Say HELLO to LOVE...

Need I say more... ;)

I cannot describe the huge grin my face when I received a call from Baptist Book Store just before I left the house to go to church this afternoon, that it has FINALLY arrived... I have enquired about the album long before it was even released in early September and I've been hunting for it ever since it was released so that tells you how much I wanted this album and how long I've waited for it. =0) Will blog my review of it soon. Only listened to just a little more than half of it right now but I like it already.

Yasumi!!!

It's FINALLY OVER... my Japanese language evaluation test, that is.

It's been about 4 months since I started taking up Japanese lessons and it's a known fact that as we approach the end of the course, there will be an evaluation of our primary understanding (or the lack thereof...) of the language. Being the busy procrastinator (cheem... I think I just created a new term) that I am, I naturally dragged my feet at keeping up with my revisions. I have also been a bit busy my work and other activities and they all kinda add up towards the lack of study time. But God, being the Faithful Father that He always is, extended grace to me whereby He actually made it possible for me to at least spend some time in doing my revision in two ways. First and foremost, our Sensei decided to announce a study week for us ie. she gave us an extra week to study for the test... Praise God, He bought me time! Secondly, we were then told that since it is just a simple evaluation, it would be an open book test, meaning, we can refer to our text books for reference if we need to... DOUBLE YAY! If only all exams were like this... ;)

So anyways, 10 days, at least, before the evaluation, I practically had my head buried into my Japanese text book every day.. what to do, I am kiasu... I didn't want to do badly even if it is just an evaluation. And worse of all is that I had to say no to my social activities and dinners because of this... I was suppose to have steamboat dinner with some friends!!! Haih... Anyways, when the evaluation day came, I felt God's peace and rest in my heart and in many ways, on that day, I kinda got tired of cramming information into my brain and I just really wanted to get it over and done with so that I can move on with my life. Praise the Lord, the paper was actually quite straight forward. In the first part, I tried to work on the paper without referring to my book because I wanted to see how much I really understand the subject. It was up to a certain point that I gave up and referred to my book because I couldn't understand what some words meant. Confusion had began to set in but thank God, I managed to figure most things out. I got my results the week after the test. By His grace, I got near perfect score. ;)

Honestly, if I were to make a list of things that irk me, examinations will definitely make it to the list without much issue. I hate exams. I hate the fact that I spend WEEKS and MONTHS attending classes and studying to understand the stuff and they make me write out whatever I think I know within a 2 to 3-hour time frame to prove that I know my stuff. I know exams are to evaluate our understanding of the subject but I can't tell you how much I abhor the process of churning out the information onto paper within a certain time frame. And worse of all, we get so caught up in the "How-Many-A's-Did-You-Score" rat race, we forget that the ability to memorize facts does not equate to the ability to apply the knowledge into pratical use. Basically, although I may understand Japanese on paper, I still cannot speak the language decently. Sigh... but I am looking at the positive side. At least, I have my social life back now... ;) Steamboat anyone?

Simple Pleasures

They say necessity is the mother of invention... I found it to be very true. I've been bring food from home for lunch this week because I'm on an austerity drive after purchasing my 'new' gadget: I got myself a 10-month old HTC Touch phone. Although it is a used item, it is still in good condition and I guess I wanted to give myself something for my upcoming birthday... no, wait... that's just an excuse. I got it because I couldn't afford the iPhone. Sigh...

But I digress.

So buying the phone has set me back by quite a bit this month so I have resorted to keeping my expenses and expenditure low for at least the next few weeks. One of the ways in which I am cutting my expenses is by bringing my own lunch from home. So far, it has been pretty interesting. My aunt made chicken porridge with dried scallops for me on Monday and that was delightful meal... I LOVE porridge. On Tuesday, I decided to make egg sandwich for lunch. I made some scrambled eggs and put them in a separate container from my bread because I didn't want my bread to be soggy by lunch time. I threw in some raw onion rings too, put the meal together at lunch time and it was absolutely satisfying. :)

The best had yet to come. On Wednesday, I had no clue on what to make. I came back from the market quite late and I have no idea what I wanted to eat. I thought of making a salad sandwich but there wasn't enough bread. I looked through the fridge and vegetable basket and decided to throw a few things together, namely a large tomato, some cabbage and 3/4 of an onion. It suddenly occurred to me that I should add some hard-boiled eggs to enhance the taste. The salad looked so colourful and I surprised myself by being so excited about a salad! And praise God, the egg and vegetable salad did taste fantastic.

Looking at the satisfaction of having the egg sandwich and the joy of putting my egg and vegetable salad together, I found that there is so much to be happy and thankful about daily. I have found cooking to be rather therapeutic for me. I don't have to be a posh restaurant (although I am not against the idea of dining at a posh restaurant) or pay a fortune to truly have a delightful meal. The joy is found when I truly enjoy what I have and when I am thankful for being able to have food available before me daily. And I am thankful that He has and will always provide for all my needs.

Young Adults' Home Group BBQ Dinner (01 February 2008)

It's time for retro rewind again... Today, I am highlight the pictures taken from the Young Adults Home Group BBQ dinner at Vincent's apartment in February, just a week before Chinese New Year.

Sharon, Ashley and Daniel. Ashley looks absolutely cute in this picture! ;)

The Happy Chefs!

Derek, Raymond, Daniel and Victor.

Jessica, Alicia, Ashley and me. Girl power!

Group Picture 1

Group Picture 2

Andrew and Barbara's Wedding (22 December 2007)

Time to update my blog with pictures and happenings from the years yonder... okay, so I am exaggerating. Today, I am highlighting pictures from Andrew and Barbara's wedding on 22 December 2007. :) I didn't take any pictures of the church service in the morning (I cannot remember why I didn't take any) but I did however capture some shots at the wedding dinner. Enjoy!

Me and some of my ex-schoolmates

Me and more ex-schoolmates

My Dee Dee, me and Joey

Ashley ;)

The Fellowship of the Youths...

Our signature post... look to the ceiling and act cool... *swt*

Some of the guys...

Some of the ladies...

Gary and Khai Ven

Kevin and Sharon...

Champagne Pouring Ceremony

YUMMMMMMMMM SEEEEEEENGGGGG!!!!!!!!

We then became the "Yum Seng cheerleaders" for Andrew and Barbara... it was fun... ;)

I cannot believe that we were all so into it!! hahaha...

Post-Party Pictures at the lobby.

Me, my Buddy and the Christmas Tree... hey, it rhymes!

Jessica, Aunty Jackie, Roffina and Anthony (and not forgetting the Christmas Tree)

Jessica, Barbara and Roffina

Group Picture (You can still see Christmas Tree!)

Benkyoshinasai!

One hour to class... well, less than one hour by the time I finish this... and I am so not ready to go for it... sigh.. anyways, I did some revision on greetings and numbers yesterday (which is only like what... 1 percent of what I am suppose to study?.. *sweat*) and I fell asleep after reading half a page on how to tell time in Japanese... *more sweat*... That's what happens when you study on your bed. But I am looking at the positive side. I fell asleep on my book at about 10:00pm and I got up around 4:45 - 5:00am-ish when my alarm rang for the umpteenth time (it automatically snoozes on its own after ringing for around 1 minute... I am not sure if that is a smart or stupid function) . I knew I was suppose to wake up to work on my assignment or continue my revision but decided to forget about it and go back to sleep. And I am glad I did. Woke up at around 7:30am and in total, I got around 9 1/2 hours of sleep, the longest I've had this week and maybe this month... I felt absolutely fresh when I went to work. And by God's grace, I'm about 60% done with the assignment that is due on Friday and I think I should actually be able to get it done by tomorrow, God willing. Looking forward to a work-free weekend! Woohoo...

I have to say thanks to my buddy, Jess though for sitting through my language revision with me for about half hour. She now knows a tiny bit of Japanese because I made her learn (because I learn best when I teach others) and she, being the creative word-master that she is, made a parody out of a few songs by replacing them with her newly-learnt Japanese words... *shudder*... Mo-ichido would never be the same again...

Got to go. Ja ne!

Stressed and Uninspired...

Sigh and more sighes... I am so uninspired to write these days. I don't know what is wrong. Tired? Maybe. Busy? A bit. Sigh... was just thinking about my Japanese class this Wednesday... Oh wait, did I tell you guys that I am currently taking Japanese language for beginners? I lost track of how long already. But anyways, I digress. I got myself into an unnecessary stress frenzy because my thoughts were on the amount of work that I have to finish before I can spend time to revise through my Japanese book. I have a couple of work deadlines that are due this Friday. I am teaching this Friday at Youth homegroup and the lesson is barely in gestation. I also have to work on the September Youth Bulletin and write this month's article... and it's 8 days late already *faint* Sigh............ Actually, I didn't feel so bad about not revising until 2 days ago, when we were at Kevin and Sharon's wedding dinner and Joey wanted to know how we say "67" in Japanese. If he had asked me the same question 3 weeks ago, I would have been able to answer that in split second. But unfortunately, after enjoying 3 weeks of break from class, I realised that I couldn't remember what it was... my thoughts froze! What IS 67 in Japanese?????!!" I struggled to come up with Roku and i said Ji and then Shichi. Duh!! It wasnt' JI! It was suppose to be JU. JI is for time! ARGGGGHHHH... YinZ, that's BASIC Japanese!!! Sigh... so yeah, anyways, the conclusion is that I seriously need to study my Japanese book. Got to go. Time to carry my computer home to work again... *sweat*... Bye.

P/s: 67 is "roku ju nana" in Japanese by the way, in case anyone is interested to know.

Must-Read Books

On Tuesday (2 September 2008), the R.AGE section of the Star newspaper featured an article on reading habits and in one of the sub articles, they highlighted a list of 101 must-read books that was adapted from the book "1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die" (Peter Boxall, Peter Ackroyd). A book about 1001 books... *sweat*

Source: The Star, 2 September 2008

Anyways, I did an online search on this book and lo and behold, I found the list of the 1001 books in full. I looked through the list and realised a few things:

• I have only read less than 1% of the books that made it to the list of must read books
• The books that I have read that made it to the list were all written BEFORE the turn of the new millennium... That tells you how old-school I am...
• I can't remember how many times I have read Little Women.
• I can't tell you how much I DIDN'T want to read Treasure Island in English class when I was in school. And the horror of being made to do assignments on that book!! Why can't they pick a more interesting book than that????
• Some of the books that made it to the list have been sitting on my shelf since year 2003. Wait... that's not right. I did shifted their location to another shelf to make way for my Christian books... Honestly, I love classics and I have been intending to read Pilgrim's Progress, The Idiot, Emma and Les Misérables for like the longest time but I just don't have the time and it's not on top of my priority books... I will TRY to read them soon. Let's wait and see when that will happen... cows may have come home by then.

Interestingly, the website also highlighted that there is actually a group of people trying to read all of the 1001 books... *sweat x 1001 times* ... And NO, I am obviously not going to jump on that bandwagon. I still have my own pile of books to finish. Anyways, reading is fun. Pick up the habit today!

Got to go. Bye for now.

Updating My Blog

To all the dudes and dudettes (if such a term exists) who have been asking me about my blog... *drum roll*... I'm pleased to inform you guys that it is not dead cos I AM actually in the process of "resusitating" it. Really! I AM updating it. It's just stuck under draft because I have no time to finish them. Yes, I know it is VERY hard to believe but anyways, I am working on blog entries on events that have taken place since December 2007 (when I stopped blogging because I have been too busy with work, ministry and etc. etc.). Will be posting them up from time to time so stay tuned for more pictures and stories.

Fitness Freak.. Not quite yet

I made history: I hit the gym twice within 4 days. That is a huge achievement if you know me. Went to the gym at Jessica's apartment on Monday and today and it was great to be able to work out, sweat it all out and release stress after a crazy day at work. Next sweat it out will be on Sunday - hiking to No. 3. Will write more then. Back to work now. I am SO gonna have to burn the midnight oil tonight... sigh... need to hand up my work tomorrow. I am only at Book #5 of 8 books. *faint*. Gotta go now.. tata!

Here We Go A Carolling... (23 December 2007)

Imagine a group of young people barging into your house, yodeling "Joy to the World" off pitch... harrowing thought, isn't it? Being the youth group that we are, we sort of brought this harrowing thought into reality.... (*thud*... Did I hear someone faint?)

The Youth Ministry went on a mission to bless some senior folks from our church by dropping by at their homes (for some, unannounced... eeek!) to sing some Christmas carols. Our mission began at Aunty Shirley and Aunty Ivy's house. Aunty Shirley had a fractured leg so we thought she'd be happy to have a group of noisy young people to cheer her up... and she was! She was as chirpy and welcoming as ever despite being confined to her wheelchair. She was expecting our arrival because we told her we'd come over. We sang and prayed for her and she invited us to come back again!

Our pianist at work.

Daniel is plotting his next trick while David poses with the song sheet.

Group picture with Aunty Shirley.

We then moved on to Mr. and Mrs. Chew's house. Danny and Gary's mom was also there with their niece when we arrived. I hope the kid didn't get a shock from our singing...

Sharon tries to look cute, as usual.

Group picture... the baby seems fine. Suku tries to eat Daniel while Rachel tries to dodge something...

Next stop was Uncle Ang. I think we woke him up from his afternoon nap... sorry!

This is how tall Suku is...and how short I am.

Ken Jin and David got distracted by Sukumaran. Boys, the camera in in front, NOT at the side.

We stopped at the Spoelmans to drop Rachel and Lizzy back and we sang for them too. It was great to be able to see Cindy who had been at home nursing her fractured ankle. Uncle Brian requested for us to sing a carol which most of us did not really know so it sounded... errm... err.. okay, I'll leave for Brian to comment on that.

The Spoelman clan with the rest of us.

Baby Sarah looks a bit lost in the crowd.

Praying for the family and also for Cindy's speedy recovery.

We then dropped by at Aunty Letchumi's place to sing and pray for the family.

Group picture

We went by Cycelia and Joseph's on the way back and we yoddled / shouted (anything but the word "sang") "We wish you a Merry Christmas" from the van at their house entrance. Aunty Fong Moi was amused and sang along with us. It was pretty cool actually... hahaha... we should do it again next year...Well, Uncles and Aunties, Merry Christmas!... we will work on the pitching but do know that we mean well!