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!

2007 Christmas Celebrations

For Christmas, our church organized the second installment of the Rock of Ages Concert, which is a reprise of the inaugural concert in Easter. The pre-concert a bit of a mayhem for me because I was working on the opening video till the very last minute because my computer was giving me so much problems. It 'hanged' a few times and trust me, I so wanted to strangle the computer (although it wasn't exactly its fault that the raw video files were so big). When it was done, it was time to convert the file into MPEG format, I had the worse thoughts because it was a big file and it may take a long long long long time for it to convert or it would probably KO on me again. I said to God that if He wants this video to be up, I believe it shall be up and if He doesn't want it, I am okay if it is not used at all. I left the PC to convert the video while I went out to do something. When checked on it, it was done and ready to be used! I was surprised and amazed (me of little faith). Praise the Lord! The performances of the night were all good. Although no one came out at the invitation to receive Christ, I believe seeds were sown and planted that night and by God's grace, may these seeds land on fertile ground and produce fruit in His time!

Some interesting pictures from the night:

The Program sheet.

Kenny flashes a victory sign.

Everyone seems enchanted with whatever they are watching on the screen... what are they watching anyways???

The Dancing Queens... they are cool cos they are my friends!

I have no name for our quartet but one thing's for sure, I am NOT calling ourselves "The Fettes"!

Me and my cool sistas!

Me with my DeeDee and my Buddee! Rock on sistas!

A ultra cute Sarah Rose and Uncle Brian. Interesting how Jeremy, Su Jen and Joel are also in this picture. Good friends always stick together.

Makan and Fellowship.

Makan and Fellowship.

Makan and Fellowship.

Barb's Bridal Shower (15 December 2007 )

Barb's getting married soon! =) A group of us cool ladies got together for a bridal shower in honour of her. We had food, glorious food and then after, Aunty Nee Jin gave a short sharing on marriage. Each of us said a blessing over Barb and prayed for her before we adjourned. On the overall, I personally enjoyed myself as it was great to be able to get together and fellowship and rejoice over Barb as she prepares to stp into another phase of her life. Many blessings of joy, peace and happiness from our beloved Heavenly Father to you, Barb! =)

Sharon and Ash playing "1, 2, tali som!"

I don't know what Joel is trying to do but whatever he is attempting, he definitely looks real cute doing that!

Sharon trying to look cute...

'

Food, glorious food!

The Bride-To-Be =)

Ashley and ~YinZ~!!! Aren't we cute?! =) (Picture by Sharon Lee)

A group shot with the lovely ladies... and a boy. (Picture by Sharon Lee)

Group picture everyone! Why is Jess covering her face??? (Picture by Sharon Lee)

Everlasting God

I've been hooked to this song for the past few days. Simple message, lovely melody. I heard this on KLTY for the first time this week and it was a version performed by Lincoln Brewster. Just found out that it was written by Brenton Brown and is one of the tracks on Chris Tomlin's album. I think it is fantastic. =)

Everlasting God

Strength will rise as we wait upon the Lord
We will wait upon the Lord
We will wait upon the Lord

Our God, You reign forever
Our hope, our Strong Deliverer

You are the everlasting God
The everlasting God
You do not faint
You won't grow weary

You're the defender of the weak
You comfort those in need
You lift us up on wings like eagles

God the Provider

Pondering on what has God showed me this week, I realised that He has been showing me that He knows our thoughts and anxieties and that He is the faithful, prayer-answering God. At our ladies Bible study last Saturday, Heidi shared on how God was faithful in answering prayers eventhough it may be a seemingly simple and small need. And thank God she shared her testimony because I remembered what she shared when my faith was put to test on Sunday. We had arranged for a hiking trip up to No. 3 and on Sunday morning, I wasn't even sure if we could make it. I initially cancelled the hike but "resurrected" the plan after Kevin and Sharon said that they'd join us and that Kevin can drive the van. However, I got 2 missed calls from Sharon at around 3 something and when i returned her call, she mentioned that the van key was not available for some reason. So at that point, i panicked a bit cos there was no transport. I called James to see if he can drive or if he would allow me to drive his car and he said no. So eventually, we all went by faith, trusting that it will turn out well. On the way to church, I prayed a very simple prayer committing the hike to God. I checked my handphone and got an SMS from James, asking me to drive his car! Praise the Lord, we have transport. When I arrived at church, I found out that Clement and his cousin, Gary can go on Gary's bike. To my biggest surprise and delight, Brian and Isaac decided to join us for the hike and is willing to drive! Hallelujah! From having a lack, God provided to overflow because by 415pm, we had more cars than we needed. Isn't He amazing? =)