While waiting for my hair to dry before bedtime, I thought I could just drop by and write something about events for the past 2 days.

I had just came back from a dinner gathering from my ex-cell group. Noted a lady who has been working 9am - 9pm for the past nine months in her office. A man who commented that he "just had a dinner party at his 1st condo (Pffftt... Do I care if it's your FIRST condominium?). Other than that, I had a wonderful wonderful time. The children are still very much close to me, even when I hadn't seen them for sometime. "Children magnet", one of the mom commented :D

Oh, they all love the guava dessert I made :D Got the recipe from the mother of a one of the pastors. Sliced guava with dried orange peel mixed with some chilli :D

Nice. I enjoyed myself.

. . .

To prepare the guava dessert, I went to the market in the morning (not too early though :P) I also bought some fishballs as an additional dish. Then there's breakfast.

Only then did it occur to me how heavy a task, literally, it is to do marketing! :O And I am not evey preparing a full dinner! I have more respect for mothers now. Besides the task of making marketing choices (which veggie to go with which other veggie; what kind of soup to cook; how should the fishes be cooked...), they have to carry these things all the way home from the market to their homes. Some are fortunate to have maids to help, or transport. But for people like my mother, they have to buy the stuffs and walk back home.

It's heavy, no joke. Carrying all those things with my bare hands, on my own, proved to be a challenge to my will power. I made it home nonetheless, but not without temporary marks made on my palms.

I salute all mothers/cooks of the house! :D

. . .

Then after that, I had to get myself ready to attend a ROM (Registration of Marriage) of J&P's friend, PS.

Without a church wedding or customary wedding, the registration seemed so simple. The solemniser completed the entire vow-ring-certificate thing in 5 mins!

Goodness gracious! And they booked the room for $200 dollars! And no refreshments somemore!

And they are married. Just like that. In 5 mins.

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Now, about the bridal shower... Ah-ha... U are all eager to hear about it, right?

Turns out it was the best bridal shower I've been to. And the lady that I had complained about earlier was not as curt as I made her out to be. The bridal shower was even held at her own bacholorette pad and she did most of the cooking!

How shameful I am.



1) The ambience created by some of the girls, with the various gifts scatted around.
2) My gift package for the bride - A Joysalt prescription :D. Everyone is suppose to get a creative gift for the bride-to-be based on the theme eternity.
3) My gift, a bottle of salt, with a bible verse (Colossians 4:6 - Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.) attached

I had an idea to give salt initially, because as a preservative, it's meaning is symbolic. Then I went to google for the meaning of salt in the bible and found this page on Wikipedia. Very, very interesting article of what does salt symbolise in various practices in the old testament time.

Anyway, back to the party...

I think it's probably because we have had a few showers before, it's not difficult to do a better one as we improvise over time. And yes, there were oohs and ahs moments because some gifts were really cute/pretty/handworked :D So yes, I guess I still like bridal showers :)

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Tomorrow is the last day of 2006, guys and dolls.

Have a great celebration, whether you do it in churches, pubs, clubs, on the streets, watching fireworks, homes, or in front of the telly.

May the new year bring you new hopes and new dreams.

And may you find the courage

to love more people,
to laugh at yourself,
to say sorry for the hurt you've given another person,
to forgive that person when you know you are ready to do so,
to stand up for what you believe in,
to pursue what you've always wanted to do, and
to exercise more than you do this year :)


*. .*. . . * . . God Bless Your New Year 2007! *. .*. . . * . .

Airing Some Fluff...

I wrote a whole lot of complaints about the coordinator for the bridal shower this Friday, but decided to clean everything up.

Eventually I conceded. There's no need to bad-mouth another person just by the things they do. Who knows, you may really enjoy yourself on Friday night. Meantime, I'd just obediently do the things as instructed, pray and look forward with anticipation.

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I used to be rather enthusiastic about bridal showers.

I thought this western practice is a nice way to celebrate with the bride, with get-together with close friends and get girly and stuffs. And I never figure out why some characters I watch on tv or in the movies loathe attending bridal showers.

I kinda feel that way this week. Somehow, I imagine my friends ooh-and-aahing as individual bridal shower gifts are opened, and the giver elaborates on why she gave the gift.

I grimace at the thought.

Then I thought maybe I am not the kind of person who would ooh-and-aah to great effect, just to make the activity look oh-so-sweet. In fact, I think it's a little fake. :P

So anyway, I'll be there anyhow. Maybe I would ooh-and-aah, despite my mind's protest.

I'll report that occurence here :)

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Movies watched over the holiday season (Fri - Tues):

1) It's A Wonderful Life
2) Santa Clause 2
3) Shallow Hal
4) Charlotte's Web
5) Curse of the Golden Flower
6) Night at The Museum

:)

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For this year's Christmas, I did not feel an ounce of self-pity being alone and single. Overall, I felt rather contented with my status, and was at peace. There were no "I shouldn't be with a group of people instead of cooping myself with a DVD", or "If only someone who ask if I'd like to join them". It's kinda strange, but nice, unlike other years.

I was exceptionally at peace spending the day on Christmas Eve at home doing my laundry and watching Shallo Hal. The movie bug crawled later and I ask a friend to join me for movie and just walk-walk Orchard Road. There were no crowd. Just a very wonderful feeling of being at peace.

Maybe I have passed that phase. Maybe the things that have happened this year has "maturised" me and made me realised that I need not feel pathetic about myself being companion-less during the festive season. Which is good actually, because I can't afford the newspaper report of the social escort the school teacher paid for to tide her over the festive season's loneliness, haha ($600 a pop for an escort! GOSH!)!

I am glad that I don't have, and don't need to, resort to that. I think my idea of self-worth is the highest this year, compare to the previous years.

I am valuable in the eyes of Christ and in my eyes. And nothing beats that. :)

For The Love Of God

Was blog-surfing and came upon this blog. One of her entries caught my eye...

People do not drift toward holiness. Apart from grace-driven effort, people do not gravitate toward godliness, prayer, obedience to Scripture, faith, and delight in the Lord. We drift toward compromise and call it tolerance; we drift toward disobedience and call it freedom; we drift toward superstition and call it faith. We cherish the indiscipline of lost self-control and call it relaxation; we slouch toward prayerlessness and delude ourselves into thinking we have escaped legalism; we slide toward godlessness and convince ourselves we have been liberated.
- D.A. Carson, For the Love of God

Reflect. Ponder. Reflect. Ponder.

God let me not fall into the traps of trusting myself instead of You.

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"It's more blessed to give than to receive." Acts 20:35b

I wasn't expecting gifts for Christmas. But somehow, it has become a habit for me to give away gifts on Christmas. It started with the notion couple of years back that I want to show my appreciation/thanks to those who have impacted me in ways big and small for the past year. It still is. I mean, hey, it's the one and only time I appreciate them (cos I tend to forget birthdays, so... :P).

It was never written in the bible that Christians should give away presents on Christmas Day, more so for non-Christians. But somehow giving away presents is like a "must-do" for the non-Christians, than the Christians. And they are more enthusiastic about it than the Christians.

"Have you done your Christmas shopping?" seemed to be a popular question radio DJs asked their listeners on the days leading to Christmas, and was probably the added catalyst the retailers need to boost their sales. Most DJs are Eurasians, if you notice, hence, it's quite a tradition of their community to give presents.

But for the rest of Singaporean population, I find it really funny for them to feel compelled to give away gifts during the Christmas season. I know most of the reasons is that they want to see the smile on the receiver, especially children. To make their loved ones happy on this joyous season.

Anyway, back to my giving...

It'd be nice to get something in return :) But I think getting nothing in return is better than candles or soap dishes. Just let me enjoy being the giver :)

Creepin' Into Christmas Day

Sorry for the no-blogs.

A little lazy. A little tired. Most of it, lack of inspiration. :)

There's too much activity going on now, and I barely had time to record them.

Yep.

But it's been good so far, this Christmas :)

Merry Christmas to everyone. Enjoy the music. It's on me (Heh :)

2006 Holiday Movie

(Gee, the title made it sound as if the year has ended already!)

I wouldn't call "The Holiday" my most favourite Christmas movie. But it was more than I thought it was. Some movie critic on the papers says that it's the usual chick flick. But after watching it, I thought the movie critic didn't do justic to the movie.

Maybe cos he's a man.

Anyway, one of the main reason why I love this movie is because it has a great soundtrack (WHICH unfortunately, will not be in till January next year). And it has little bits of the talk about the motion picture industry, mixed with soundtracks blend into the show. My kinda thing :D

I thought Cameron Diaz and Jude Law are a great match for screen couple. Why she settled for Justin Timberlake, I have no idea. Jack Black and Kate Winslet is a lil-try too hard, cos I still cannot change my perception of Jack Black after how he was casted in the previous movies. Kate Winslet is excellent though.

There were a few tug heartstrings moments for me when I was watching "The Holiday". But those moments were I've-been-there-moments nonetheless. Thanks to the consistantly shaking-the-chair Indian couple who also talked throughout the movie, I was unable to enjoy the movie in entirety. And I regretted not telling them to shut-up at the beginning of the show, having to bear with constant interjections of obvious "Oh-my-God" and "So sweet" and so on moments throughout the entire show :S

I'd give the show ****/*****, and I recommend it as THE holiday movie you should catch.

By the way, the show opened my eyes to the new idea of doing house exchanges. You exchange house with a stranger for a period. But I doubt it'd work in Singapore. But it'd be nice to exchange house with someone from another country. Live my life in an alternate way it could be in another country :)

Oh well. Just a thought.

Miracles Do Happen! :) (Was "It's A Miracle! :)")

The appeal for the SDF was successful! Whoopee!!

I was reading a friend's email, and he mentioned that he hoped the application was successful. It inspired me to volunteer to open the letterbox for our office.

The sight of the WDA's logo on one of the letters got me a little excited. I was really ecstatic when I read that they have approved our appeal.

Woo-hooooo!!

THANK YOU, GOD, ALMIGHTY! It's really a miracle from you!

Of course, my colleague heaved a sigh of relief when she heard the news. She had worried that she has to bear the consequences.

So now, everybody is happy.

Thank you, to those of you who have prayed along with me over this matter.

THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU.

And now, I am going off to handover the application to the coordinator at school.

It's the most wonderful time, and gift, I've got this Christmas!

Woo-hooo! :D

(Original story)

. .. * MERRY CHRISTMAS! . . .. *

I've taken out the regular music now to accomodate Christmasy music.

My personal favourites are music by Lance Gibbons, Cliff Richard - Christmas Time as well as Jars of Clay - Little Drummer Boy.

Will be adding more to the list for the next couple of days, so if you are need something to get your Christmas mood up, feel free to tune to my radio blog! :D

BTW, I do not know why the Elizabethtown music is still there (I don't see it on my server). Anyway, it's instrumental and nice and kinda Christmasy, so I guess it's ok :)

For HER Consideration

Received an email from a coordinator of the bridal shower of a friend. Reminded me that I should empathise why local men can be put off by the authoratative tone from local gals... Everything was written in point form... Even "You are cordially invited blahblahblah..." took up a number bullet...

" 7. Please inform me of the gift you are getting to avoid duplication. Please let me know by 20 Dec. Please let me have your mobile no. if possible"
- I know, this sentence looks normal. But I thought it could sound better on email...

" 9. If you have any suggestion, do share with me for my consideration."
- When I saw the word "my", and where it's positioned, my eyebrows raised. You know, that kind that goes.. "Oookaayy...."

I just felt that tone of the email could be less formal, and more of the kind that "Hey, it's a bridal shower, let's celebrate with and bless the bride-to-be!"

Oh well.

I might have probably done the same thing when I chat with others too :d So, better watch out for that plank-blocked view.

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The high-strung routine I have had for the past month or so was finally released when I submitted my assignment on Friday. And I gone a little out of hand with the new found freedom last evening :d

I went to spent money at the MANGO sale and some other stuffs (Hello Kitty bags on clearance sale, some warehouse sale at Overseas Union House...)

I am still nursing from the bleeding. Hope to do some serious Christmas shopping in the new few days :d

Time for bed.

I Think I Am Engaged To Telly

I was glued to the black box tonight from 7pm - 11pm. I think it's the longest time I've sat in front of the tv. I have not actually done this kinda of television programme watching for a long time. However, tonight I seemed to have relived the (not good) old days.

It was 7pm HongKong TV series on channel 8 to start off with.

Then I switched to cable channel 54 to watch a Taiwanese woman's programme on fashion. I'm an ardent follower of this programme, having learned so much tricks on makeup, shoes, and dressing after watching the show. So it's a must-watch.

It ended at about 8.50pm, so I switched channel again. Starworld was having "The Office" at 9pm, so I figured I could finish "All about Jim" and proceed to "The Office".

I was turning on the tv guide and remembered that Central will be showing some UK programme about the science of dating. So after "The Office" ended, I switched back to channel 8 to catch some local Chinese tv before I switched to Central again to watch the hour-long programme about the attempt to match couples by using scientific calculations of facial features and their perception of physical attractiveness.

And here I am, confessing my bad habit to you :(

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I had thought that my last assignment is almost ready to go, and felt all confident about it. Happy that I made the choice to keep the extension given for us to complete our assignment to ponder about it. Actually, proud that I had a breakthrough last night about some really difficult sentence structures.

So, in my usual procrastination, I allowed myself to watch tv throughout the entire evening. I gave myself excuses that I deserve to relax now that I "broke the code" of my assignment. However, my mind kept reminding me "You could've use this time to revised the assignment." But the butt didn't move an inch.

I don't want to do this again. Ever. I hope once I hand-in my assignment, my life would be back to normal.

Argh.

And I shall go finish my assignment now, even if it means staying up later tonight.

More Than A Cinderella

I have always have a weakness for shoes. I cannot resist turning my eyes to admire beautifu pumps in shoe shops whenever I walk past them.

And when I see pictures like these, I would go "ooh" and "ahh". I love shoes, especially sky-high platforms. There's something about these footwear that make me go goo-goo and gaa-gaa.

But when I consider the complaints I'd get from the office, my friends, my mother when I wear them, it always sets me back more steps than one. They always comment that I am already very tall, why still wear such high heels?

Of course, most of the time, the reason is probably because they are all shorter than me :) And as for me, I try to avoid wearing shoes that are 3"s 2" and above tall when I know I would be in the presence of people of normal Singaporean height (grasp! :) for a long period of time.

However, if you are regular reader of this humble blog, you would know by now that I have placed these "worries" aside months ago, and is now very comfortable in heels. And have since bought a few more pairs shoes of various heights, Heh! :D

I didn't mean to make the other regular size people around me feel "dwarfed" in my presence. Still, sometimes I think it's rather selfish of them to deprive me of the joy of wearing heels, just because they feel intimidated by my already tall frame. Hence, for years, I have been bringing myself lower (figuratively speaking) so that they wouldn't be shorten further when standing next to me.

However, beginning this year, I have learnt to throw the inhibitions aside and slip into my new elevated footwear. I do understand the point of view of my friends when I am stand out amongst them in heels. However, it shouldn't be part of the set of I-need-to-adhere-to living rules.

Part of the reason of this liberation is also the realisation that for years, I have been kinda living my life the way people think it should be. Yes, for many years, I went with the flow, because basically, I am the kind of person who is pretty chin-chai (easygoing), and there hasn't been definite directions that I've set for myself. So I'll go with the flow, ie. Whenever somebody commented about something, that comment will form part of my values.

Yeah, I know, which planet was I from?!

So anyway, ever since I've gone pass the three-O mark of my life on earth, things start to change abit. And boy, am I glad they have. Especially the liberation from wearing heels. Heh. :) So now, whenever I wear heeled shoes, I will observe the reactions from my friends. Some still make the same comments. But most of them are resigned to the fact that I will be "heeling" more in the future :D

So, yes, no worries, anymore. :D Though sometimes, I do wish I could wear the 5 inches shoes... Heh. Well, at least I have more choices now :) And more blister traces/marks on my heels to match (my latest record: 5 blister spots just from wearing ONE pair of new shoe in a day. Ouch!).

(Nice images of shoes linked from Victoria's Secrets website. Unprofessional photography of shoes by Yours Truly. )

Movie Weekend

(Possible spoilers ahead)

I watched 2 movies over the weekend.

I wasn't feeling sleepy last night, and thought I would just catch a midnight show... At home :) I have a few DVDs sitting in my room I needed to catch up on. I thought I would watch Crash, having gotten the DVD from the video shop couple of months back.

Crash is known for it's powerful blend of interwining stories between the different races in America. The movie isn't your regular slapstick fare, though there were some funny moments here and there.

It is very interesting to note that the director/producer carefully included the whites, blacks, hispanics, asians and middle-eastern characters into the story. Beside displaying about the racial clashes, the movie also talks about the struggle within the race itself. In fact, everyone has almost the same problem as everyone else.

Also, I like the way the movie writes about discrimination from two sides of the coin. On one hand, we may be pointing at the person in front of us and say, hey, why do they get all the good stuffs? It seldom occur to us that the other 4 fingers were actually pointing in our direction. It reminded me of the verse Jesus spoke in Matthew 7:

3"Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye?

And Jesus' recommendation for the eye surgery we should get?

5You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.

Really, sometimes, we need to first look at ourselves before we blabber.

I recommend "Crash".

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The other movie I caught was "Click". I was suppose to sit down to do my homework this evening, but I felt thoroughly restless. So I opt to be glued to the chair, watching the movie instead.

It's very unusual of me to recommend an Adam Sandler movie (The Wedding Singer was another acceptable movie), because most of his movies are rather crude, or chor-lor. However, this movie goes a little bit further (and yes, in true Adam Sandler style, there were some crude moments) and would you believe it that I end up tearing at the later half of the show?

From the trailer, we know that Mr Sandler has a wonderful remote controller that he can use to control his life, the way he wanted it to be. Fast forward some, mute some, lower the volumes, go back in time, etc. Yeah, it's all fun and stuffs.

Then come later part of the show, the movie takes a serious look at the way we live our life. Living in an age where we can literally own and control alot of things in our life, we are sometimes too absorbed in our own self-created world that we overlook and miss the things that are more important.

If we get to live the kind of life we choose to live, ie. the way we think it should be, we may not reap the outcome we hope to have. It's just like when sometimes, we wanted certain things to happen, but God didn't make it happen. We cry "UNFAIR!" and blow hot air. However, it doesn't get into our head that God didn't want the "it" to happen to us. By "it", I mean it as a turn of destiny, which may not necessary be good for us.

No bible references here, but I'd like you to think of the traffic light (I picked up this small lesson when I was teaching preschoolers in PC years ago).

When you ask God for something, there can only be 3 answers:

*GREEN* - Go ahead. I am going to bless you and prosper you and give you success.

*AMBER* - Slow down a little there. Watch it. Wait.

*RED* - No, my Beloved. Don't go any further. I don't want you to get hurt taking this lane.

I recommend "Click".

It's Finally Gone

I had my final exam today. And now, it's all in the past (ALMOST. I've got another week to tweak my assignment).

The exam was really tough. Much more tougher than the one we had last week. But it's definitely a taste of the real tests of the things that are awaiting when we step out into the real world of translation. As I was working out the translated copy, a small part of me was saying, "This is the world that you will be getting into in the future. So do your best, try to understand it and translate it into the target language, as best as you can. It IS the real thing."

I did my best. But there wasn't enough time to review the translated text. I think I did my best, but some parts are probably out of tangent with the original text.

I place all my hopes on the assignment that I will pass-up next week.

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Evening came, and it was an enjoyable night with my sisters and their husbands, and an aunt and cousin who came by to visit. We ate at a coffeeshop nearby and our aunt went ahead to pay for our meal nearing the end of the dinner. Her act of kindness made us really embarrassed :P We the younger generations should be the ones who are paying, not her. We have to accept her excuse that she wants to get the receipt number for the meal eaten on such occasion, so that she can use it to buy To-to.

We then adjourned back home while aunt and cousin make their way home. It was rest and relax for everyone. My nieces sticked to me "like maltose sweet", commented my aunt. They noticed that my nieces are very sticky to me the entire time.

Well, I am not complaining :D At least it's official to all that I am "Aunty of Fun" when it comes to playing with my nieces :D Oh, I am also "Aunty of Surprises" and "Aunty of Prizes". It's good to know that I have laid the foundation for the girls to be comfortable with me at this age. I hope our relationship will stay this way till the day they grow up :D I hope that they will grow up with the little values I have incalcuated in them during play and chatting. I hope that if one day, they find it difficult to talk to their mom or pa about certain issues, they will be able to relate them to me instead of the wrong channels.

I hope and I pray.

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Phew. I am officially done with class!

According To Singapore Statistics...

I am...

One of the 33,200 women who outnumbered the men on the island. 1000 of us for every 982 men on the island...

One of the 28.1% Singles...

One of the 22% between 30-34 who are not married...

One of those who have missed the prime marriage age, which is 25-29...

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Interesting stats.

I happen to hear it on tv or something, so I kaypo-kaypo (being nosey) went to find out the actual numbers from the SS website (gee, their website design is ANCIENT! :P)

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And then I thought about a friend of mine who has just quietly gotten married to a China girl (ROM), while another guy is dating a girl from China too...

The men often seen on newspapers and tv, who went to Vietnam and came back with a Vietnamese bride... Or Thailand, or Indonesia, or India...

Then I thought about the gay people...

What is there left for the rest of us (local women)?

I do admit Singaporean girls are too strong and independent for local men. Take for example the friend who is flying to London for training. Or my colleague's cousin. Both are high-flying financial executives. Literally.

Well, at least they've got the money. The latter has a boyfriend and according to colleague, they even shared payment for a condominium...

What's in store for people like me, no money, no career, no man? Hmmm... It does sounds kinda sad, huh?

I am not going to go into some "I will survive" talk. Whether you empathise with me, or snort at my comments, or go "Humph!", I'll leave the end open for your personal ponderings. If you have friends who are like me or my friend, please do not begin by telling them that their standards are too high.

Spare some thoughts about our options that are available to us.

What options?

Buzzing...

Colleague made a remark:
"I look at my (younger) cousin, and then I look at myself. I am nowhere near where she is now. I only hope my daughter will be as successful as her (cousin)"

The remark sparked off some ponderings that buzzed in and out of my head the whole night when I was watching the telly programmes. Even when I was watching funny The Office on STAR WORLD (It's also on CENTRAL on Tuesday nights, 10pm).

Then a line from the Channel 8 Hongkong series was also circling in my head. Something to the effect of "No matter how scared you are, you have to be bold and make that first step."

Buzz. Buzz. Buzz.................

Some Picture updates

Arghh... Blogger's back to normal again. I am still working on my translation assignment (FINAL ONE!) so here are some pictures about what I did the previous week...


As mentioned earlier, a friend is to fly off (next week) to London for training arranged by her new office. So we arranged to meet our group of friends out for dinner. Because we took into consideration of the parents in our midst, we chose to go Globetrotters at United Square. It was reviewed by Wine and Dine to be the most Family Friendly Restaurant (or something).

There were a variety of food listed on the menu, in line with the restaurant's theme. They have an assortment of foods from Italy, Mexico, France, German and Asian fare.

These were the food that I ate: the Nachos dish (Dunno the name :P), the Clam Chowder soup and the Grilled Fish (dish from France)... Rather saltish...

As mentioned earlier, it was to supposed to be an opportunity for all of us to meet up before this friend, an important organiser to our gatherings, depart for London. She will be there for a couple of months, hence, will miss celebrating Christmas and New Year here in Singapore. It was a surprise for those of us who were there, because given her important role as an "organiser" of our gatherings, the miserable attendance of 5 out of maybe 10-12 regulars was very unusual. But she brushed it aside, citing prior committments of the others.

As for me, I was the usual wallflower in a group like this. Everyone else was busy talking during dinner and no one noticed that my phone went "K-CHEK!" as I took pictures of the food. And there I was, sitting down there and hearing how a guy nearly work in the middle management of a local telco company, but was denied of the position (he even signed the appointment letter!) when there was restructuring in the company. How the other friend, who brought her daughter along for this gathering, decided to leave a principal post she is currently in, a school started by a friend of another of our friend. How the London-flying friend wishes to fly to Tokyo before her flight to London, but thought it was too rushed and cancel the trip. Of what another friend, who works in one of the "home team", does in his work.

I don't know how the others feel about not talking/chatting with me. I wonder if they feel uneasy with me present in occasions like these, and if they feel uneasy that I am there and not talking :) The Joyce in the 90s seem to have ingrained in their mind so much so that they still think I am the reserved girl that I was then :) I thought maybe the next time I should show more skin to let them know that I am no longer the same me more than 15 years ago :) I guess that is the only way for them to sit up and notice that "Hey, Joyce have changed!"

Is that all it takes? Is this the only way to let people know that they should start to pay attention to me? To change my outer appearance drastically? *big smile to myself* Probably...

It's during times like these that I used to hesitate going to outings such as this. I used to feel unwanted and unneeded in gatherings such as these. I go for them nowadays because 1) I've got the free time, 2) there's always an opportunity to explore new food places, and 3) I don't want to disappoint the organiser.

And it ALWAYS ENDS UP THE SAME WAY. I mean, they only ask the standard "So what are you doing now/where are you working?", the same liner they would used with someone they happened to bump on the street, and then our conversations stops there. They seemed to be very careful when talking to me, and I wonder why...

Oh well.

Oh yeah... By the way, after dinner, we went to this really KEWL place for red wine. At Devonshire Road, off Killiney Road. The name of the place is call Bar-Stop. Really, really, really cosy place for chill-outs. My friend said it belongs to the same owner of Wala Wala.

Er... So there.

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As promised...

Guess what I found in the supermarket last Friday?

COCA-COLA IN GOLD CANS!Okok.. Maybe I am a bit sua-ku...

They are supposedly less sugar or something.

BTW, this shot was taken secretly :D

L and I went to town to de-stress. She was in the midst of studying for her exams (All Theory-based! Mine's ALL practical! Heh!) and me, for reasons as featured previously.

--> This is the Fried Fish soup I must eat whenever I go to the Kopitiam outlet at Plaza Singapura. Name of the stall is Cheng Long (easy to remember, the Chinese name of Jacky Chan! Heh! :) The soup is SUPER tasty, and the texture of the Chor Bee Hoon is rather QQ. The fried fish sums up the taste. YUMMY! :D

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Alrighty. So those were the major happy things that happened the previous week. I am still waiting for the response from the Workforce Development Agency. I did what they want me to do, and they are not responding! :'(

Tomorrow I will write the "officer" and email and ask if she has receive my fax and is it being processed... This Saturday will be the end of my course and if it's not approved by then...

Five Thousand Dollars I will pay.

It's 3rd December, 2006

I know I am a bit bo liao to start off this blog with a title like this.

It's just this: It's Sunday night. I had just finished watching LOTR part 3 first segment. I slept from 3 to 8 just now, having a very weird dream of which I cannot remember. It's 10.40pm now, and I have no intention to sleep because of the nap I head earlier.

So here I am staring at the screen, trying to while away my time. I know I need to do my other assignment, yet, I used my intense exam and the past 2 weeks of working on assignment as an excuse not to look at the new assignment till next week (ie. tomorrow).

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A friend is flying off the London for training for the next couple of months, and asked us what she could get for us while there. I thought of Paddington Bear, and tonight chanced upon Peter Rabbit. and have been staring at the cute books and soft toys listed in an online shop for the past half hour.

I grew up with British books, shows and cartoons. The Chronicles of Narnia, Peter Rabbit and Paddington Bear were some of those that make me feel warm inside whenever I see them. Even when I was way beyond the age to be a Peter Rabbit audience, I relished in the wonderful illustrations of gardens and soft and flurry things created by Beatrix Potter. Sad to say, I can't remember any of the story now.

I know Paddington Bear from tv. There used to be an airtime for Paddington on tv in the past, and I love to hear the British-accented talk by the characters, and enjoys giggling at Paddington Bear's silly antics. He's oh-so-innocent. And Narnia was impressed upon my mind when the animated series was shown on tv in my very-younger days.

For a long time, it became my ultimate dream to go to England. Love what I read and watch off TV, and especially THE BRITISH ACCENT. But as reality kicks in in my growing up years, this dream faded away. I mean, c'mon, it's really expensive to live in the country of British pounds, let alone the air ticket.

Anyway, you get the point.

I'm done with this online business. Think I'll probably go watch some TV, or head back to bed now.

'Ta.

The Word Given...

1 Corinthians 1:25

For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength.(New International Version)

This foolish plan of God is wiser than the wisest of human plans, and God’s weakness is stronger than the greatest of human strength. (New Living Translation)

因神的愚拙总比人智慧，神的软弱比人刚强。（和合本）

It's All Good

Well, I cried and cried after my previous post that day. Many, many, many questions ran through my head, and nearing the end, I asked God, "Why me, God? Why? Didn't you put me through enough difficult situations for the entire year already, and now this? You think I do not have enough? I am beginning to get closer to you, enjoying your presence, enjoying church, getting back to prayers, joyfully tithing... And now this? Didn't I have enough?"

The night didn't ended with an answer. I remember I went to sleepy mumbling "It would take God's miracle to work something out for me." I woke up the next day, eyes puffed from a night of crying. Fortunately, I can still conceal them with my fringes and black-rimmed glasses. True enough, I didn't have anything to cry for the next day. I started the day being kinda quiet, but soon I went back to being my normal self.

You see, these kinda things don't hold me down for long.

For one, I do not think that I should make the people around me liable for me my sorrows, and give them a black face at work or at home. For another, I recognised that I am damn suay (unlucky) to have this kinda of things happen to me more than once in my life, and I resigned to the fact that nothing is going to happen to turn things around. Both these reasons were reason enough for me to stop my self-pity and move on with life.

By Friday, I was more than better. The coordinator from school advised me to contact the foundation for financial assistance appeal, with details of my course. I got the help of my boss to help write the appeal letter and faxed the details to them. Now it's time to wait.

I am no longer resigned to my fate. For the past few days, I have learnt that whatever happens, whether I get the grant or not, God is in both situations. If I do get it, praise Him. He works miracles for all those who love him. And I know He loves me dearly. It will be a testimonail to those who know about the situation, but yet to know of this God who loves.

If I do not get the grant, it could well be an additional push for me to go out to source for freelance translation jobs. God knows very well that if I get too comfortable, in the event that the grant is through, I could slack in my ambition to polish my skills in 2007. Which basically is equivalent to me throwing my skill that is worth $5000 away.

Anyways, I was not completely over the stress the fees gave me, so I got L to accompany me to Orchard Road for some hang out time. Man, was I happy that I did that. I bought two purses from the Muji store (at $46$26 and $36$23, they are a steal!) at Paragon, had a bowl of terrific fried fish soup with milk from the food court at Plaza Singapura, and later went to Daiso and bought nothing but 2 boxes of plasters.

It was good, all good. :D

(Something's wrong with Blogger entry page tonight, shall updated with pix later!)