents, had breakfast with the AC chem gang, met damien to talk about chairing and bumped into meisi and ruth. did duty for sci club vday (which annoys me to no end, this commercialising of vday)
met ps and sarah teo for dinner took btc down after studying abit, and met mummy and daddy at the cluny court cold storage for a lift back.
arranged stuff for CNY dinner and then met dennis and ivan for lunch. went with dad to pick up food from ah mah (i love love love the yam cake thingy she makes... yum)
friday was a travelling day, when i travelled to school, rushed down to FES HQ to pick up the projector, cabbed back to school, just in time for the Summer Programme talk... was good, and decided to consider if i want to go for it. studied in the library with px n joyce n jenn before i went for lec. got a present from the AC chem gang (which incidentally, included a birthday card with my name in the shape of the raffles t-shirt -_- in raffles colour!!! apparently my reaction was highly entertaining, although i was slightly miffed with them... oh wells)
went for CNY dinner, which had a bit of hiccups in the beginning when the room we thought we got didn't get choped, so we went on a frantic rush looking for rooms, thanks to jeremy and px, we got settled down and next was to direct the caterer to the place, as the fella got mixed up and went to nuh instead... got the food delivered safely to the room and eventually, after much ferrying, we got all the guests there safely. was a good time of fellowship, although i was rather tired and thankful i didn't invite anyone (wouldn't have had time to take care of them) got saboed to give a speech (since incoming chair. haiz) and well, thought it went pretty well, since we had quite an international turnout and the message was pretty good.
on sunday, after church, went to maternal grandma's place for paying of respects, then ate and went to ah ma's place, meeting almost everyone and had lunch before heading back to grandma's to collate and then head over to the one near nanhua pri. was a good first day of chinese new year...
second day, spent the morning and afternoon making samosa and koniyaku jelly, went to fourth granduncle's place in the afternoon, where my mom's side of the extended family had arranged to meet. met a lot a lot of relatives (even some who seldom came back came) and talked to an aunty who just returned from overseas and haha, had a good time laughing at the older generation who were very happily singing kbox.
on tues, spent my birthday quite quietly, had my acjc classmates over for our annual chinese new year gathering, laoed yusheng and they were very sweet, got me a cake and sang me happy birthday. a lot of friends smsed/called/emailed/msned and i was very touched. spent it contemplatively.
the rest of the mid-sem break was relatively slack, studied in school on friday, but ok.
on monday, rushed down to town to take photos for the SSD2213 assignment before running back to school fo lecture, got the assignment done and printed and went to hand it up, went back to meet koh ni and weili before seeing FY, ivan and ps (for giving them brown paper to write damien a message). haha. bumped into a lot of people... :)
on tues, arranged to meet people to write notes for damien's send-off gift. sunset prayer, but we left early for a science comm CNY dinner together, where damien officially announced that i'm taking over (although everyone knew already) it was an entertaining meal and was fun, although i was a little tired of laoing yusheng by then. haha. damien and ivan being the gentlemen they are, walked me home and well, think i thank God for brothers like these, who care. although i also have to admit that mostly, CF guys are gentlemanly... haha. God is gracious indeed, most of the guys i know are gentlemanly... haha. acband guys were definitely gentlemanly (carried percussion instruments for the all girls percussion section :P), class guys also and now CF guys... haha.
[March] the month started off with meeting min min fred n ed for breakfast!
met koh ni weili and ruth for lunch and studied archi till ruth left and then went with koh ni to go to SIM together, had dinner with jeremy in the sim canteen and bumped into yanchang, fern n meisi (pounced on yanchang lol) met a lot of people at the leaders' conference! yay! the sharing by the speaker was good, in challenging us about what is it student ministry is about and what are we lacking. very inspiring and thought a lot after that... broke up in groups of sharing, so we got into a hakka methodist church group :P with winston, song yang, hui shan and me... haha. yay! got a lift back from huishan with ade, yvonne and jinshan in the car. funny trip back haha with lots of laughter.
there was supposed to have been a rematch with arts (cos we won/drew can't remember which) but it was raining so it was cancelled, went for gary's event thingy at yih, where i met a few new friends and had a good time getting to know them. however, the talk gary gave a was a little strange and i think rather 'lecture-like'... which took getting used to.
went fish n co with family for lunch on sunday, since my mom said we can have western once a month lol... browsed at borders then later, went to the esplanade, the 'no signboard' restaurant, to have a family dinner together, and to watch the fireworks on the bay... cousins were terribly excited about it and i took a video of the fireworks... heh. was quality family time together... :)
on wed, joined weds' cg for dinner at engine canteen, ps's cg was supposed to have combined cg with arts heh. ended a bit of miscomm and ps n cg had to rush off. i remember miah talking about the pink bandung soyamilk and why i should drink it, when i don't want to drink bandung cos i drank too much of it when i was young.
was offered a place in the UoT summer programme, and well, i agonised over it for quite some time, because i didn't want to disappear and not go for LPC... after praying about it, talking to both CFers and church pple and other friends, i sought God in prayer and the feeling i got was 'go for the summer programme'. i thank God that i did, for i really did learn a lot. but i was also feeling very bad about not going for LPC. will talk more about that in april.
met fred for anntic breakfast on thurs (william didn't get there on time lol) and then later, went to study with ruth in the library... haha.
led bible study on john 5 and well, felt that as a bsl, i'm not very good at eliciting answers from people, am better as a member who asks probing questions... feels like i have to arrow people too often during cg... haiz. however, God is the motive and the reason, i shouldn't worry too much about outward stuff but just give thanks and think about the inward stuff...
met linxin on sat for the nus open house, had breakfast at subway (yum! i like subway breakfast) and then walked around in mpsh, where i helped to chase people away and have a relatively stress-less/unbothered walk through the cca hall. went up to the subjects place, got koh ni to talk to linx about nursing and the science booth about physics. then we went to science an walked around, had lunch with weili and huiru at science canteen and went back to rest. was too tired to go hakka for the first sat service (for oikos which was shifted to sat).
sunday, after church, went to 4th uncle's house for celebrating my two little twin cousins' birthday, ivan n thaddeus. fun fun.
on tues, there was FT 7, on identity crisis... it was on being salt and light on campus and in society, which was good, a rallying call and a reminder even as exams draw near. talked to dinos like elaine, keltan, grace... :)
joel led cg on john 6 and we watched passion of the Christ and wed's cg joined us :) good time of sharing...
westies supper at bukit timah market! yay! a lot of people came, like gilbert, the twins, koh ni, sarah teo, yiwen, fern ,ben khoo, grace, lydia, a few others... heh. was fun and had a good time talking rubbish with them... i know gilbert and the twins were trading bad jokes... seem to recall the mushroom jokes being told... anyways, talked till quite late again and got back in the twins' car... yay.
on thurs, met ruth @ UCC for brunch and chatted, especially about science and chairing and a bit on summer programme. had bread pudding and was disappointed, kheng siang's bread pudding was nicer! haiz. o wells, was a good time of talking to ruth :) learn a lot.
met JH for lunch @ biz canteen and finally had beijing dumplings, not very nice =/ but was good meeting up with her/you (if you're reading this :P) glad that we still try to meet up once in a while, having gotten to know each other pretty well during acjc :) haha being the only two ny girls in our class... and was happy that we still chat! :)
then rushed back to science for a UoT briefing and then studied till quite late with px.
For the last official cg, grace led bs... so sad =/ last liao... anywyas, it was good, chatting and going in depth of the Word.
then i got a lift to acjc for alumni band practice, although i can't go :( cos of summer programme... haiz., went for supper with the acband bukit timah gang and damn! i really miss the acband days! haha... but good we didn't stay there permanently, or i'd have grown a lot less and experienced less as well... haha. anyways... was good :)
on monday, had tutorial for SSD2213 before going to CL to research stuff with des... then went ot study with fred in the chinese library till lunch, went for lunch at engine canteen haha... and had lunch with friend and his friend...
tues, went to BTC for sunset prayer! :) bumped into fern on the way there and was happy to see some of the law pple, like chloe, wei shan (!), nelson, papa en. was good... heh. seldom see the law pple around haiz. cos of the distance. anyways, sunset prayer at law was good, the campus is so so so pretty and the sunset was spectacular... after that, went for supper/dinner with william, guoyi, ee yang, papa en, jun wen and grace koh... heh. was good, although i didn't get any mains. instead, walked to island creamery with papa en to get ice cream heh... :P was good chatting, although i can't for the life of me remember what we were talking about... haiz.
on friday, our cg went marina for an outing... dinner@cartel, had ribs and ate till i was stuffed... ate more than joel :P and it was terribly funny, cos at first joel was the only guy there... lol and he wans't too comfortable about that... hee. then later we wanted to go bowling but there wasn't space... so we went arcade to play games and played the racing game! i got nearly last, think ger was last :P bumped into jeanette and joseph there heh... :P small world!
[april]sadly, i didn't go for acjc's band concert on the 1st of april, was a bit too overwhelmed with work... haiz.
AnnTIC breakfast with ps, ed n william, fred came late! tsk tsk. some more he's the guest of honour which is why we're meeting, to have a meal together before he flies off in the next week... tsk tsk.
did stuff about science treasury and budget.. haiz.
then tues, is LAST FT! a dialogue on relationships, which was highly entertaining, being conducted by jasmine, yvonne and peter... haha. a lot of silly questions were thrown at them after a while... lol. was good :) went for supper with the dinos, met a few new friends! like how evan and clement tan introduced me to this arts dino, adrian who was arts chair in his time... and i was introduced as the 'famous si en' and then followed the list of 'achievements'... haiz. no like being famous. was good chatting to adrian though and a lot of the dinos... haha. shouldn't be such an impudent year one lol, mixing with all the oldies...
dinner on wed with combined wed and friday at munchies monkeys! was niiice and then i got influenced to pon lecture lol... stayed with cg and then went with ruth and weili for council. it was on wat is the purpose of CG, then a session of sharing and thanksgiving :)
sunday was dinner with family and then we watched phantom! :) PHANTOM!!! it was a slightly long story... haha. cos at first, i arranged to watch with jos, joanna, jx, ed and koh ni... then my family bought tickets together...then fred last minute could make it. and the only ticket that was available was the seat next to my mom! woah! so i swopped tickets with fred and paid the balance...so watched phantom next to my family and went to talk to them during intermission... phantom was amazing... especially the phantom and raoul! loved the set! really really elaborate, although masquerade wasn't quite what i thought it's like. and i still like micheal crawford's voice best, his music of the night is melting... but it was a great performance and i was so high/happy after that... heh. :)
on monday while doing my research at the resource place, i met michelle to give her the letter :) chatted with her... :) glad that i met her at anntic! hee. some more is cos she came late with haowen then we absorbed them into our group haha...
bumped into fred having a meal with someone :P although he explained away the scandal lol... went for the last sunset prayer... and then exco went off for dinner...
met fy on friday @ UCC for lunch and then we visited the museum... heh. and to my great dismay and sorrow, the massage chairs were GONE!!! haiz. so sad...
then went to study before meeting sarah and ps at the S16 com lab to write cards for the dinos to be... haiz, the two of them bully me, got me to write the cards for the dinos... so i wrote nonsense lor... supposedly my handwriting was nicer than both of them. pfft. then went for gary's farewell song session for the seniors...
on sunday, there was WoW School on the 'Holy Spirit' and it was a good sermon!
on tues, was studying and researching for the SSD2213 assignment then went for the fake sunset prayer that was to celebrate lester's birthday... that lousy fella made so much trouble for the CFers celebrating his birthday lol... good that they gave him a shock by presenting him with a fishcake for 'birthday cake'... haha!
monday, i took time out from studying and baked carrot muffins. yum.
had breakfast with ruth sarah n grace on wed then went for paper... then slacked around with sarah, miah, grace, ruth, matthias, jeremy and hanwern... haha. the pgp boys came over after they did jelly-making i think... was good chatting :)
family celebrations on thurs @ Lei Gardens to celebrate grandmother's birthday :) good food and yum. haha. my cousins are super cute.
on monday, last day of the month, had lunch with px n grace, then settled UoT stuff, travel insurance, met sarah and studied, weili came by and then went for exam... haha.
overall, think i spent april studying a lot and worrying/settling UoT stuff and researching on it...hee. not to mention planning for the science retreat that was up and coming...
[may] spent the first week of may relaxing and packing, preparing and researching about toronto and stuff...
on monday, there was games day in the morning. science manage to get a team together, but we lost badly to law... drew with engine and arts though! :) was quite fun heh... think foc comm managed to fund-raise quite a bit... hmm. there was an abortive attempt at kboxing but didn't quite work out... haiz.
went for AGM in the evening and it was interesting. the speeches were hmm, interesting :P ... chatted with qibin for a while after that then sarah and yiwen came over for sleepover...
then was the first day of science retreat... elvin came first, followed by joel, josiah, weiying, ruth, gary, dennis, elaine seah and joshua. when joel came, we started with reflections and prayer, to quieten our hearts down... then was lunch and we chatted for a while. there was quite a bit of entertaining conversation then, like when we were talking about olives/figs and elvin went 'yuck!' in his characteristic manner... hee.
we then went on to talk about the direction of the year and thrashed it out... confirmation of posts and of the job scope for each post... weiying and ruth came by... and we talked about the events for the next year, in particular matric fair, FOC, welcome tea, SA, M & E stuff... dinner came and elaine seah came in time to join us...
dinner was a boisterous affair, with the dining table packed full and a lot of jokes here and there... arrows shot, verbal blows traded and finally, when food was cleared, peace was declared and the war council started... :P we talked about faculty-wide events and inter-fac events... talked about prayer... like how we wanted to have a inter-cg event each month... collaborating with other faculties... prayer and whether or not to keep on with lunch time/daily prayer... was thankful for the presence of joshua and elaine, who gave us a different and more matured perspective, instead of quibbling over details like we did...
most of them had to leave around 10 ish 11ish... only sarah, yiwen, joel, gary and dennis were left. we continued chatting and i gave them muffins to eat...
then we went to sleep and woke up early-ish the next day... there was bee hoon for them and i made a fresh batch of carrot muffins for them... so after that, dennis had to go... then followed discussion on budget and assignment of tasks... we hammered those out pretty fast and finally, we ended! :)
but cos it was raining, we had lunch and watched the Big Corporate Event: Falling, Spinning... hee. was fun spotting all the seniors in their roles and watching the eyes of everyone fall out when they saw ruth... lol :P other than that... was good slacking around and preparing for flying off...
flew off quietly on the 11th of May, at around 11pm :P
for a detailed exposition on the toronto trip, go to http://percmadhatterintoronto.wordpress.com/ I would be writing about the UoT summer programme trip (since it spanned may and june) and then in a separate paragraph, talk about the travelling with papa en and px and another paragraph for WA. lastly, the thread will be picked up in the paragraph for July.
Summer Programme! :
it was a looooong flight there. tiring! managed to get some sleep on the way there, but thank God that He gave me this MAGNIFICENT view of the STARS and we flew past so many constellations!!! it was BEAUTIFUL and that remains one of the most dazzling sights i've ever seen, the dark velvet sky studded with so many stars it befuddles the imagination... i could barely trace out the constellations, so many were the stars that were interspersed between the identifying stars... sat there and admired the heavens, both px n i were exclaiming in delight.
after that, chatted with one of the air stewardess, she was asking if we were students together and where we were headed... hee. very friendly, was recommending ways to get out of heathrow, because she said it was deathly dull in heathrow airport and since we had 9 hours to burn... pity that didn't happen.
we stayed in heathrow airport, went to the quiet room, rested, napped, walked around, met up with Ger(!) who was also transiting. had yummy food at 'Pret A Manger', both a ‘ham, cheese and tomato croissant’ (which was really cheesy) and Swedish Meatball Ragu (some roll thingy). koped a bit of ger's Jalapeño Chicken as well...
on the flight to toronto, watched chronicles of narnia, which didn't annoy me as badly as i thought it might. Aslan was too tame though, but the beavers were cute. haha.
there was an interesting incident, when a lady who couldn't speak english or chinese had to fill up her arrival card, so they got one of us to do the translation, until we asked around in our UoT group to find someone who could speak cantonese to the old lady... haha.. so funny. sadly i can't speak a word of cantonese...
think i shan't go into such detail for the toronto trip. shall just write out an overview and some thoughts. you guys can go to my blog
http://percmadhatterintoronto.wordpress.com for the details... (shall try to backdate the later stuff as well... heh)
think i really did enjoy myself and learnt a lot in toronto...
on sundays, i thank God that all the sermons spoke powerfully to me, some confirming the direction of science that was set, some speaking to me to call me to significant soul-searching and reflection and others were a trumpet call of holiness and preparedness. the morning sessions on 'finding God among the pots and the pans' were fascinating and i'm glad some of the others who went with us to Toronto and who weren't christians also came along, to see what's it like... :) it's also been an eye-opening experience, hearing about Art, Music, Cooking and all that related to God and how like there was an exhibition of Christian Art at Knox Presbytarian Church... :) (i have a video of that... ask me for it if you want to see! :P got permission from all the artists to show pple)
the churches in toronto are beautiful... simply breathtaking, stained windows and wooden pews, sewn cushions and brassy organs, all that i thought a church should be :P (not that living in singapore shows me many churches like that :P) but truly, church-going has satisfied a deep longing in me, that there were substantial sermons and powerful messages, a far cry from the methodist messages that were preached back home... i don't know if it's a matter of personal preference or something to be worried about, but yes, in toronto, i thanked God every sunday for the church i attended.
the weather in toronto was lovely, although i think it's cos i had a lot of insulation via my blubber layer... the rest were freezing/quite cold... but yes, lovely weather, air-con and sometimes just a little under... yay! can walk everywhere and not even perspire lol... loved it.
the only bad point about walking everywhere in toronto is that people smoke everywhere as well -_- *scowls* so walking everywhere unfortunately also entails breathing in smoke when we pass by office buildings and stuff. haiz.
the architecture of toronto is very interesting to study, since it was a fascinating mixture of old and new, with the Royal Ontario Museum standing as a hideous (in my humble opinion only) example of an old building with new annex that 'stuck' out of the old... there were more charming and contrasting places, University of Toronto is a fascinating patchwork of new and old, although as a stuffy old conservative, i preferred the older buildings :P i don't like glass so much! steel buildings aren't exactly my notion of beautiful architecture... haha. it was also very interesting, having taken a module on singapore's architectural history and the built heritage of our nation, it was also nice to experience and explore another city's built heritage...
was in toronto during spring and summer, thoroughly enjoyed myself, you can ask the pple i went, the stuff i usually take photos of would be food, flowers and buildings lol.
really enjoyed exploring toronto in depth, going to places like high park, the toronto music garden, toronto islands, harbourfront, the different neighbourhoods like cabbagetown and koreatown and chinatown (didn't manage to go to the beaches)... so fun! went to touristy places like casa loma and spadina house as well as more 'local' places like St Lawrence Market (i could spend every weekend there if i was allowed to haha!!!) and Kensington Market.
in fact, you don't really feel outta place walking around, because toronto is truly cosmopolitan, there are people of every colour and stripe there! wah!
enjoyed going to scenic places like the toronto music gardens, which has an interesting concept and tries to depict in landscape and architecture one of the works of Mozart! so interesting! plus i really enjoyed walking into the thicket and listening to bird song, this nice uncle came over and told me the names of the birds i was listening to! i have it down on recording hee... :)
high park was really really good, walked around, enjoyed the atmosphere of a park tethering on the edge of summer, the joyous spring songs of the birds warbling and the clean smell of the forest... it was a good time of looking at nature in a temperate country and enjoying the sights and sounds of nature in another country... loved the temperature and it was fun seeing people fish and the birds squabble! we witnessed a third party trying to disturb a couple, the extra duck got chased away by the very fierce drake haha... got it on video! :P flowers galore and such beautiful flowers... *happy sigh*
music in toronto's a lot better than singapore as well! *gives a glare towards yiwen, ger and any other montrealer reading this* yes, i know montreal's better, but toronto's ALREADY better than singapore and i was in toronto! haha. so yes, bumping into buskers, who are good!
there was a percussion festival while i was there, concerts mostly held in the School of Music in UoT. went for one, called stage percussion. which was a thoroughly fascinating concert. there were interesting pieces incorporating many percussion instruments, there was a performed percussion music, where the lady spoke a mixture of gibberish, french and english and perfomanced and acted at the same time. it was an eye-opening experience and i can tell you i was ecstatic after the performance! really too bad that they didn't allow recordings, nor did the channel that was recording the concert get back to me about the recordings :( but it was already a God-sent opportunity to listen and broaden my horizons, to heighten my appreciation of percussion ensembles!
there was also this buskers at the street festivals, during the little italy festival, during a meal at Future Bakery (which incidentally sells FABULOUS cakes) there was a clarinetist and a violinist playing... wanted to go over to thank them but they disappeared before i finished my cake =/ but yes... was really happy there on account of the music.
in fact, during service, there were many well-rendered choral offerings and music, even hymns that were composed by the music director of Knox Presbyterian Church...
food wise, it was almost heaven (other than that the fact that it was a very expensive heaven) it was in toronto that i ate many new dishes, ranging from vietnamese (which was excellent btw) to carribean (yum yum yum. *loves but sadly can't find it back in singapore*) to middle eastern (falafel isn't my cup of tea but the rest were yum yum too. rather liked hummus) really wanted to have ethiopian there, but didn't have time on the last day, cos we were too busy packing our luggage and preparing for our trip with papa en to montreal, goderich and stratford.
other than a trip to niagara falls (which was excellent and non-touristy) and a (too short) trip to Montreal, Ottawa and Quebec City, we didn't really venture outta Toronto too often.
while i rather regret not going to new york to watch a musical on broadway and visit the museums and delis there, i am still happy that i enjoyed toronto to the maximum and there's always another chance to go to NY! not very keen on city sidewalks and skyscrappers and plenty of people anyways.
was good spending time with the UoT pple who went, sadly not much chance to interact with the locals... think i learnt how to live on my own and to spend time with God and reflecting, as well as making friends :)
called back a couple of times to say happy birthday to people, called back during LPC to say hi to the science pple who were there as well as talk to random people... haha. think it's quite cheap to buy calling cards... it was like C$5 for 500 minutes of talktime to singapore... heh. :) called home almost everyday, to keep in touch with my family and to update them on stuff... thankfully, it's easy to calculate when to call, either early in the morning or later in the afternoon. evenings on sat to call before church :P 12 hours diff... hee.
sadly, i missed keltan's wedding cos of the summer programme... missed both acjc band's alumni practices/concert :( and nycb's concert as well... haiz. so so very sad. other than that, the trip to montreal, ottawa and quebec city was cool! wish we had more time and it was too rushed... haiz. nonetheless, it was a good time and saw a lot of interesting things! but haiyoh, i dunno how to speak french... so i didn't understand a lot of stuff at montreal and quebec... i did learn a few words though! like oeuff means eggs! hee...
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