New Year's Eve

I'm currently spending New Year's Eve at home. Haven't done that in quite a few years. That's because this year my health does not permit me to pamper myself with all that excitement of staying out late at night and finding a physical and vocal space for myself amongst the crowd. Actually sometimes I do feel a bit handicapped without my voice. That's my instrument for drawing attention to myself! But I guess I could try to do that quietly too...

Anyway... besides being a bit sick this New Year... I feel rather placid as I look forward to the New Year. I see before me my HYP as well as my cell. There are others too such as my family and friends. But this HYP and cell stick out as something out of the norm.

And then as I look back. I do see a long road from whence I had been walking through. Quite a few people comment and sometimes repeatedly about how I've change after I came back from the states... But it's not a sudden change or anything la. I remember telling Amandae on my 21st birthday that I was glad that I was spending it in the states because I got me to grow some of the independence and confidence that I needed. So that's great =) Anyway the 22nd year is also a continuous journey... and I cannot help but look at my 21st year when I try to see the advancement.

I remember this song that Pamela told me about. Butterfly by Mariah Carey. That caught my attention because I had a dream about some butterfly the night before. But anyway. 2007 did feel like a butterfly year. I still don't fancy butterflies as accessories but they do look pretty amongst the true blue flowers.

Another Married Cousin

Back home from Malaysia, via a 13hr bus ride. Good thing the seats were comfortable, and there was some cards, book and tv around. Otherwise the ride would have been rather unbearable. Anyway it was nice hanging out with my younger cousins. They really amuse me sometimes.




Cousinssss and Babiessss and Auntie Uncles. So cute.

I have also some wonderful videos of my mum and my younger brother singing KTV at the wedding. That was cool man. Even though they singing hardly made anything. Hurhur.

Ugh. My nose is on hypersensitive mode now. Probably the low immunity plus all the chemicals from the lab. Ugh. I need to recover.

Responsibly

Ugh. I have tired thumbs. I have been doing so much smsing and coordination. =( Ay. Actually I watched this talked show the other day hosted by Phin and Howard. Phin is pretty cool =) Howard's a bit stiff... The topic was 'The world sucks.... but whatever'. Quite an interesting topic. And there was even a positive psychologist there. Kind of weird that have technically positive thinkers though. In any case, I agreed with Phin that no matter that our worldview may be, it is still our responsibility to make a change in the world if it sucks because we are not detracted or isolated from it. And then the cynic went, yea positive thinking... But it's really not about positive thinking at all. It's about responsibility man. Even if you don't think anything can be done to change the situation, you cannot help but try... No matter how cynical a cynic may be, I'm sure there's still a small part of the human heart that hopes or even hopes for hope.

In any case, I must say that the last campus camp that I went for really renewed a sense of purpose in my empty state. Although I feel rather tired from all the hustle and bustle from post camp... from this real world... I keep reminding myself of the other sanctuary... The camp was really some getaway la. Wake up in the morning worship God, evening worship God... And then after the camp was over time spent with God is squeezed to a small portion of my daily life. This is Singapore for you. Walk walk rest rest persevere.

30 Even youths will become weak and tired,
and young men will fall in exhaustion.
31 But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength.
They will soar high on wings like eagles.
They will run and not grow weary.
They will walk and not faint.
Isaiah 40

Hady won!!!!

Wa! Hady won Asian Idol! I'm so proud of him man!!!!!!!!!!!!! Woohoo!!!!!!!!!
Anyway I think he deserves it. If I had a choice I'll vote for him and Mau.
The angmoh judge is the lousieeeeeeeeeeeest la!!!! He's a buaya only. Tsktsk.
Anywayx. Good for Hady. Winning personality plus performance even though he's voice is not as fantastic as Jac's. But if Mau acted in a musical I think it'll be fabulous.
Next time hire me to be a judge. Hahahaha.
Well, as the saying goes, art is really about bringing out some emotion in the spectator. Or rather sharing some of it.

Nee Soon

Ey yes. My FIELD TRIP to Nee Soon forest. I was thinking of nice grass pastures but those were just a fantasy la. Nature is rugged and there are bugs that want to eat you, wild boars that you have to be wary of (no cages to keep them in!), mud that wants to sink you in...


So nice and green at the background but pictures can be deceiving! We went through some hardship. Hurhur.


There reason why there was a clearing in the middle of the forest was because of these fat pipes down below! Ah ha. We climbed on them and walk though it was a bit scary because of the thought of falling. So we held on the each other for security! Not much real security but just the sense of it. And that's good enough the keep us walking steadily!
Had dirty shoes too.


Eyyyyy Heheh. Cute photos. There was a leaking pipe by the flag!!



Hoof prints of some wild boars we saw ahead of us. There was a family of them! Good thing they left after a while so we could venture further. Some mushroom on the tree and an amazing lotus bloom in the middle of this rugged landscape! We also saw other nice species, like a butterfly that looked like a tissue paper falling. That was pretty =)



Never thought I would do this but it started raining and a bridge over the longkang was our only shelter! We waited for the brave cab driver to come by for us =)



By the time we got back to civilisation, I was pretty much in awe of it and it occurred to me how domineering man are!! The hardhard concrete replaces growing ground just so that we can walk and travel comfortably.
Of yea. My burtonish excerpt of Lil looks cute. Hurhur

97 Pri schoolers after TEN years

O yea... I forgot to mention about 1st Dec... We had a Pri school batch gathering. Batch gathering meaning 10 classes worth of 40 students each! Of course not everyone turned up... But it was really nice that some of the teachers from our batch turned up! =) Interesting to find how people have changed or have remained the same.

My teachers... They use to be fierce and I even had scoldings from some of them =( But now we're chatting like friends!!!

The funny ones, chatty ones, quiet ones. Some use to be so naughty but have being so sensible, while others remained as bagua as ever. Some recognized me while some needed more hints. Same for me.

The present exchange between Cindy and I was quite interesting this year. I gave her a pair of shoes and she gave me Charles and Kieth voucher!

Of repose and leisure

I quote the poet,

A day's work is a day's work, neither more nor less, and the man who does it needs a day's sustenance, a night's repose and due leisure, whether he be painter or ploughman.
-George Bernard Shaw

Birthdayly

Haven't updated my movements after my last paper. What did I do... Oh yes, I went to shop with Liling for her sister's wedding. I had stuff of my own to buy too but hers was more urgent so even though I did think about my own heels when I go into shows I also open my eyes for the extra formal ones. Almost have to split my brain. It was a bit scary because we did shopping for so many hours on 2 consecutive days. One can get a bit scared of town for a few days after that! Anyway Lil finally managed to get her stuff and so... after that...

After that it was 2nd Dec. My pre-birthday. And I had some entertainment from Joyce. Because she cannot stop laughing when she has something up her sleeves! And she employs rather interesting tricks. Not the most tricky tricks but really quite entertaining and thoughtful. Hehe. Really thoughtful of Joyce and WenYan.

And then... it was 3rd Dec... And I was quite amazed because I received a lot of birthday wishes. It was really the most I had in my life I think. Thank you everyone out there who remembered =) It was wonderful.
I mostly hung out with Pamela on that day... She tried to cheer me up and it didn't quite work for a while... Though my mood did improve during the evening time. Maybe it's the quiet peacefulness of the night-time. Thank you Pam. I know that your love language is time. Heh.

And then the 4th. The day that I decided to bake a brownie for Wei. Having only a microwave oven at home, I attempted to do some research on the microwave cake recipes available. But when I reached the shopping center, the instant brownie packet looked so tempting that I just had to take it. Ummm... So it was supposed to be easy but... in the end I burnt my first brownie in my toaster oven, melted the plastic cap of the 2nd one in the microwave oven... and tried another 2 more times with some troubleshooting just to reach some reasonable standard. No more toothpicks in the house and so I had to use a fork to make testing holes in the brownie. Whew. And the prepare prepare for Grow.
Oh my cellmates celebrated my birthday for me too. Ugh. Had to try to reach for the cake with my mouth in an as un-unglamorous way as possible.

Next next. I was planning to finally get myself back to lab to continue on some work on Wed but... I went to Wei's place instead so that we could celebrate each other's birthday. What a verily rainy day it was. It was raining all day and even buckets at times. Ok so we had our serving of cartoon... and I realized that Sony cartoon writers aren't very good at making story plots that flow well. Though they do have their bit of humour... just... lack of originality in the stories. But rather entertaining still. I've always thought the penguin had interesting eyebrows. Heh. And Wei played this song on the guitar and actually I liked it better then it did on the CD. My friend wad. Bias. Hurhur.
And for some reason I met Lil in town. I have a lot of stuff to get la. Finally spent my Isetan voucher.

Thenthen. Then it was Thurs. Hung out with Cindy and Maine at Cine. Enchanted was so funny. So funny. So entertaining. The perfect show to watch when you're up for some light-hearted laughs. Shiwei like's McDreamy's blue eyes. But McDreamy's really the right name for him. He has this look of soft longing on his face sometimes. Though I think we didn't get to hang out as long as we would have liked, another day would be great. And Smaine is as sneaky as usual... she so discreetly reduced the height of out Mango ice. Heh. So Smaine... Almost another celebration cos she paid for my dinner.
Oh. I should say that I went to lab on Thurs and missed my bus-stop twice. Terrible.

And thereafter... I have come to Fri... Which is today! Shall leave it for another day. Today was like no other day... And I just realized that I haven't return my rented VCD. Iyaaa... So busy =(