MyBlog

The End?

2009-05-08T15:34:00.002+08:00

Many countries in the world view the economic and social status as a keymarker for the "health" of the country. For example, if Singapore were to experience continuous hyperinflation or years of recession, some people would say, "Singapore is dying".

And yet, God gives a different twist to the story of whether a nation survives. One determinant he uses is the level of sexual purity in that country. In the book of Leviticus, he clearly explains sexual sin and the definition of what is unclean and unlawful.

Towards the end of chapter 18, he says, "Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways, because this is how the nations that I am going to drive out became defiled. Even the land was defiled; so I punished it for its sin, and the land vomited out its inhabitants. But you must keep my decrees and my laws. The native-born and the aliens living among you must not do any of these detestable things, for all these things were done by the people who lived in the land before you, and the land became defiled. And if you defile the land, it will vomit you out as it vomited out the nations that were before you."

Note: (The group of people he was addressing was the Israelites, and the groups of people he spoke about that were driven out due to sexual immorality (or were killed) were the ancient Egyptians and Canaanites.)

At face value, it may seem like a joke. Ever seen a face on a plot of land? Nope. Vomiting sounds all the more ridiculous then. Thinking a little harder, how many "natural" disasters have we had? How many nations have had people being killed not by another person, but by the physical land that they live on? And interestingly, how many times have people blamed God for them?

No one can fathom the events of the end of the world. Maybe these "birthpains" are a good sign that justice and righteousness will soon finally take their place. However, the birthpains are also huge smoke signals that the world will keep getting more evil till the day of Judgement, and that we're running out of time to reach out to those who need to hear about what is right and true: God's gospel message.

God, give me the strength and ability to stay faithful to you for the rest of my life. Help me keep pure, set apart for you, harvesting the Fruit of the Spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control) every day, and to share about your love with those who need you. Amen.

My take on the AWARE saga...

2009-05-05T14:03:00.003+08:00

I am a Christian. These words from the Bible reflect what I'd like to tell the women from the ex-new Exco..

1 Peter 3: 8-16
Finally, all of you, live in harmony with one another; be sympathetic, love as brothers, be compassionate and humble. Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing. For,

"Whoever would love life and see good days must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from deceitful speech. He must turn from evil and do good; he must seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil."

Who is going to do harm if you are eager to do good? But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. "Do not fear what they fear; do not be frightened." But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak against your good behaviour in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.

Having a personal relationship with God gives us the privilege of viewing things from His perspective. The key issue of sexual immorality, in this case, is probably viewed with horror and possibly disgust, because in our hearts, we know that sexual immorality or wrong sexual behaviour displeases God.

The important question is, where do we go from there? Making a stand for what we believe is important, and I think we should, but let's do this in love. People who do not believe in God, and therefore are not under God's Law, will not have the same way of thinking. All we say may be foolishness to them, but our role is not to judge. That's God's job. (and he does it extremely well) Instead, we should love, in the way God loves, and pray, always remembering the hope that we have, and that at the end of the day, justice and righteousness (God's standards) will prevail.

To end this off...
John 3:16-17
"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him."

God bless you:)

Good music is meant to be shared:)

2009-04-27T17:44:00.001+08:00

The End.........of the year. (what else could I be referring to?:P)

2008-12-17T11:53:00.000+08:00

Summary of my life...

Half of my first year in med school is over. Think I failed my 2nd exam.

haha...no, that's not all there is to my life. That would be...horrifically boring. Wow..so many things have happened in such a short time. Last year, I predicted that this year would be life-changing. I didn't expect it to change that much...and that fast...But God is good. Despite my insecurities, lack of faith, laziness, and sometimes unwillingness to draw close to him, he's always there. Think I've caused him quite a bit of grief this year. But he's the only one I'd declare to the entire world that I love..Somehow, I find it impossible anymore not to love God..there's just something about him that will always draw me back no matter how far I am, and though my love for him is imperfect, I guess I'm learning more and more each day how to love him:)

2008 has been..an interesting year, to say the least. The year has zoomed by, but I fondly remember working with HSBC, having 5 tuition students, getting my results and applying for medicine, going through an essay test and 2 interviews for the faculty, working with National Dental Centre, getting a place in medicine (and jumping up and down in joy), celebrating my birthday and receiving very nice presents...haha, going for orientation, starting school, joining Resonance, experiencing emotional roller coasters, going through 2 crazy exams, and ta-da! Here I am..glad to be alive:) and loved by God and my friends...

Before anymore serious ramblings, here are some pics depicting certain stuff that have gone on these few months (most of them feature a certain special someone:) )

Breakfast with Cheri at Macs. Grape tea:) and smiley hotcakes...

One morning, I decided to walk to Pandan reservoir. The journey was probably about 5km. Worth it, though:) Nice, quiet and serene place. The journey back was slightly longer, with some detour:) Later on, I walked to school and back twice each too. Very walky-day:) I probably walked about 15km that day. haha...

In the book of Exodus in the Bible, Moses and the Israelites were guided by God in the form of a pillar of clouds in the day. I had the privilege of seeing this pillar of clouds near my house:) Whee!

Don't think you'll guess what this picture is..haha...It's actually 4 mirrors reflecting the light from my camera's flash. Awesome stuff:)

Yes, this is a carrot stuffed into a tissue box...haha...well, a carrot that I sewed and made for the Medicine DnD in August. The girls in my orientation group were supposed to be bunnies (no, I'm not posting those photos here:) ) Anyway, the rest of the girls carried real carrots. Mine was...special:)

Super Monkey! haha...Sometimes I wish I were super too, then I could do many things without getting burned out. But, it's nice being human too:) Anyway, this is my new (a few months old) handphone pouch. The 'film' frame is artificial though:) digitally added...

Adorable doughuts:) The day I ate this...well, I guess it was a day of history making...

Yup, it is pink, so obviously I didn't buy it...heh. Well my parents got it for me from Ocean Park, Hong Kong. A little reminder that my whole family went on holiday except me...very interesting 5 days without them...but hope it won't happen again anytime soon. I love my family:) despite certain scary traits in each of them...haha...but it's still better to have them around.

Origami frog...how random could this get? haha...well it's a nice reminder of the Senior Sunday School camp this year. Planned a really cool game, "Quest For The King", with Joel and Daryl...a game that could actually be used again on other groups of people...haha...but a high level of thinking and stamina is required on the part of the participants. haha...

And this is what I stayed up last night to do...haha...helped my mum ice her gingerbread cookies...till about 1.30am...haha....they look quite pretty so...yay!:) But since I crossed the sleepy stage, I couldn't sleep for quite long...haha. I probably should sleep more today.

Now you may be thinking...I thought there's supposed to be someone who's featured a lot? Well...I saved the best for last...haha...here comes the pics!

Resonance (Presentation Day)

Arcade Trip With Helen

This was the day we went quite wild with arcade...haha...and spent tonnes of money (oops). Anyway, we won a few kilograms of sweets (we split the loot) and I also got Mickey-Monkey:) Of course Smiley was there to share in our victory...haha...oh yeah, the picture on the right also shows some neoprints we took...the neoprints I promised to take 3 years ago...haha. So yes, Helen waited 3 years for that. The prints were...quite nice though:)

Smiley in School

There is no bear more hardworking than Smiley:) Background of this pic...think there was a break between the lectures, so I was in one of the chairs in the LT, and the book was on the table. Smiley's on my lap studying with me...Musculoskeletal system:)

Randomness...

Couldn't help taking this one...in church. He's so cute:) This was just before...he went into 'Beary Medical School'

One of Smiley's childhood aspirations...

If Smiley weren't a bear, he'd probably be a bunny:) Either way, he's so cute:)

Even though Smiley's usually pretty silent, he has a hidden talent...and look:)

Ah yes...Smiley's true form...an angel in disguise:)

Most Importantly...

Smiley has graduated from Beary Medical School!!!!

The white coat's perfect for him:) Ah...guess I was meant to be with this doctor:)

Okay, back to the less cute stuff... this year has been full of ups and downs, but I'm so thankful that God gave me one of the greatest gifts I could ask for (besides his love): the privilege of training to become a doctor. Time and again, as I remember this gift, I recall the reason why I study and who I should be doing it for. It's really hard always focusing on God, to be honest, with all my imperfections and the many distractions in this world. Any of you who read this can knock the truth into my head every once in a while to remind me that everything I do should be for God:)

I'm not into the habit of making new year resolutions...but I guess I would like to openly declare that I want to completely surrender the entire 2009, every aspect of it, to God's hands. It's actually going to be quite difficult and pretty crazy..haha...but I've come to realise it's the only way to live without getting angry at myself or being drained out. And God's love and peace will be able to tide me through another exciting but difficult year:) The forecast for 2009 includes... a hectic school life, CCA commitments, tuition, learning 2 dialects, serving in church (sunday school, worship leading, PA), possibly serving in healthserve as well as discovering many aspects of life on a deeper level (such as how to care for patients without getting emotionally attached or detached, and what it means to love people in the way God does).

Well, before the year ends, there are still many things left to do...haha...carolling 2 days in a row...Christmas...my family's wonderful Christmas present...parties...and...other secretive stuff...haha:) Only God and Smiley will know all of them:)

Anyway, this week, so far, has been...think-ful. Been contemplating many things about life, and I've come to the conclusion that...it's quite tiring to think so much...haha... Too bad God doesn't provide answer sheets on what the right answers in life are...heh. I would cheat in every decision and follow the answers laid before my eyes...but I guess I can't:) Too bad for me, I guess...haha. I shall...think about shallower stuff, like Christmas present details..haha...

That's all from me:) Take care and God bless!

Once in a Bluemoon (major photo/video entry)

2008-07-31T14:29:00.000+08:00

Bluemoon's out:)
Time for an update.

Last you heard, Ladies and Gentlemen, I was moving out of the temp house. Right now, I'm back home! Yay! haha...actually, I've been there since 14 June 2008:) But when I first went back, many things were still not in place, and construction workers roamed the house daily... a little scary...haha. Right now, almost everything's done, except for some shelves and chairs in the study room. We also haven't painted the band room...haha...

Anyway...on the 17th of May, we had Laser Quest in church. Was quite glad Faith and Yao Yang came along too. Although I'm not sure whether they truly enjoyed it, I hope they did. I had fun:) Even though there were some extremely aggressive shooters...haha...very scary! While packing up, I realised I had a missed call from my Dad. Upon returning the call, I realised that I had received something from NUS, and, once again, my parents got so excited that they peeked in immediately. So horrible...haha:) Anyway, he told me that NUS regrets to tell me that......... I was offered a place in Medicine! haha...Yay! But I kept asking..."Are you sure? You're not lying right?" heh...well, he wasn't. And I'm still so, so grateful to God for allowing me to get in:) He also allowed me to get in immediately, so I didn't have to wait that long... very humbled by this experience:)

Also, prior to moving back (the day before), I celebrated my birthday with many wonderful people from church:) We went to East Coast Park in the afternoon for cycling/blading, then met up with more people for dinner at Siglap (TCC, then Macs for dessert) I had fun:)

Well, putting all that aside, here's something to think about...when celebrating our friends' birthdays, do we really make it a point to make that person's day, or does it sometimes become just a reason for everyone to gather and hang out? Also, is it important to celebrate peoples' birthdays? Having celebrated 19, it really makes me wonder about the significance of celebrating it. It becomes a little like celebrating Christmas... I'm probably being pessimistic, but unless Christ is the centre of the celebration, the meaning of Christmas is lost.

Anyway, in early July, I went for my Freshmen Orientation Camp, this year known as MEDagascar! Made new friends, especially those in my orientation group (OG)...they're nice people:) My "Fright Night" experience was quite cool too..haha...but I've told this story enough times, so I shan't post it...heh:)

AESALON! People in white are M1s, people in maroon are M2s:)

After the camp, wow...it's been pretty hectic for me..haha...as usual. Besides working 5 days a week and having tuition 6 days a week, I co-wrote (with Helen and Jonathan) and produced 2 short movies for my church's 50th Anniversary, "Fathomed" and "B-F-E-C". Wow...it was definitely exhausting and sometimes frustrating...haha...but fulfilling and fun too:) The actual celebration services were on 26 and 27 July, and I was part of the deck crew. Haha...working with 7 wireless mics, 4 wired mics and tonnes of people is a very interesting experience, but the WORST part is having lousy batteries that keep dying during the service..aiyo...we used more than 20 9V batteries in all for both days. But as usual, it was fun:) hahaha...think I'm a bit crazy. I shall hide away from all these responsibilities for the next half of the year. Need to recuperate... :P And thank you, thank you, thank you to all those who helped in one way or another. I am very grateful!:) Let me know if you need any help or prayer or just someone to listen...

Here are the videos/movies we did. They are "B-F-E-C", "Fathomed" and "The Bloopers" respectively...

At work, I've been doing some interesting stuff besides admin work. I did a lot of "normal" HR work, such as filing, powerpoint slides, handling candidates when they come for interviews, etc, but...haha... I did a lot of "abnormal" things too:) Most of these involve art work...lol... which I never expected at all (since I obviously didn't do art...the max was for Huangcheng, where I exsured the sets were aesthetically pleasing:)...) Anyway, I did up the HR noticeboard, my very own Winter Wonderland! haha... Also, during the last 2 weeks of July (yes, all events always clash), I did the backdrop for the Nurses' Day celebration, which took place....today! haha...yes, it's my last day of work!:) Finally back to being a student... Oh yeah, I also designed little cards for my colleagues. Presenting...the Art Gallery! (don't criticise too much...haha)

Winter Wonderland!

My wonderful huskies=) And... the water...which I took 7 hours to colour with colour pencils...haha (using 6 colours. The dogs used 4-5 each)

My polar bear family! haha... all of them look different but each one is nice (according to me=P) Anyway, I used black marker and colour pencils for these

Ooh the beautiful birds! haha... solely done by colour pencils and scissors. Pretty tedious...heh

And of course, seals, the sun and an igloo! Once again, black marker and colour pencils:) The sun was included cos the office got too cold...=P I like the igloo...haha...It's harder to draw then you think:)

Well, those above really tested my drawing and colouring skills. The following, on the other hand...is another crazy style of doing art...haha...practically everything is cut out from coloured paper and stuck together. This is tedious and it drives you nuts...haha...but the outcome is really nice too:)

Ze penguins! This one is crazily hard to do! Extremely intricate details and estimation of size needed. Don't do this if you have no patience...haha...seriously. And...the snowman! heh...yup, everything that has a different colour is from a different piece of paper. But this was fun to do (though a bit tiring) an it was the first thing that was done for the board:)

Well, since it was the HR board, I decided to make sure everyone was represented. That...wasn't a mistake...haha...but it took close to 30 hours in all to create these eskimos... They are arranged randomly (according to the order they appeared on my screen...haha)

And this..is our Winter Wonderland:) haha...yes the eskimos were designed such that they could hold hands!

Heh...if you realised, the people can move around! haha... I used double-sided tape to stick the sticky part of post-its on the back of each eskimo. The only drawback is that you have to change the post-it every now and then...But, it makes te board very interactive:) Oh speaking of paper art, I did 4 different sizes of snowflakes and cut them out indvidually. Once again...don't try this if you can't patiently finish the job...cos...whatever you cout out..you still have to paste them one by one on the board (haha...yes, it's a double job) but it creates a nicer effect:P

Nurses' Day!

My task was to create a backdrop for the Nurses' Day carnival held today, so I decided to do a hot-air balloon:) These show part of the process of doing up the entire 6-vanguard-sheet-sized backdrop. Not shown: the lettering "happy nurses' day" except the final product.

Did a sketch on a small piece of paper with pen and colour pencils. Then stuck the 6 vanguards together and started drawing. It was quite horrific, cos the thing's so big, so it's very difficult to gauge the correct scale and proportions for each object. After drawing the whole thing out, I outlined them with a black marker.

These 3 items (representing music, popcorn and cotton candy, which were part of the carnival) were done with black marker and colour pencils:) wow...who knew such items would be so hard to draw? haha...especially pop corn. But they look really delicious/nice, so...it's worth it:)

Oce again, different stages of my progress. It took 2 weeks to do up this backdrop, and painting the blue was a bit traumatic, because one small tube of paint, well, didn't contain much paint. haha... After all the basic painting was done, the touching up took a lot of effort too...but...ok it was a good experience;) The final stuff to do were reoutlining EVERYTHING again, and cutting out the right shape along the wavy lines. Didn't want the backdrop to hav 4 edges...haha...too normal:)

So here it is...what turned up at the wall...haha...I know the photos are pretty dark ( didn't have time to edit them) but they're clear enough:)

Farewell Cards!

No explanation needed:) But these are done with colour pencils and black pen:)

And yes... since it was my last day of work, I actually took photos...haha...ooh Smiley too! haha... :)

And these are the gifts from my colleagues:)

After work, Smiley and I went out to celebrate! :) ok ok, there were 5 other people there with us in Kuishin Bo...haha...

Sarah, James and Joel

Me, Xinyi and Jonathan

Smiley:)

Me, Smiley and Xinyi

Ok, time to display all the food. First, here's some of the stuff from the actual buffet

Oops...I meant...

Guess who took too much food and couldn't finish some of it...

now you see it...

now you don't!

Dong Dong Dong, 1-2-3, We are Kuishin Bo!

Well we had such fit people that we managed to get 3 lobsters, 2 crepes and 4 ice-creams tonight

Oh dear, they ate so quickly that this is all that's left...
Good thing we had more than one...haha:)

Whoa! Asteroid??? Moon? Nah...haha

Aww...it doesn't look so cool anymore:)

And here are the desserts we got from the buffet...

I didn't know how to use the chocolate fountain:'( so...I..I...put my whole bowl in there to fill it with chocolate. How was I supposed to know that I was supposed to put the sticks of fruits in instead and then collect the extra chocolate in a bowl? sigh...haha... All of them laughed at me. At least Smiley only smiled:)

End of photos.

Could have taken more, or did more artistic stuff like Sara would, but...Eating is more important..haha

Tomorrow, the YA retreat begins:) Yay! I'm doing some (okay, quite a lot) of ice-breakers...haha...since most of them aren't the normal kind of activities, hope they'll have fun:) God bless you!

Moving...

2008-05-30T22:09:00.000+08:00

yup...that's right. Moving out from this temporary house...it's been a pretty nice to put up at for 3 and a half months...but it's time to go...

I can't wait till we finally, finally get to go back home... in a few weeks..

Moments in Time

2008-05-29T23:49:00.000+08:00

Just thought I should give some updates...just in case people think I've been hiding in a cave all this while...heh :)

Wow....a lot has happened.

After leaving HSBC, I stayed at home for a week...then I fell sick...which is normal...but then I got mysterious rashes also...haiz...literally hid in the dark for 3 days. After many doses of antihistamines (including a jab), the swelling of the colonies went down (praise the Lord!) but the colour was pretty awful. Till today, the areas with rashes have a different colour tone from the rest of my normal skin colour...haha... hopefully it'll get better by...hmm...the end of the year (that's 6 months more!) :)

Oh yeah... I should talk a bit about Uni stuff. Since Sec 3, I really wanted to be a doctor. Many events, as well as a developed interest in human biology, shaped this desire. God is really good, and his unceasing mercy allowed me to do relatively well for my A Levels, so I got shortlisted for Medicine. We had to prepare a portfolio ( consisting of a portfolio, a resume and 2 recommendation letters), go through an essay and psychometric test, as well as 2 interviews... Here's what I wrote in my personal statement...

In life, we get so caught up with work, achievements, popularity and relationships that we sometimes forget one crucial thing: the very fact that we have life. My wake-up call came three years ago, when a friend of mine committed suicide and jumped to her death. At the age of sixteen, I suddenly came face to face with the fragility of life, and realised how much a life is worth. The theme of life flows through every blood vessel of the healthcare industry, and people’s lives are something I want to keep fighting for, for the rest of mine.

I had the privilege of taking part in two healthcare-related attachments in the last two years, firstly to the National Healthcare Group, and then to the Singapore Cancer Society. I fondly remember my experience at Alexandra Hospital, watching professional therapists, nurses and doctors working side by side with the common goal of taking care of patients. The most memorable period was when I assisted a physiotherapist with patients who had suffered strokes or sustained injuries and could not move with ease or independently. It really touched me to know that as inexperienced as I was, the small amount of help actually contributed to each patient’s recovery process, and their progress was indeed heartwarming.

The one-week stint with Singapore Cancer Society showed me a very different side of healthcare. Instead of offering a cure, the nurses offered the terminally-ill cancer patients palliative care, including home visits, medicine, food and other basic necessities. With an intrinsic optimism, I used to have big, noble thoughts about saving a great number of people if I became a doctor. My visits to patients’ homes proved otherwise. Even the most highly-skilled healthcare professionals can be made powerless when battling against certain sicknesses or circumstances. However, this makes every battle precious, and every victory priceless.

On a lighter note, medical dramas like House and Grey’s Anatomy have definitely played a part in fuelling my interest in Medicine. These larger-than-life shows have actually brought out certain critical aspects of being a good doctor— professionalism, humility, compassion and level-headedness—and have reminded me to hold onto these qualities.

The road towards the biggest age in teen-hood has not always been smooth, but the treasures I have picked up along the way, including a love for people, music, smiley faces, dry humour, sudoku and God, have given me the strength and passion to lead a fulfilling life. Having the honour to serve others as a doctor in the future will bring joy to my heart, and hopefully to those around me too. I leave you with my very own riddle…J

Question:
How did the comedian break his bones?

Answer:
He cracked up at his own joke.

Did I really send that in? Yep:) Anyway, I felt the essay was horribly done...didn't think that question would come outm even though a similar one came out during my nursing intervew. But...I was just relieved after it was done (did I mention how much I "love" writing essays?) Then came....the Interviews. On the overall, they were fine, actually. Pretty tough questions...I know I stumbled for some, but I was prepared for the preparable ones...haha. It's a good thing I love studying...and thanks to Sarah's good advice, I read quite a number of medical articles and journals, which had pretty useful content.

Oh yeah...the outcome. (almost forgot :P) Yay...I got in! :) (momentary pause) Thank you, God. I'm at a loss for words, actions, thoughts or anything I could possibly do. These 4 years have not been easy for me...hoping and dreaming that my will is in sync with yours. Thank you for blessing me and making this dream (my biggest, so far) come true...

This month, I started a new temporary job as an HR Assistant at the National Dental Centre. It's pretty much admin-based since a lot of the documents are confidential. I don't get to do much, but I've picked up quite a bit about HR via the things that I do get to do, as well as conversations in the office. Seems interesting enough, but not what I would do for a long time:)

Countdown to start of school: 2 months +
Countdown to my birthday: 13 days:) I'm going to be 19. Wheeeeeee! (still as childlike as ever)

I hope this year ahead will be exciting and memorable. I want to bless many people too :) Ah... many things to dream about:)

Sheepish Smile

2008-04-11T20:57:00.000+08:00

John 10:27
"My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me."

The Lord is our good shepherd, and he takes care of us so meticulously, gently and lovingly.
We, sheep, however, are not very smart.

We get into trouble all the time, do silly things and make mistakes... so we really need to be taken of. However, sometimes it's hard to see the Lord's hand move in our lives, since we're...quite blind. That's why we have brothers and sisters around us, and we need to take care of one another.

"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another." John 13:34

Sheepish Smile is a project I'm working on... It involves meeting people, finding out about their lives and praying for them. Then, with God's gift of a memory, I write the important stuff down in my notebook, and pray for them regularly:)

As for the name...well...we're all sheep, and...I like smiley faces! haha... also, this project makes me happy and blesses both my friends and I, thus the smile comes into the picture:)

So everyone, don't get shocked if I suddenly come to you and talk with you over a drink or meal!

Last Day@HSBC (photo post)

2008-04-05T07:49:00.000+08:00

Yes...I do take photos after all...

Some of the temp staff from Funds Transfer Department

My boss, Lina (yes, I made her wear the tiara :P)

Some of the temp staff from other departments (Like I said, it's good to make friends across departments...)

Okay, enough people photos..heh...the following are the really nice gifts they gave...

From Lina...

From Zhi Ying...

From Sharon...

From some people in the Funds Transfer Department (Lina, Dwight, Beatrice, Li Mei, Pei Lin and Jocelyn...)

Group photo:)

Update on my short life

2008-03-27T22:22:00.000+08:00

Whoa...ok I think I blog too infrequently (understatement of the year :P)

Anyway, it's been an exciting few months... And time sure flies. I started working as a temp at HSBC on 15 Jan, and tomorrow is actually my last day! These 2 and a half months allowed me to understand and help out at 4 departments an taught me some great lessons about working in an office:
1. They have a pantry i.e. go and take the nice biscuits=) especially the chocolate wafer rolls
WARNING: This is not for the weight-conscious!
2. Make many friends, and if possible, from different departments. You learn more.
3. The number 1 enemy you'll meet: Office politics. It reigns there.
4. Work hard. ( thankfully, it comes naturally for me :P )
5. Office work is routine work. You either like it, or you don't.
6. Colossians 3:23 - Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men.

I'm really glad I got the chance to have this job, and I was blessed to have a good boss and supervisor. Thank you, Lord:)

Oh yeah, I got my results on March 7, 2008 (why do I remember all these details? :'( They take up a lot of memory space) I'm very thankful for them and all the lovely reminders that God brought back to mind, mostly about his goodness. And it's really true, because judging from the activities I was involved in last year, there's no way I could have obtained my above-average results...so, God, all the results on my result slip belong to you. I just have a share in your victory=P yay! Oh, what did I get? Well, B for Econs and A for Bio, Chem, Maths, GP and Project Work.... which was a pleasant surprise, since my Prelim results were... Definitely Disastrous and Extremely and Extensively Execrable:) God is good.

University application is pretty painful. The extremely long process in filling up page after page (for more than 1 university) kind of got on my nerves a little and the ending part which says "print a copy for yourself" really helps release huge sighs since I have no printer. That was the reason I could not apply for Radiation Therapy in NYP. Was supposed to send the acknowledgement page with my signature back to them, but...oh well... guess I got eliminated from their selection immediately. However, I'm glad the whole application part is over. Now, the long wait begins again. ARGH... Sigh... God, I do wish I knew a little more about your plan for me regarding my studies right now. I'm running out of work that helped distract a little, and watching "House" might make me more emo since it's got to do with medicine too. Ok, stop. Shall not think so much...

Oh, watched TV from 8.15pm to 11pm today... Caught "A Wedding Affair (finale)", "News 5 Tonight" and "American Idol: The Results Show". A Wedding Affair was almost like a Miss Singapore Universe Pageant, with people parading in gowns, answering questions, etc, but this time it was couples taking part together. What caught my attention was, first of all, the wedding cake designing competition. The cakes looked really good...haha...wonder who ate them after the show, since, obviously, none of the couples' weddings took place tonight. If only there was a competition that allowed viewers to win the cakes=). And... The Couple of the Year walked away with $20000 cash and jewellery. Wow! That is... a big help for any wedding preparation. I was about to say "I should go and join!" but I realised I'm not eligible. No fiance. Haha...... Anyway, the news reported tonight was pretty depressing as usual. More deaths, tragedies and stuff, (except maybe the hail in Singapore yesterday) but one thing that got my attention is that in 3 of the stories, which involved babies, all the babies survived. "For it is by grace you have been saved..." I don't know, but I kind of see this as a second chance for the babies to know the God that rescued them despite their age. My heart did go out to the 2-month old baby whose entire family, including grandmother, died in the accident. I'll be praying for that child to know God and feel His love for her.... American Idol was pretty ok tonight. Not surprised at the results, actually. Don't really have anythinig much else to say about the show...lol

12.24am....last day of work later. I predict there'll be OT today, because I'll have to do a proper handover. But, I'll miss this job somewhat=) Good night

The Weekend

2008-01-28T20:21:00.001+08:00

It was back to work early this morning... And, after the weekend (26/27 jan), work really wasn't a good idea today...haha. Was pretty sick, so my productivity level for the first 3 hours was absolutely...sad. (taking into consideration my annoying desire for perfection and in thi case, efficiency) Fortunately, I live near my workplace, so I went home during lunchtime and slept for about 15 minutes...which, by God's mercy, helped a little.

Anyway, the past weekend was pretty hectic, but also a very good learning experience. It mainly comprised of worship pracs, church services and preparing for The AmazinGrace, an event for the SSS "kids". From planning the activities that were used by the Sinister Seniors and designing/doing a maze for the chapel to leading worship for SSS and doing PA for the main service, my 48 hours were very well utilised (yay!) and exciting actually.

There are some people whom I really appreciate, and have made my weekend more meaningful...

1. Ian, Joyce, Ivan, Daryl, Helen, Tim Han...for staying back with me on sat after the YA meeting and keeping me company for a while...while I was trying to do the maze.
2. Helen and Tim...for also going out to buy more yellow tape and for staying with me till 11.15 that night to finish the maze (almost, at least:P)
3. Joel...for trying to insist on sending me to church on sunday morning so I could sleep longer. Unfortunately, I'm stubborn...
4. Sylvianne...for allowing me to give you tuition... I really miss studying! And I had fun helping you with integration and Maclaurin's Series this week:)
5. Sarah...for coming early in the morning and being so hyper... kept me awake even though I had only slept for 4 hours...haha
6. Nicky...for coming earlier to troubleshoot your guitar and pedal problems since there were so many breakdowns the day before. The sound didn't die during the actual thing! :)
7. Joshua Kwek...for being very concerned about all of us "little ones", and for also being patient when I refused to tell you about my "secret mission" next week (though I told you a little in the end, since I can't make it for cell group, and yes....for accountability's sake)
8. Shu Fen... for being really nice and smsing us on sat night about how we found the YA meeting since you couldn't make it...Sorry I was really tired and forgot to reply...
9. Stephanie and Ian...for helping with the signages for each level, and for blowing balloons on sat. Steph, even though you took really long to figure out that there was a slit for you to put the paper through...your Eureka! moment will linger in my memories for quite a while:) Ian, thanks for cutting the scotch tape!
10. Aunty Evelyn, for bearing with all my requests (chapel bookings, photocopying, borrowing of so much stationery...lol) and for being so nice:)
11. Deborah and David...for going back home to get the lighter (your house isn't that far...but I really appreciated your willingness to help:P)
12. Paul...for blowing the Senior 3 balloon, which had shrunk from the night before... and for to creating the beautiful partial burnt design for te scavenger hunt paper, even though the lighter died halfway...
13. Jason...for heading the committee for The AmazinGrace! Thank you for teaching us about the real world and how it operates. Thank you for teaching us "delegation" and "responsibility". Haha... I'm glad the bottom line for our debrief was "everyone has potential"...lol... That was so funny:)
16. Joyce...for inviting us to your house for a farewell dinner:) Oh we watched the finals of the tennis Australian Open between Novak Djokovic and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. Seemed like everyone in the room was supporting Djokovic, so it was a sweet ending for all of us. Heard that Mark Seow was supporting Tsonga and had bet with Nicky and Cai that he would win. Guess he's now $2 broker...haha
15. Abooz! (That's the group I was the personnel of) The race wasn't easy for the group, with the widely dffering opinions and personalities of the group members. But I'm so proud that we managed to come in 2nd anyway! We arrived back at church 2nd, won the water game and the cheering competition!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I loved our cheer:)

(lights on)
(Nathanael looks very serious and starts using his hands to mime out drawing a window. Jerome makes creaking sound effects. Nathanael opens the window and peers out. Starts lip sync-ing, with Cherlyn singing behind him)
"I've been dreaming of a true love's kiss"
(Nathanael does the blow-kiss action)
"Aaaaaaaaaa.......Aaaaaaaaaaa"
Everyone: "Aaaaaaaabooz!"
Nat: "Ready, let's go! 5-6-7-8! Abooz, Abooz, what are we?"
(Everyone does fanning action)
Everyone: H-O-T! H-O-T!
Nat: Abooz, Abooz, who are we?
Everyone: H-O-T! H-O-T! ....
Oo-ee oo-ee oo-ee
Oo-ee oo-ee oo-ee
Oo-aa oo-aa oo-aa
Oo-ee oo-aa oo-aa
Oo-ee oo-aa oo-aa
HA-HA-HA-HA! Flatten you like prata!
Cheri: Abooz kuchi kuchi wa wa
Everyone: Wa wa
Cheri: Abooz kuchi kuchi chi chi
Everyone: Chi chi
Ta-ta-ta-ta-ta
Chi hua hua (X3)
Ta ta ta ta ta
Abooz!

Anyway, it's back to work again tomorrow. Shall sleep early tonight! :) Yay...work!

SSS Camp day 2/ 3

2007-12-06T12:29:00.000+08:00

1 Dec (Day 2)

I caught a cold that morning.. Which was a very bad idea because I was sneezing and freezing throughout the entire wedding ceremony. However, I was still very happy for Gerald and Dawn. Well, both are doctors, very smart and very nice. her theme verse for the wedding came from 1 Corinthians 13:4-8... It's about love, and what true love entails. I especially like the first sentence of verse 8: Love never fails. In this world, we see many failed marriages and relationships, or hear stories about how a person no longer loves his/her partner. But I guess, then, that real love never truly existed between the couple. So I hope my cousin and cousin-in-law will keep holding onto God's Word, and that their relationships with God and with each other will keep growing stronger each day:) In fact, I think verse 13 can truly encourage all couples.

"And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."

After the wedding, we had a buffet lunch, and then Cheri and I waited for Joel and Andy to pick us up (after their worship practice in church) and bring us back to camp. On the way, Daryl and Emerald were picked up too, with "special logistics" for Joel's night games to be held that night. When we finally reached the camp site, the rest of the campers were already proceeding to the large field in preparation for the afternoon's sports games. Cheri and I went to change out of our formal attire and joined in:) The 2 games for the afternoon were soccer and captain's ball. Poor Helen... she sprained her ankle during the first soccer match. After that, she was pretty much limited to the sidelines. That afternoon, because half of the group was injured and Gabriel and Chelsea were also not around, our morale was very low, and we didn't do very well. However, towards the end, after a short spuuring session, we worked better as a team and had a lot more fun:) Oh yeah, after that, all 4 teams of campers combined forces and took on the personnels, who were actually generally brilliant players, as evident during the prior matches (they joined in with the teams). However, for both matches, the campers won! Yay!!!!!!! Some of the personnels attributed it to the age difference (rubbish...haha.. they are only in their low 20s) but anyway, we had fun=P

After the sports games came wash-up and dinner time. Most of us didn't bother bathing yet because we knew that there were night games later on. Anyway, after a hearty meal, we went into the session room for worship led by Jonathan. Following worship, Joel took over and introduced the game to us, starting with a video. It actually just featured Daryl, speaking in a strange language, and the subtitles explaining that we've been captured and brought to a place called Planet Bob. Our mission was to go to each station, following specific route, perform tasks and collect a number of loose letters, which we later had to form a message. This message was supposed to be sent back to our friends on earth... or something.

Every group had a different route to go to. Some stations were visited by every group, whereas some were only visited by selected groups. To determine which route to take, Joel showed us 4 keys which could open up 4 padlocks at the back of the room. Each group was to send one person to select and key, and then randomly try to open a lock. If he/she was successful, that would be the route (marked A,B,C or D). Otherwise, the key had to returned, while the next group tried. And then, lo and behold, he brought out a container full of live mealworms and dumped the 4 keys in! Gross... I wasn't actually scared of mealworms when I was young, until... I found out they grew up to become beetles! Sigh... But since I went up to retrieve the key, and since I was the group leader, I had to act brave...haha. I got a key, but didn't get the right lock. After that, my other group members tried to get another key, but somehow, after 10 minutes, and the rest of the groups had already left, we still couldn't find the key inside the container. So Joel just allcated us the last route (route B)

After the entire game, we didn't get the letters to Andy's station because we made a mistake in the morse code. However, we won! Yay! The message was... "You are not in another dimension. This is just a dream. Wake up." Sigh... with so many important letters missing, we had to keep guessing... Fortunately, we completed the stations so much earlier than the other groups, so we could afford the time:) Sudoku rocks! haha... It saved us more than 8 minutes... Oh yeah, thank you Joel for organising the game.

I'm too lazy to write about day 3...haha... but essentially, it comprised of worship, message, food, a workshop on how we should treat one another, preparation for the skit, whacko, and then the final event... Persecution of the church. In this activity, a scenario was painted for us, in which there is no longer religious tolerance in Singapore, and Christians are persecuted all around Singapore. We had to travel in the dark and visit 4 underground churches. On the way, there would be persecuters who would persecute us for our faith. True enough, we really were. Stress positions, push-ups, sit-ups, dripping of wax, being forced into a ditch and crawling under wooden planks, being blindfolded and shouted at... these words cannot describe the actual experience that we went through. Poor Stephanie had to be rushed to a medical centre to get stitches...and a number of us also got a few injuries. Having carried this activity out from about 1130pm to 130am the next day, everyone was physically exhausted and some of the younger ones very angry because they didn't understand why the organisers had to carry out such an activity. Thankfully, after the debrief, people had recovered a little and things were clarified. This event did make me think more about the price/cost of following Christ, especially since real persecution in the future will be a lot worse (ie. rape, martyrdom, torture like shooting, burning, etc.) Many of us tend to forget these things, and I'm grateful for a reminder through this camp.

Luke 9:23
Then he said to them all: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me."

Denying ourselves is one of the hardest things to do, especially with concepts of "survival of the fittest" and "because I'm worth it" or "it's about me" infiltrating almost every society. But I want to renew my covenant to God and place Him first in my life every single day. Persecution, whether a war of words or physical pain, will not take me away from God. I say this in fear, but only the fear of God.

Romans 8:38-39
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Life after A's... Camp day 1

2007-12-05T23:52:00.000+08:00

Haha... It's been... long.

Finished the last Bio paper on the 22nd or November and since then... sigh. Haha... no matter what, there's still a little bit of emptiness because there's no more studying or exams. However, some events have made life a little better..

After Bio, I went to watch Stardust. Very cool show...haha... different from the normal fairy tale kind of thing. Loved the concept and the "ghosts" :) Okay, of course, the rest of the movie too. The next few days, I studied a bit of Japanese (kanji and a few phrases captured from watching drama: Pride) Most depressing moment: packing my files (about 15 in total) because I saw all my worksheets and notes. Sigh... I do miss them a little.

Didn't have too much time to think, though. Went to Senior Sunday School camp on 30 November:) Now I shall try to recall the events...

30 Nov (Day 1)
I was the group leader of Gemenskap, and William was the co-leader. The oddest (if there's such a word) thing was that even till the morning of the camp itself, I had never met William and heh...didn't know he existed (see william, you're too quiet) At least he knew who I was, so it wasn't too awkward for him. Anyway, after a short meeting with our camp commandant Desmond, we were given the names of our group members. Then came the tough job of trying to break the ice. And it sure was tough. We let everyone introduce themselves first, and then after a while, I realised that they couldn't remember each other's names. So, we went outside and good-old Whacko helped immensely=P Because of the game, we put in more effort to know each other's names. Then we went back into the chapel... and as part of my wonderful attempts to make my group the noisiest in the camp, I gave out the party horns that I bought the day before! haha... then on the spot, we came up with a simple and silly cheer, which worked! Since we were called "Gemenskap", which means "fellowship", we had a short form "GEMS". And... here's our cheer:

G-E-M-S
We are the best!
(all blow horn at the same time)

hahahahaha... all the other groups just had to turn and stare astonishedly. But...never mind. Finally, we boarded the bus and went on our way to Serimbun Scouts Camp. Poor Gabriel... his toe accidentally got stepped on, and his toe nail got crushed, so it broke. I was really glad that I happened to bring antiseptic wipes and plasters, since the first aid kit was on the other bus. I must say, Gabriel was so brave!! haha.. *claps* After that, I gave Helen the chocolate eggs I bought her. Yay...glad she was very happy, since she's not from church and it's her first church camp. The rest of the journey was pretty quiet, since a lot of the members were tired.

When we arrived after about an hour, we went to the canteen area and gathered. Then there was lots more waiting as Lindy checked in and the personnels did other admin and logistics stuff. After a while, I suggested that Gemenskap went to make friends with other groups, but they said they didn't feel like getting up and asked me to charm the other group over -_-" well what do you know, when I approached Het Genootschap (Stephanie's and Mark's group), they willingly came over! Yay! Anyway, after the introductions and more waiting, we decided to play Monkey. Gemenskap combined with Sodalitas (Cheri's and Gavin's group). To make the game more challenging, we had to say the name of the person we were throwing to before doing so. This also helped greatly in getting to know names=)

Anyway, after eternity had passed, all of us finally entered the session room and were welcomed by Desmond. He also went through the theme of this camp--The Incredibles, and the theme verse:

Hebrews 10:23-25
Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

After which, we were given a piece of paper to write our personal goals for this camp, before we finally drew out a name for the Secret Barnabus game. We were to secretly encourage this person throughout the entire camp with notes and gifts. Following which, we were oriented around the campsite by the personnels and led to our bunks. Pretty cool, if you ask me. It was air-conditioned!!! haha... I don't really like sleeping in air-con rooms, because I get sick, but... there was nothing I could do. After that was lunch. This one...I don't really remember the details...haha... because come to think of it, I skipped a few meals during camp.

Anyway, after lunch, we played a brilliant team-building game. All credit goes to Teng Ngan:) There were "seekers" planted all over the site whom we were supposed to find. When we approached each one, we could ask for a question and verses. When we managed to memorise the verse on each card, it was issued to us, along with 80 points. The question was related to one of the verses from any of the seekers, and if the group already had the verse card and could answer the question with the memorised verse, it sould receive another card with 50 points. However, only 1 group could answer each question, which wasn't repeated throughout the rest of the seekers. In between, at special timeslots, there were "special events". These were inter-group challenges.

In the first event, each group was given a bucket of drinking water and everyone had a straw each. Each member was then supposed to drink as much water as possible, before running to and sitting at a particular position and letting the next member take over. The last person of each group was called the Banana man. If the front members didn't finish the water, he/she had to finish everything. After that, the banana man had to run about 10 metres to the other end and place an unpeeled banana between the soles of one member. This member then passed the banana down the line (via the feet) and the banana man had to run back and eat the banana. After finishing that one, he'she had to run back to the other end again and repeat the process. The first team to reach 8 bananas won. Well, I was the banana person for my group...haha... And coincidentally the only girl out of the 4 teams. Here's the imporatant part: We won!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The second event definitely wasn't in my favour. Ever used chopsticks to throw cheeseball crackers at a person's face which is covered in shaving cream? Well, that was my first, and probably last time I did it. We had to pick up cheeseballs from the can with a pair of chopsticks, run to a bench, get on top of it, and throw it, while trying to let it stick onto the shaving cream. My throwing was so bad... Even I'm embarassed to talk about it...lol. Well, the rest of my team did fine though=P We didn't win this one, but it was a good attempt.

Oh yeah! I must talk about the amazing feat accomplished by my group, without their group leaders! See? I was trapped by one of seekers, and William was trapped by another. This took place at a special period during the game (to make it more exciting)... To release me (from Desmond), they had to find a special teddy bear. However, even though they managed to find the person holding onto it, they couldn't get the bear. Then, after William was captured (by Jason), they had to find a strawberry croissant to release him. To do that, they found the right seeker (Lindy), did a 6-people human pyramid, and obtained the strawberry. Then, they ran back to Jason (it was a long way), and obtained the secret to getting the bear: it's name. They then ran into the jungle part of Serimbun and found Mark Cai, who was dressed in army camouflagable clothes (Smart 4) and got the teddy (hamburger)! Then they ran back to where I was and saved me! :) I was so proud of them!!!! Well, because of this, we lost out in doing the verses or competing to be the first to answer questions, but...I think this helped my group bond a lot=P (oh yeah...when they got the bear, all the other captured leaders were released too. Hence, my group members were INCREDIBLE heroes=P)

In the end, my group came in second place. Yay!

I skipped dinner and supper that night...haha... firstly because the 8 bananas were still stuck inside my stomach. Secondly, I was also going to lead worship that night, so I wanted more time to prepare. Ok, I shall admit, I was very very nervous. Since I'm pretty much a workaholic, when I'm busy with something important, I don't eat. (I eat after that lah) Anyway, that night, I think the leading went okay. Was so scared the entire time though...which may seem hard to fathom, since I'm probably one of the worship leaders in SSS who started leading since sec 1. But trust me. My nerves were hyperactive that night. haha.... After that was the message. Aaron spoke about safe mode and how we usually stick to our comfort zones and never take an extra step of faith to venture into uncertainty and do something for God. He reminded us that God wants us to have an exciting walk with him, to operate at a 100% and not at a much lower level, like we would if we operated in safe mode. Aaron's message brought simple but crucial points across in a very practical way, and I think we really appreciated every word he said=P so thank you Aaron!

After the night's session, we had a bit of group time to talk about the day's events (over supper) and also mention a bit about our upcoming skit. That night, I was supposed to go home because I had to attend Gerald (cousin) and Dawn's wedding the next morning, so I promised to think more about the skit, which was supposed to be based on Daniel chapter 3. Oh yeah, that night, Joan finally came! It was quite funny, because Steph and I had the exact same reaction we saw her. "Joooooooaaaaaaaann!" hahaha... It's a girl thing. hmm... Nicky also joined us from that night onwards...heh...this particular even added more "colour" to someone's camping experience. They came quite late, because according to Joan, Paul got a bit lost on the way (he was visiting for the night... claimed he "just happened to pass by the place").

Well, Uncle Roland kindly sent Cheri and I home that night. Thank you, Uncle Roland! =) hmm... I think I wrote all these events in so much detail that we can relive the 1st day of camp again! haha... anyway, I'll stop here for now. I'll write about day 2,3 and 4 tomorrow or some other time. Good night (6 dec 1:25am)

Happy 20th Birthday Chermaine!

There's God to be more to life

2007-10-25T20:31:00.000+08:00

Oh yeah... pun intended on that one=)

Life is... exciting at times. And then it gets pretty horrible. Don't get me wrong. I like studying. Not that I'm weird or anything, but I do. But at this point, 5 and a half days away from A levels, I'm in Auto-Denial mode, and occasionally, the comatose and anti-social state. So there really has to be something more than the events in life right now...which is where God comes in. Being all human, and still full of teenager-angst, God doesn't always make it to the top of my priority list. "I don't hear his voice... I don't feel Him...So...fine! I shall focus on other things!"

Lol...And in the pure irony of it all, I can't focus on anything. No motivation to study Econs...way to much to study for Bio (and way too little time!)... And...great! I'm in denial. I'm not doing anything about it! Which could potentially drive me nuts. (Did I mention I'm a perfectionist with standards that leap off the regular scale?) Then, amidst all the emo-ing, bad results, crying, stoning, falling sick and panicking, God speaks. The more I rebel, the more I run, the less I have left... till all I have left... is Him. I'm tired. I can't run anymore. The only way to move on... is reflected in our favourite line to our fathers when we were young, "Carry me..." (cue in sweet voice and angelic smile) And I believe he's going to carry me through this :)

Today I went for my last Chem consultation with my teacher. At the end of it, she told my friend and I, "From what I see now, both of you will get your A for Chemistry." Do not belittle that statement! Well, at least I was very touched when I heard that...because it was my weakest subject ever since... Sec 3. haha... I scored lowest in Chem for Prelims too, but I've been studying it like crazy and... I'm glad the outlook is more positive now. I may not actually get that A eventually, but I know there is no regrets when it comes to this subject. Secretly, I really want the A though.. :) It's a requirement for "Medicine" so without the A... I guess I'll have to drop one of my biggest dreams and... try to move on.

"Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." Rom 8:1
For a while, it became a hobby to condemn myself, because no matter what I do, I'm never good enough (which is true..oops) But God said there is no condemnation for me! I'm not qualified any longer for this condemnation! I have no right to enter into that realm! And for once, I like being under-qualified:)

Take care!

A Level Schedule

2007-10-12T21:26:00.000+08:00

Hey, a big thank you to those who've requested for my exam schedule so that you can keep me in prayer=) Here's what I'll be facing in 19 days...

31 Oct (Wed)
GP Paper 1 (Essay 12C1) : 0800-0930
GP Paper 2 (Compre + App Qn) : 1000-1130
Things to pray for... I really don't like GP, so that makes it even harder for me to do well. But yeah, pray that I'll find passion for this subject (at least till the exam is over) and that I'll be able to exercise good time management and actually finish both papers, which would be a first in history=)

2 Nov (Fri)
Maths Paper 1 (Pure Maths) : 0800-1100
Things to pray for... Calmness and focus. I like Maths, so I'm just hoping that I'll enjoy the 3 hours (hopefully I'll finish the paper in 2 hours) and have time to check through my paper, since I'm usually pretty careless:P

5 Nov (Mon)
Chem Paper 3 (Free Response/ Essay 5C4) : 0800-1000
Things to pray for... That I won't panic when I see inorganic chem and Ionic equilibria questions...haha. More importantly, that I'll choose the right 4 out of 5 questions, because a poor decision cost me dearly during my prelims. I've been working the hardest on Chem actually, so I'm really hoping it pays off.

6 Nov (Tue)
Bio Paper 2 (Core syllabus structured + Essay) : 0800-1000
Maths Paper 2 (40% pure maths, 60% Stats) : 1400-1700
Things to pray for... This is a killer! Bio paper 2 is the most tiring and fiercest paper out of the lot, and coupled with Maths... I'm hoping I'll survive through the day. Anyway, I have forgotten a lot of the core syllabus content for Bio, so pray that I'll have sufficient time to store about 600 pages worth of information in my brain before I sit for the paper (lol... ok that's impossible) Also, for maths, I'm still quite weak at certain type of Stats questions, especially on some Sampling stuff and Probability, so I need wisdom! (all questions are compulsory=( !)

13 Nov (Tue)
Chem Paper 2 (Structured qns) : 0800-0930
Econs Paper 2 (Essays 6C3): 1400-1615
Things to pray for... Another sadistic day for the examiners...sigh... Chem paper 2 is usually quite unpredictable in terms of the topics that will come out, as well as the difficulty level and mark allocation, so I hope I'll get enough practice by then. Econs paper 2 is quite a dreaded paper for me, because of my extremely limited knowledge (well, it's still building) I like microecons qns, but am struggling with macro currently. Been churning out essays for my teacher to grade... Hopefully that'll help... and that I will have enough hand muscles to write...technically 6 essays... in 2 hrs and 15 mins.

14 Nov (Wed)
Econs Paper 1 (2 Case Studies/DRQ) : 1400-1615
Things to pray for... This new format of paper 1 will be implemented for the first time this year, meaning, no one actually knows exactly, how Cambridge will set the paper. So I need a clear mind, and I hope I can decipher what the extracts are trying to say (amidst the complex jargon)... oh and comprehend the diagrams (some very ugly and complicated :P) My grades for Paper 1 have fluctuated madly this year, and I hope it's time to reach the peak again

16 Nov (Fri)
Chem Paper 1 (MCQ) : 1430-1530
Things to pray for... Honestly, I have yet to try a lot of past year papers for MCQ, so I have no idea how it'll be like. I struggled greatly with MCQ a while back, because of my limited knowledge in physical chem, but I'm hopefully coping better now (slightly) so pray that I'll be able to complete the paper (Hwa Chong papers usually can't be completed and checked within 1 hr) and maybe....just maybe... get an A=)

19 Nov (Mon)
Bio Paper 3 (Application Syllabus) : 0800-0930
Things to pray for... Once again, this is a completely new thing, so even seniors can't help much and the questions set for Prelim are all based on speculation of what could possibly be tested. It's a race against time (at least for me) to not only memorise all the content since we learnt it as the last topics of our curriculum as well as to apply the knowledge in novel situations, which is how the paper will be set. EEK! I'm scared of this paper... to the core (even though it's not the core syllabus...)

22 Nov (Thu)
Bio Paper 1 (MCQ) : 0800-0915
Things to pray for... I'm actually not too worried about this paper, because I really like Bio, and I can enjoy doing MCQ questions=P Just pray that I'll work hard for this last paper, have a great time doing this paper, and of course, get most of the answers right!

Other prayer needs...
My confidence has been pretty shaky, especially after my Prelim results came back, and perhaps because of what I want to study in the future. Please pray that I'll continue to trust God for renewed strength, faith and love. I want to feel is love and be aware that I'm in his presence at all times, that I don't need to rely on physical joys (eg. fantastic results) to be satisfied or complete. I know that I'm someone who feels very lost when I'm not in control of my life or when I'm at a loss of what to do, so pray for me, that I will allow God's grace to overwhelm and fill all these insecurities with wholeness.

Thank you and God bless=)
Do let me know how I can pray for you too...

The Golden Rule

2007-09-23T20:35:00.000+08:00

"So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets." Matthew 7:12

Wow... the entire Law... the Law that the Jews have been trying to follow for thousands of years, is summed up in... 1 line?!

Surprisingly so=) This one Golden Rule is simple and yet so profound. All of us have ideals pertaining to the way we want others to treat us, but we realise that we do all sorts of bad things that don't appear on the list of "how other people should treat me"... Hence the irony. In this world, "eye for eye, tooth for tooth" is a concept greatly celebrated, unfortunately, so I need to be more cautious in order to have a fruitful visit on earth=)

Anyway, 38 days to A's! Sigh... shall be off to study now

62 days to A Levels

2007-08-30T17:45:00.000+08:00

Am I sadistic? No, actually I'm worried.
I'm slacking away and there's not enough time to study for Prelims or A's.
So why am I slacking? Cos I feel very tired when I study.
That's bad...
And I'm rambling...

Today's GP paper was bad bad bad. Didn't complete paper 2 and for paper 1, well, I think my essay's fit for...me to read! haha.... Oh well.... I heard the teacher who's marking for my class is one of the strictest. So, let's see how I fare eventually=) ...this smiley face is a facade...

Anyway, next paper is Econs. Was trying to finally understand International Trade today. Went to Bukit Batok Library to read up on it. However, the incessant chatter and laughter of a group of Primary school boys proved too much of a challenge for my level of tolerance because studying Econs is very hard, and with much noise, well, it's a hundred times worse. So I went and bought batteries for my Graphic Calculator (48 AAA batteries for $2.05!), an umbrella (black, of course =) The rest had flowery prints on them...) and teachers' day gifts for... teachers! Okay...

So what's an Econs paper like? This year's the first year with a new exam format!(as expected... somehow my batch is always the guinea pig for things pertaining to education) There is no longer MCQ as Paper 1, nor do they split Data Response Questions and Case Study. Instead, Paper 1 provides us with a feast of various sources of data pertaining to one or a few countries and about anything under the sun. Okay, anything related to economics. Then, there are some short answer questions which require us to analyse and apply the data given (plus, of course, anything we've learnt throughout the 2 yrs in school), as well as essay questions that must be answered in context but require an even greater use of our Econs knowledge. The paper is 2hrs and 15 mins, and worth goodness-knows how many marks, since we've never sat for a full paper till this point. Paper 2, similarly, lasts for 2 hrs and 15 mins, and we have to choose 3 essay questions to answer out of 6. Actually, since most of these questions come in 2 parts, we effectively write 6 essays. Ouch! Painful... Especially since for the prelims, they decided to put both papers on the same day. Cheers to potential blisters! T_T

5 days...

2007-08-25T13:56:00.000+08:00

Yesterday was the official last day of lessons for me. From now onwards, it's Prelims, followed by revision lectures and private consultations, then... A Levels.

I'm scared...
And sad.

I'm probably one of the weirdos who can memorise my entire timetable, including the venues for each lesson, but now that there aren't any, I guess my mind will have to let this memory go... And as the Chinese saying goes, 天下无不散之宴席 (tian1 xia4 wu2 bu4 san4 zhi1 yan4 xi2). I guess all this became more real as I realised my class will soon disband as we go our separate ways after graduation. We had a mini class picnic after our last lesson. Besides the fact that poor communication led to so many people bringing bread and cheese, I was really glad for the opportunity for us to come together and bond as a class, especially since we're so used to staying in our cliques...and... maybe our civics tutor never promoted anything about class spirit. It's not entirely her fault, because she's known us only for 8 months, but she never opened up to us, and many of us never made the effort to get to know her better too, so as a result, the distance is pretty great. On a happier note, playing games yesterday was pretty fun. We played 2 games, the first being some running-in-pairs game, which was quite funny because some pairs that consisted of a guy and girl were sabotaged such that they had to do interesting/ mushy forfeits. Good thing I wasn't one of these pairs=) The 2nd was musical chairs. haha...This time, I decided to be smarter and volunteered to be the one in charge of the music, such that I wasn't subjected to any forfeits. Anyway, somehow, the girls were a lot better at the game than the guys...haha... must be the screaming that scared the guys off the seats:)

Right now, I'm studying for GP! Honestly, I usually don't because it's hard to do so, and no one really knows how studying is supposed to help when it's just...language. So I'm reading some of the articles my school has given us...some model essays as well as searching the web for good quotes. Newspapers also have to come into the picture, to build up general knowledge for GP and Econs. Sometimes I wished I liked GP more, so maybe I wouldn't get bored while studying for it... But personally, when it comes to writing essays, I usually can't write what I want to say since GP isn't about giving your personal opinion based on your experiences or beliefs. It's about choosing a standpoint that allows you to argue with well-known examples and information. Since it's formal writing, it's highly impersonal and should not be emotive, which makes writing even more difficult. I have no problems with things like Project Work, especially the "Insights and Reflections" part, since that's about what I want to say and what I truly mean. GP teachers are fascinating and brilliant. They're able to come up with strong arguments for both the general standpoints (agree or disagree) and can bring these ideas across fluently and effortlessly...But they don't actually believe or subscribe to one of the viewpoints. Sometimes when I write my essay, I choose the side that is easier to argue for. I write the essay for the sake of handing in work, or for an exam, not because I really have something to say about the issue. That's why I don't really like GP. I wish there were more general topics, or there was a segment in either of the GP papers in which we can really say what we want to, rather than having the burden of appearing knowledgeable and well-read by quoting "significant" examples an sayings or having to write what is "acceptable". Okay, that's a significant amount of rambling... As a side note, everything said here is my individual opinion. Just in case...

As for the other subjects I'm studying, at least I enjoy those more=) After all, they are my core subjects. If I rank them according to level of interest, it would be 1. Biology (fascinating subject! but the most difficult, in my opinion, to do well in) 2. Mathematics (I still don't know how much of the content I will apply to my life in the future, but I like performing the calculations) 3. Chemistry (would have been no. 2 if not for the existence of physical Chem..haha... I'm really bad at that still. I like organic and inorganic Chem!) 4. Economics (I don't dislike it, but somehow a lot of the concepts fly out after each exam, and I can't really grasp macroeconomics well yet, so I can't say I like it a lot either.) My aim: try and understand everything well enough by Prelims to at least pass, then for A Levels, that's when my results must peak, I guess.

After all, as the most famous saying from teachers since the start of IP goes (used when they think we're not doing well enough or... they feel like it) ....
"This will be the 1st national exam for most of you after PSLE. Don't forget that you only have a PSLE cert!"

My opinion: In order to preserve the sanity of students in the future, cut down the number of IP students. As the number of IP students increase, this "scare" will become closer to actually being realised... Not every IP student will get a place in university.

2007-08-23T21:38:00.000+08:00

And before you know it....
7 more days to GP!

All the best, everyone!

Prelims

2007-08-09T11:50:00.001+08:00

21 days... it's getting exciting...lol

Prelims.. Comin' right up!

2007-08-06T21:04:00.000+08:00

Oh how exciting could life get! Yeah right... haha

Below are the dates for my prelim papers. Pray for me if you can. And er... I've been procrastinating on the studying part. Will probably start mugging my heart out from Thursday onwards... after I finish my unofficial project:)

30 Aug (Thu) ......General Paper (P1) .............. 0815-0945
..........................General Paper (P2) .............. 1015-1145
10 Sept (Mon) .....Economics (P2) ................... 0815-1030
...........................Economics (P1) ...................1300-1515
11 Sept (Tue) ......Chemistry (P3) ................... 0815-1030
12 Sept (Wed) .....Mathematics (P1) ................ 0815-1115
13 Sept (Thu) ......Biology (P1) ....................... 0815-0930
...........................Biology (P2) ....................... 0945-1145
14 Sept (Fri) ........Mathematics (P2) ................ 0815-1115
17 Sept (Mon) .....Chemistry (P2) ................... 0815-0945
19 Sept (Wed) .....Biology (P3) ....................... 0815-0945
20 Sept (Thu) ......Chemistry (P1) ................... 0815-0915

Anyway, intensive revision has kicked in for all my subjects in school already. I guess the brilliant teachers think we're brilliant too...so they managed to cover the whole syllabus, and more, within 1 semester or slightly more. Too bad not everyone is smart enough to absorb so quickly. I'm very thankful for something called "consultation"...you can meet your teacher after school or during breaks for 1 to 1 or small group lessons. Think I'll be meeting almost all of my teachers, in hope of doing decently for prelims, and then doing extremely well for A's. Stress. haha... Time's running out. Now I know why they say that in JC, you can't study last minute and expect to do well in A's.

Countdown to 1st day of Prelims: 24
Countdown to 1st day of A Levels: 86

Errata

2007-07-19T23:18:00.000+08:00

oh no.... I cant BE SAD anymore...cos... my Bio is now C!!!! haha... They realised that there was a huge mistake in one of the questions worth 5 marks... so now the paper's upon 135 marks... Then, don't know why 51.7 can become 54.5 and they rounded up to 55....so C! Yay! The saddest thing is... I don't know what word to form now =( Shall think hard...

Block Test 2 part 2

2007-07-17T22:41:00.001+08:00

Ok, results are out. At first, I decided not to post them, but oh well. Can't die... And I have a promising bet with Joel on my results for prelims (I may actually win the bet! :P) So I can look forward to that and not think so much about my results this time.

Anyway, here goes.

BASED, BEADS, BADES, BE SAD...haha... I like the last one.
ok fine...

GP: B (Yay... Improved 0.5 marks...lol)
Chem: E ("Cherlyn, I'm not very satisfied with your results.." - Chem tutor)
Maths: S ("Cherlyn, not your standard ah.." - Maths tutor)
Econs: A (Yay...Improved 13 marks)
Bio: D (Haha... Improved 15 marks)

Somehow, my teachers seem to think I SHOULD do well.... Why??????? I'm not smart, didn't work very hard, and I don't know if I can meet all the "unrealistic" expectations of the teachers. They have too much faith in me...

Well, 45 days to start of prelims (cue to faint) *faints*
I haven't studied...
Was packing some of my stuff just now. Probably more than 5000 pages to study in total. Unreal!!!!!!! How can 2 yrs worth of content fill 5000 pages of notes, tutorials, test papers, answer schemes and additional important reading materials??!! I need therapy...

Okay, shall cut down on the melodramatics. Shall play minesweeper to relax...or do sudoku..

Minesweeper

2007-07-16T23:36:00.000+08:00

Ever played Minesweeper in you entire life?

I bet you more that 70% of the world hasn't grasped the game. However, if you really tried it... It's a very intellectual game that requires quick thinking and logical deductions. Sounds boring already? Wait till you actually get hooked! haha... If you're interested to learn, let me know=P I'd be more than happy to teach you!

Block Test 2

2007-06-29T19:39:00.000+08:00

Don't be deceived. They call it a "test", but the scale sure isn't like one. Gosh! In fact, for Bio and Chem, both papers are worth 140 marks each instead of the good old 100! Maybe that's similar to how A levels will be, but seriously, this was no block test that I took...

25 June, Monday: GP

Essay Paper~ When the teacher said, "you may begin," I laid my eyes and revenously devoured the list of 15 questions, hoping that one of them would be easy enough to write. None. Absolutely none of them! Okay, maybe I'm pretty bad at GP, but this was a mean paper. In the end, I wrote about... Wait, what did I write? Er... something about the causes and consequences about the growing obsession of modern day's society towards celebrities. Well, you may say there's a lot to write, but not to me. Me and GP do not go well together...unfortunately. I'd better buck up before A's.

Compre Paper~ Ever heard of investigative journalism? I never, till the paper shouted everything the writer knew about it. Essentially, it's about exposing bad conduct of important people, but in recent times, people have lost confidence in the media and so on... it was a horrible paper! Didn't even finish half the AQ. Definition: Doomed to fail AQ. No surprise...

Overall feeling: 3/10

26 June, Tuesday: Economics

Thankfully, the paper was at 1pm, so I went to school at 8am to do last minute revision:)

DRQ Paper~ I didn't really understand the first few questions, honestly. The phrasing was just...odd. Don't think I fared very well. Quite sad...Cos I got an A for the DRQ paper of the previous exam.

Essay Paper~ Strangely enough, our teachers wanted the essay paper to have questions solely on market failure. It's probably a very important topic for A's. I mugged this on Monday, so didn't really have problems. I did the question on market failure of the healthcare industry and on the correction methods and their degree of effectiveness. The answers were pretty obvious: positive externalities as well as market dominance...and then the correction methods are providing subsidies to internalise the externalities, as well as MC pricing, lump sum tax and specific tax (regulation) for firms which use their monopoly power to raise prices. I guess it all boils down to whether the teachers like my way of writing, and if I elaborated and evaluated enough.

Overall feeling: 7/10

27 June, Wednesday: Chemistry

MCQ Paper: There is no way any sane person could have survived this paper, survived as in understand all the questions ad had sufficient time to do all the proper calculations. Well, I promised my teacher I would try to pass, but I guess there are no guarantees here. From obscure to difficult to just plain time consuming questions, this paper was definitely meant to push us, in the process driving me a little crazy. Was pretty demoralised after it, but had to focus since paper 2 was about 20 minutes after that.

Structured Questions and Essay Paper: Jaws dropped once more... The essay quesions were... Unbelievable... And there wasn't a choice so all questions were compulsory. Even the structured questions were comparatively better... Sigh, better but still horrible. If I were a genius or something, maybe this paper wouldn't have been so depressing.

Overall feeling:2/10

28 June, Thursday: Mathematics

Thankfully, there was only 1 paper, cos it was already 3 hours long. Next time it'll be 6 hours, so I guess I'm grateful they chose not to torture us this time. Simply put, the 3 hours was plainly gruelling and very difficult. There's no time to stop, or think of anything else, because the paper is had enough and obviously, I couldn't finish it. However, I'm pretty happy, because in the last 15 minutes, I managed to finish questions worth about 10 marks. Heehee:) God is good. Other than that, well, it wasn't an enjoyable paper. I wasn't well-prepared lah. May pass, but that's all...

Overall feeling: 5/10

29 June, Friday: Biology

MCQ Paper: Hmm...this one's a little confusing. A crafty paper, I would say. Deceptively starightforward but very tricky. At least I had time to do all, but after cross-checking answers with a pro, I probably won't do brilliantly... Sufficient to pass, I guess:)

Structured and Essay Paper: Hmm... Honestly, I didn't study 3 topics... Photosynthesis, cellular respiration and Diversity and Evolution. And....guess what? Those were the topics of the essay questions! I am SO brilliant... Hence, if I don't fail the essay component, I'll probably break out into hysteria (won't be a pretty sight:P ) As for the structured questions, I should do better than the previous exam, because at least I filled in more blanks...haha... And with my score from the previous exam...gee...it's pretty hard to go lower than that..haha. I had fun, though. Was kind of relaxed, probably because there was a lot to look forward to after the paper.... Much needed sleep! Heehee...

Overall feeling: 6/10

And there you have it...Block test 2. I shall bravely post my results here next time. Just a word of caution to those way smarter than me: no laughing at me! haha... you can tutor me, though. Anyway, to all having exams... Enjoy your papers! I mean it... God bless you:)

Studying and Sabah

2007-06-21T21:44:00.000+08:00

Hey! I'm pretty bored of studying now, so it's time for an update! Anyway, I woke at about 7.30 this morning, did an entire paper 2 for Chemistry (last year's mid-year paper) and other Chem stuff, then went to school for a 2 hour plus consultation with my Chem tutor. Tiring and draining...but she's very patient with me=) I felt quite stupid though, cause I didn't know a lot of things. After all, I'm not in STP or GEP...haha...

After that, I left school and went to Jurong East. Walked from the bus interchange to IMM, ate a quick lunch, then went to Watson's to buy some "stuff":) You'll know later... After that, walked from IMM to Jurong East library (Wow... I really walked a lot today!) and went to study Vectors for about an hour and a half. Couldn't concentrate very well since there was a group of people near me gossipping away. Anyway, while I was there, kind of scribbled this drawing on my paper:)

I really miss Huangcheng... Haha... On my way to the library, I saw a few people constructing a platform-like structure with wood... I really miss the days when we were doing such stuff. Hmm...after promos, I'll upload the photos of some of our props! True, we may be a bunch of crazy kids who make their own stage sets instead of using the money to buy them, but I guess that's why we're so attached to that memory:)

Anyway, as promised, here are some of the photos taken in Sabah... For those who don't know, I went there from 10 jun-15 jun with my parents and younger sister Cheri. Cheryl and Chermaine were at church camp or on mission trip respectively.

Sabah! Here we come! :)

The name of the place we stayed in. It's like a whole chain... Pretty nice place=)

The following are some pics of the scenery of the place:

Nice place right? Told you so=P Let's go check out the room!

Whee! This is the room Cheri and I shared...

Of course, we invited some of our special friends... :)

And what do we do when we're high on adrenaline, have nothing to do (ignore the studying bit), and Cheri is so into using the camera? Take emo photos!!!!!! :)

Guess how many pairs of eyes are staring at you...

And the most artistic photo goes to...

Anyway, let's move on to some important business... Here's some dessert we gt to try. Yum!

Okay, okay. Take your eyes off! :) Sorry, we ate them already...none for you... Anyway, we also had Bak Kut Teh one day. Look below!

And, um, my father absolutely insisted that we go to this place...so...okay lor:) We had really nice seafood!!!!!!!!! Let's see, I tried lobster for the first time, then we also had prawns, fish....sigh... So nice:)

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I took a photo of each of them...heehee...

Mummy...

Daddy...

Cheri...

Ah... My parents look happy. This is the night before their 25th anniversary

Hmm...2 of their wonderful daughters:) Wow! We didn't arrange for it, but guess what table number we got?!

Okie...My parents' 25th Anniversary day...12 June 2007. We went on a tour!

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Got to see GORGEOUS scenery (I'm a big fan of nature:P) and we also saw the new city that is being bult. Can you imagine? A WHOLE new developed city. It's like...rebuilding Singapore again. I was absolutely fascinated at everything. Oh by the way, I think they're building the largest...not shopping mall, not mega mall, but hypermall! They've laid the foundation already...and it's huge! The new city should be ready in slightly over a decade. That should change Sabah quite a bit...

Below's other nice "scenery" we saw along the way to the place=)

This cow...is skinnier than me. Poor, deprived cow...

Oh yay! We're there! Whee! Chinese!

Our tour guide, Walter.

Going through a mangrove swamp to get to our little ferry. Did you know that mangroves are so useful? They're not only the ecological home to many creatures, but they also protest the place from disasters like tsunamis, the branches of plants are what they use to make the stilts of their homes in water villages (prevalent in Sabah) and really, it's kind of sad we no destroyed many here at home...

Tonnes and tonnes of very small crabs. There's even 1 kind which had one large pincer (it's bigger than the rest of the body!) and the other pincer's not even visible! Cool stuff:)

Yup, we're finally on the ferry!

Each of us got to throw this crab trap into the swamp to see if we could catch any crabs. Of course, none. Haha... According to the tour guide, under a full moon, a catch is definite. But during the day, it was unlikely. He also let us in onto a "secret". When there's a big group going on the tour, the staff will purposely set a few traps with crabs inside, just to make the tourists happy...lol...

Some of the other nice creatures on the islands... Doggie!

And here's our class representative! Just kidding:) It's the monitor lizard.

And now...for the artistic eyes only, here's batik painting, ladies and gentlemen!

Done by my father...

my mother...

Cheri...

And this one's mine!!!!!!!!!!!! I like it, so if you don't...hmm...don't say anything:) However, if you do, you can always tell me:P

And then, to take a rest from our exhausting task of batik painting (we literally spent about an hour doing it, standing.), we were treated to roti cannai (prata) and teh tarik:)

Here's my parents looking sweet:) wow! 25 years of marriage...

...and us looking even sweeter! lol...ok I didn't say that...

And then, to end off the tour... Pottery time!

Ah...do not belittle this man. He has been at it for 40 years!! And he was mean! Just kidding:) It's just that he made everything look so easy to make and then when we tried it...hmmm....

No way!

Here's some of the stuff he made on the spot for us to see...A work of art!!! Especially the vase (right behind) and the lid for the pot (right in front). He had no mold, neither did he compare anything. When he made the lid, somehow it just fit the pot...perfectly! Okay, yes, yes, 40 years:)

Hee...My turn! It's tough...

And my product (clear throat) is none other than..... the secod last one from the back. It's standing tall, dark and handsome:) Okay, I'm rambling...But...not bad right? :)

haha...and now...to reveal what I was buying at Watson's...
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3 and a half hours, 9 tedious steps, tonnes and abundance of pain...

And...007! I mean... I reBONDed my hair. Yes, it's 13 June, everyone.

So, essentially, what I was buying at Watson's was hair treatment cream... because rebonded hair/coloured hair is one of the hardest things to maintain! And for anyone who might consider going for rebonding, it hurts....a lot! Especially when inexperienced people are pulling it... So... Be warned!

Well, after all that, we went to celebrate my birthday at Starbucks, with 4 slices of different-flavoured cheesecakes and ice mocha/ hot chocolate... Sigh... Tentalising stuff again...
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And that's blueberry cheesecake, mango cheesecake, chocolate marbled cheesecake and the signature cheesecake for you :)

To end off the photo gallery, the following are photos Cheri and I took of the sunrise we watched on the last morning. For your information, when we were there, the sun rises at about 5.20am and is fully risen by 6am. So I woke up at 5, dragged Cheri along to the beach and marina...and voila! Beautiful:)

It's still really dark...

And no light can hide in the darkness:) The sun is coming out!

Yay! So nice.. Just some thoughts... When we left, we flew over the entire island as well as other nearby ones...close enough to the land to see everything on it. In Singapore, homes are built on land, security. And yet, the houses in Sabah extended beyond the land. It was a sight to behold. Where there was ground, houses were built on it. Where there was water, houses were built on stilts. In fact, I even saw one island where there were no houses on the big land. The trees on it were not cut down, neither was the place a concrete jungle. Every single house was on the water... Don't know if it means anything to you, but that picture in my memory will stick with me and remind me that there are people who still care about God's beautiful creations in nature:) This trip also reminded me of God's goodness and grace...

Scripture Memory

2007-06-16T19:36:00.000+08:00

Hey! I'm back! And I'm 18! haha... Well, will give a little insight to my trip next time... Maybe when the photos are available for me to upload (they're with my sister and Dad)
But for now...here's something I've just memorised. It's a pretty interesting passage, I must say, and I learnt quite a bit from it. It's..Romans 1 (from the Bible)...Sorry if there are any typos..

Romans 1

Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God-- the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures regarding his Son, who as to his human nature was a descendant of David, and who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord. Through him and for his name's sake, we received grace and apostleship to call people from among all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith. And you also are among those who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.

To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints:

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is being reported all over the world. God, whom I serve with my whole heart in preaching the gospel of his Son, is my witness how constantly I remember you in my prayers at all times; and I pray that now at last by God's will the way may be opened for me to come to you.

I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong-- that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith. I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that I planned many times to come to you (but have been prevented from doing so until now) in order that I might have a harvest among you, just as I have had among the other Gentiles. I am obligated both to Greeks and non-Greeks, both to the wise and the foolish. That is why I am so eager to preach the gospel also to you who are at Rome.

I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: "The righteous will live by faith."

The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world, God's invisible qualities-- his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood by what has been made, so that men are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.

Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore, God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served created things rather than the Creater--who is forever praised. Amen. Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with one another, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion. Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done.

They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practise them.

That's it. Pretty thought-provoking, if you ask me:) Now hopefully I can memorise stuff for my exams too. See ya!

Varolari 2007...The aftermath

2007-06-03T21:47:00.000+08:00

Ah... It's over.
Sends in the withdrawal symptoms once more.
Always happens to me...
Think I'm a bit crazy lah...Cos I get so involved and committed in this kind of thing, then I get hit really hard once it's finished.

Anyway, for those of you who don't know, Varolari's the title of my school's guitar concert this year, and as I like to term it, revolutionary concert:) Because we took 10 out of 19 items and infused them in a musical with acting, some singing and all. Was...FANTASTIC! Yay!

I was doing some interesting things during the concert last night... All of which, I realised weren't supposed to be done by me. Our original emcee couldn't do the job at the last minute, so I came up with a pretty spontaneous script and then Sean and I did sort of like a radio show (so that we wouldn't have to appear...and since we were already involved in tonnes of other things for the concert) It turned out much much harder than expected, though, because of the lack of mikes and the fact that we had to run from one side of the stage to another while saying the lines at the same time and pretending that we were all calm and collected...LOL! It was pretty funny...and crazy!

Prog Comm.. Cherlyn, Jane and Sean

Another thing I never intended to do was...act. About 1 month before the concert, I spoke to some EXCO people about doing a musical instead of the normal, formal concert. Somehow I got involved in working on the programme (with Jane and Sean...very nice people:P) and writing the script (which is expected) but no...I didn't want to act... Then the J1s didn't want to audition for the lead actress' role and after auditioning sme J2s, Sean was mean (okay maybe not) nd he said that I should do the role instead. Guess what? That was exactly 2 weeks before the concert (hahahahaha...sorry for that hysteria:P) Yup...and that started a very tough and intensive 2 weeks with Alvin ("Spike"), Ruocheng ("Jamie"), Weng Woh ("Gang Leader"), Sean and Evonne ("Gang members"). As for me, I was "Harriet"...this nerdy girl turned love-shy after meeting Spike. Then, of course there's some drama when Spike is actually making use of Harriet to fulfill his side of the deal with the gang leader... But yup, happy ending for the 2 of them. I like the ending of the script, actually, (even though Weng Woh didn't exactly do it the way I initially planned), cos it doesn't end with the lead characters, but with the gang leader, who's betrayed by his gang members (they decide that Spike is more cool to follow:P)

Aside from that, I got to do 2 group items and sing during the musical. Pretty cool:) To sum it up...It's been a really tiring but fulfilling period. I've got to admit, I'm really tired...haha... Huangcheng for first 3 months, then exams, then immediately prepare for guitar syf, then concert... Just a word of advice to anyone who wants to be crazy enough to spend 6 months of the A level year on performances, you'd better like mugging! haha.. Which is what I'll be working on for the next 5 months non-stop. My role as Harriet and working with STP and KI people have also inspired me in this direction. I guess I'll be asking them for a lot of help after this:)

And now for some sweet words to people who made this possible..

Ruocheng: This truly was a revolutionary concert, and a lot of it comes from your faith and beliefs that we could make this something different. Thank you for turning my dream into more than a reality. Fairytales do come true, after all, and God does perform miracles in our modern-day world! Thank you so much:)

Sean: I couldn't have for a better person to work with for the programme, musical and emceeing. Even our hour-long debates on the existence of God and my beliefs will remain as fond memories for me=) You really really are a nice person, so stay that way! Thank you, also, for being the gang member who was so hilarious, and for being the "love expert" to make sure Spike and Harriet came across as "mimosas"!

Alvin: It's been very tough on both of us to make everything look real, but...we did it! More importantly, through this concert, I think I've made a really good friend (gasp! It's you!) haha... Anyway, Spike and Harriet will definitely be fondly remembered! Thank you for doing all the dramatic and sweet things for the sake of this role:)

Weng Woh: I remember panicking when you fell so sick last week, but I was really touched when you said you'd work doubly hard to make up for your absence:) Thank you for your wonderful ability to intimidate Harriet and play the role seemingly effortlessly.

Evonne: Thank you for tearing my Chemistry tutorial so beautifully...haha...Really felt very xin tong at that moment...Good thing they were only photocopies..Otherwise I might have really cried:) It was pretty hard on you to carry out the role, because most of it relied on actions, but I'm really proud of you! The Entertainer rocked too!

Valerie: Thank you for everything that you helped with in terms of props. Ideally, if I didn't act, I could have saved you a lot of stress, but I'm actually quite glad that you got to coordinate the actual thing:) Because I think you did a fantastic job! Thank you for being there and for supporting the musical behind the scenes!

Jane: Falling sick was probably never on your agenda, and yet, you still came for the concert! Thank you for being a great member of the programmes comm...for sharing the same fears as me and for being a wonderful person to work with=P Glad you found your Tarzan in the club too...lol...Kidding.

Shao Kai: "Shy That Way" was actually a huge inspiration to the entire musical! Thank you for teaching me this song and for "choosing" me to perform it with you:) Honestly, with the off-beat rhythm and ultra-lowness of the vocal range, I found it really hard playing and singing. But, I have absolutely no regrets!

Yu Jun and Bingqian (hmm...These 2 names sound nice together...Just kidding) : Though the miking seemed to have a big problem, I really really fell in love with The Entertainer ever since I learned it and started playing it with you guys. Thank you both for dedicating so much time and effort into this song. We'll play it again sometime soon:)

Rhythm: (Yang Shun, Shao Kai, Sean, Me!) : There's no other section I would have chosen over this. 4 of us... Powerhouses! haha... From SYF to concert, our section was the most enthu, lively, pro and who knows what else? Lol...ok... Anyway, you guys are the best:)

Everyone else in Guitar: We did it! Sorry for being fierce... But had to settle the discipline before concert lah. And um, sorry for all the puns. Didn't mean to... Yeah right.. haha... Was great working with all of you and making Varolari 2007 so wonderful!

Lastly, actually, this goes out to Huangcheng people... Working for Varolari reminds me how much I miss you guys... Especially Lee Heng and Yi Han:) Cos you guys are pros! I mean it :) I also miss staying back till really late and having all of us working together towards one goal. Mug hard everyone! (so anti-climax!) haha...

Bye everyone!

Varolari 2007

2007-05-31T11:10:00.000+08:00

Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm very happy today:)

Because it's been don't know how many weeks since I've been able to sleep till 10.30am!!!!!
Well, guitar concert (Varolari) is on Saturday... Want to thank those people who bought tickets:)
Even though I'm pretty sure I'll be teased after the concert, I think your attendance means a lot more... Yup, and I will do my best to make the part I'm involved in as good as possible:)

It's been pretty tiring... all the preparation and stuff, but like Huangcheng, when you suddenly get so involved, 1) you can't back out because people are counting on you a lot. 2) you want to see the entire project through. 3) you will do what it takes to make it good. That, of course, means a lack of sleep, self-inflicted stress and a lot of pressure... But... Aiya it'll be over soon:)

Now, I have to do up one more thing for the concert...so gtg... See ya!

Update! It's finally arrived :)

2007-05-12T07:54:00.000+08:00

lalala...I know it's been really, really long...Sorry.

From January till now, there's been tonnes happening, so I've been really tired. Don't feel like writing a lot now, but essentially, here's some updates of my little life:

January-March: Preparing for Huangcheng. Highly stressful, emotionally draining, tiring, but pretty worth it. And honestly, J2 life without Huangcheng is....BORING! Want to thank all the people in Daoju (props) =P, without whom the Huangcheng experience would't have been so fulfilling. During this period, my test results were pretty disgusting...oh well... Couldn't help it.

After March hols: Block Tests 1! (also known as our first big exam) Essentially, I only managed to study for Maths during the 1-week break, so my results aren't that fantastic...
GP: C (1 mark to B....sigh, but I expected my essay to fail, so I should be grateful)
Math: A (kind of fluke, but who's complaining? =D)
Chem: D (considering that the level average was a fail...E or S grade I think...D, which is a genuine pass, is not bad...Yay!)
Econs: C (1 mark to B...again..)
Bio: U! (yay! My only right prediction about my results...There's no way you can finish studying Bio in such a short time...Hence, my Bio teacher, who happens to be my form teacher, said I need to balance between CCA and studies...expectedly)

April: Guitar SYF... Gold! And I'm grateful for that result :) Also feel very blessed, because I couldn't go for practically every practice for the first 3 months, but I could play my part well enough. God is good. Also had all the final Science Practical Assessment (SPA) papers to end of 2 years worth of it. FYI: SPA replaces the practical exam paper for A levels, so we do a lot of them throughout the 2 years, instead of just 1 paper. Thankfully, I think I should have done okay for these 2 papers. I don't like SPA....Wonder who does anyway..

May: Getting ready for 2 major things...Guitar concert (2 june) and Block Test 2 (25-29 june). CCA's going to get tiring again, because we're not exactly following the typical emcee-performance-emcee-performance style for the entire show. That also means preparation will involve a lot harder work... Exams are also in 43 days. I. Am. Not. Prepared. Sigh...Shall go off to rest a while and then start mugging...a little=)

Take care and God bless...Sorry for updating only after so long:)

Rest......

2007-01-20T21:36:00.000+08:00

Yay...finally a day where I'm actually home for more than 7 and a half hours...haha...
It's only been a few weeks of school and I'M TIRED! Okay, besides the fact that I'm really old (lol...), my CCAs last till really late every day. And this is supposed to be my earliest week! (yay.......)

However, I guess I know deep down inside that it'll be worth it=) From the public performance for Huangcheng to SYF for guitar (provided I do get selected) and the guitar concert, I know everything will be wonderful, because God has His hand upon these events and all the people involved. Thank you, Lord:)

Speaking of God, I guess it's been pretty appropriate that people have been bringing in Scripture into my life that are helping me cope with what I'm facing in school now: persecution. God knows that I'm horrible at evangelising the direct way, and I guess He's allowed me to feel uneasy because I make it a point to try and undersand how the people I talk to are feeling, and the basis for the doubts and questions they have. But my strongest testimony now is the way I walk my talk in school, and trust me, it gets painful. Really painful... with people laughing, taunting, calling me names, and so on.... I asked God for a fantastic year, but He told me it'd be hard and full of trials. This is probably just the beginning... But I'm weak, and I really need strength. I can't help it if the articles in GP argue against the existence of GOD and many of my good friends take that stand point, and I can't help it if my friends tell me,"don't even try to convince me about God. It doesn't work." But I guess what I can help is... keep working on my relationship with God each day, and mak it stronger and stronger.

These verses...which I've already memorised or will do so...are what I'll hold on to to tide me through this period:

Matthew 5:11-12
Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Matthew 6:33-34
But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Matthew 7:1-2
Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, yu will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

James 1:2-3
Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverence.

James 4:6b
God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.

Really Random Resourceful Ramblings

2007-01-08T12:34:00.000+08:00

Marks and Spencers chocolate chip cookies: Ant poison?

Before I get sued for saying that, I must announce that those cookies are one of the best I've ever eaten...and I mean it.

But for the poor ants who felt the same way and tried to make a feast out of the defenseless cookies I accidentally left in my room, they must have died in the sweetest way! When I saw the packet in my room, my mind said, "Uh oh..." And true enough, signs of ant invasion were present on the wrapper. But to my surprise, 3 out of the 4 ants I found were dead! Not only that, they were literally curled up and they lay still, with no breath of life left in them.

And to conclude this, scientists could actually really examine these special cookies and find out the cause of the unnatural deaths of 3 individuals. Who knows? After the CSI step in and find out that these cookies could even kill harmful bacteria and viruses in our bodies, they could become a hit! (okay, okay. Way too much CSI and bio...lol)

Anyway, it's back to school tomorrow. I'm still not feeling too well...My homework probably can't be done by tomorrow, and I think I need to sleep (it's only 8.30 pm) So... have a great week ahead, and tell me if you find out more foods that can kill insects =) God bless you!

School again

2007-01-04T22:07:00.000+08:00

2007... I'm so not geared up for you yet.

Besides the many undone/unfinished pieces of homework, the start of major lessons on the first day of school, a Bio test on the second, and me falling sick just before the test, I'm also being tested spiritually. And it's not a sweet feeling...at all.

So what do I have to do now? (Besides finishing my homework...)
Lots... But nothing much comes to mind. And that's...bad. I'm in trouble.
Term 1, week 1.
What a "great" way to start off the year...

December

2006-12-29T22:41:00.000+08:00

haha... I kind of feel guilty about not posting for so long...again...but if any of you still read this blog, you should be quite used to it...heh :)

Anyway, it's been pretty eventful this month. The holiday was good, interesting to say the least :) My poor family was tortured by me...haha...cos we filmed a lo of stuff, and I was in charge of the camera, so I would make my own silly commentary, some with horrible singing included...haha...but it was all in the name of fun :) Oh!!!! Saw horses, sheep, cows.... It's pretty ironic, actually, because for all the people that come from the country-side and know very little about city life, we call them country-bumpkins. Guess I'm a city-bumpkin then :) lol... I was so excited to see the beautiful scenery and life animals that are so wonderfully made by God!

The most unforgetable experience is probably this place in Yallingup (or sth like that)...It was just off the road that was on a hill-like thing. Well, we kind of made a wrong turn, and suddenly, all we could see in front of us was...the sea! Unlike Singapore (where you learn to focus on the roads- since that's all you see), what was laid before our eyes was incredible :) When we got out of the car, we took photos (yes even me) on high rocks and then, my father, Chermaine and I ventured down tonnes and tonnes of huge rocks to the sea itself. We even managed to get to the furthest point, where all that was before us was water and water... In fact, that stone was only connected to the rest by a few small rocks, so essentially, it was like a little island on its own. That rocked! haha (pun intended) Anyway, being naturally scared of heights, I took a while to get there, but it was worth it :)

Of course, we also went to a fudge factory, a chocolate factory, nuts and cereal factory, 2 cheese places, wineries and oh yes, a jewel cave! I thought they were the sapphire type, but of course, it's actually a limestone cave that God formed beneath the surface of the earth. It's gorgeous! Limestone formations decorated the entire cave and they came in so many different, but beautiful structures. just a scientifc fact: our hands, though we may not realise it, have a natural acid on them. This acid will ruin the limestone and turn them black, so we cannot touch the limestone in order to preserve them. Anyway, our 45 minute tour was exciting and really worth being part of :) A lot of climbing though...definitely not for the weak-hearted, especially since the carbon dioxide level is extremely high and breathing can become difficult.

Well, venturing back to Singapore, we reached home slightly before 8.30am......17 pieces of luggage! (both hand and checked-in ones) Oh ya, this explains why Cheri and I suffered in our rented car in Australia. The journey t the airport there was horrible. We checked out at 10am, and still continued moving around, and yes, had to shop and shop and shop...sigh...anyway, there was too much luggage for the car, so cheri and i were squashed...and my seat was sitting on me...lol. Cos it could not be put upright in order to accomodate the size of the bags. Okay, coming back to Singapore (yay, i'm rambling!), after unpacking and bathing, I went to school! lol... Well, we were organising a drama camp for secondary school and some JC students to introduce them to theatre and this thing called theatre sports, that's brought over from macau. This carried on for the next day too. Was really really tired after those 2 days. A lot of physical aspects too... Since I'm in daoju (props), girls sometimes have to be like guys too (lol...), so I was pretty exhausted.... Yawns

The next day was carolling camp Part 2. Had to wake up early again, and went to church to prepare. Not surprisingly, people were late again...We were supposed to meet at 10.30, but the phrase "fashionably late" has taken the world by storm, so I guess that explains the reason many people weren't there...but...never mind. We did have a great time that day, learning 2 new songs that have never been sung in carolling before, going through sectionals, then lunch. After that, we had a wonderful game...haha...wonderful because I took so long to plan it and okay, they did have a great time :) After the final rehearsal of all the songs we would do and of course, the great script (thank you, nicholas and edward), we went home for a good night's rest... As if...lol! I went to joan and jocelyn's house to help finish the carlling books and also jane's cell group in their carolling practice. We were there till 1.35am and then Chermaine, Timothy and I took a cab home. Got home after 2am...Yawn again...

22dec... Woke up at 8+! didn't intend to, didn't want to, but I did, anyway. Got to church and had our final committee meeting (with some confessions), prayed, and then started our final carolling rehearsal before we boarded the bus, and for some, cars. The entire night was pretty nice...Frist house was the Han residence; that was also where dinner was served. Couldn't eat much, but was forced to eat, so I did eat some. The fellowshp was pretty good..I managed to go around to different groups to talk and get to know people (And I realised it's really not easy) but I guess, as one of the leaders, it's something that I should do. Hmm...we also sang O Holy Night (the N'Sync version) for fun. Ah...still like it very very much:) Then we moved on to desmond's house...this was pretty interesting because it was a really tight squeeze in there. Thankfully, God provided and somehow, everyone was really slim that night! haha...so we managed to go in, perform and even hear a message from uncle Roland. I'm really glad that Desmond's parents were quite receptive and even didn't mind the prayer that was said:) I hope we'll hear good news about them receiving Christ soon. Following this house...hahah...we went to, um, Republic theatre. It was...um, very very... enriching. When we were first invited to sing there, we were told it was like an old folk's home. Surprise, surprise, nothing like it. Still, despite the kind of performances being what we're unused to, I'm touched that we still got the chance to share about the love of Christ through our short performance:) lastly, it was the Chen residence. This was really meaningful too, especially when there was a sudden black-out (I suppose satan wanted to discourage us). Well, have no fear, for God invented handphones with lights...haha! And mark seow sang his solo that had the lines "In love he came, sent by the Father, to pierce the darkness with his light":) After all the singing, there was another round of refreshments (which I think everyone was pretty grateful for). And yes, once again, O Holy Night for a few of us. I was really glad the night ended with the Benediction, a bit of debriefing from Joan and a nice prayer.

Christmas this year has been quite meaningful. On the 23rd, I also went caroling with Jane's cell group. Though I was the youngest there, I guess I learnt that there are lots more important things than age (even though it still is)... I was very happy and thankful to share my Christmas with the elderly in a real old folk's home (haha) as well as the rest of SSS who didn't go for carolling that night at the Christmas party in Aunty Ai Ling's house (thank you for your generosity and hospitality). Besides all the parties, pesents and food that I enjoyed, what I really liked were the cards...haha...somehow they become a lot more significant than presents. Also, the greatest thing I truly learnt about Christmas is that it's about what you give, and not what you receive.

Right now, I'm probably going to be very caught up in school...tests (highly possibly the 1st day of school), 2 major ccas and of course, studying for A levels, but! He who is in me is greater than He who is in the world, so I know that no matter how I'm attacked spiritually and physically in this coming year, God is with me. And the devil must flee :) Well, my meeting's at 8am. Guess I should sleep (even the mosquito's telling me to...haha)

For all of you who survived till this paragraph, have a blessed week ahead and take care :)

Cherlyn....

POSTman delivery

2006-11-21T22:17:00.000+08:00

zzzzzz........
Gasp! Could it be?
This blog's alive???!!!
Okay, sorry to all those who kindly tell me that my blog desperately needs an update...haha... Have either been studying, working, watching drama serials (and learning nice languages too!) or sleeping and falling sick....In other words, I haven't exactly had the time or mood to blog. Today, though, is slightly different. Forgive me if I ramble on...

Let's see...what has happened this 2 months? Believe it or not, I didn't prepare enough for my promos...some subjects had drastic improvement, and others, major disappointments too... The worst thing is, my parents refuse to scold me or ask me to study harder, so I guess I'll have to do that job, which is quite stupid if you think about it, but that's how I am...lol...I guess no one will understand the disappointment that I have with myself because for some strange reason, everyone always thinks I'll do well. Let's face it. No matter how worldly this is, I need good results to even have a primary chance to study medicine, and right now, I'm not even close to what professors and interviewers are expecting. Yay........

Today's my second day at my attachment with Singapore Cancer Society, and honestly, I'm drained.. Meeting 4 cancer patients yesterday was a really good experience, but also painful. Somehow, for most of them, knowing that they are going to die from this disease is not enough. They "MUST" have so many other problems and face issues that just make Satan smile. WHY???!!! Why does he get to do what he wants? Why does he get to drag man to hell with him? Why must he break families and use hate as a tool for emotional murder?

God is Good. Sometimes it gets hard to remember that...Thank you, Lord, for ending the visits with a patient whose mind focuses on you more than her multiple death-bringing cancers. Thank you for teaching me what it means to live for you, and you alone...Thank you for showing me what it means to not just live by grace, but live ON grace; to cling onto you because there is nothing else that I can rely on...

Okay enough moping for one day (there mightbe another round tomorrow, because we're having a second round of visits to different patients)...Anyway, today I spent almost the entire day in the office handling calls from people who want to go for the "Understanding the nature of gastric cancer" talk this Saturday. Somehow the office has this looped system for the lines, and the desk I was seated at happened to be the first phone to ring, so other phones would ring only if I was already on the line with someone. Stupid me didn't realise that until like 45 minutes after my friends and I started, so by the time the staff kindly informed me, I had about 30 calls while my friends had maybe 10 and 5 respectively depending on where they were seated. After that, I learned how to transfer the call to other desks voluntarily (haha...) so whenever I felt like it, I transferred the calls to my friends...haha...No lah, it wasn't that often...Only when I was really tired of saying "Good morning. Singapore Cancer Society...". How do I know I was tired of it? Because after lunch, the first person whose call I picked up got the same greeting (it was about 1pm :P) Anyway, half the calls had people saying in Chinese, "Sorry, do you speak Chinese?" So, I really turned super bilingual today...haha...which, of course, I don't mind doing. However, it got really tiring that, one time, I even said, "Good afternoon. Singapore Society.."!! The government would love me...lol

Well, like I said, tomorrow is a potentially depressing day, but, God is good. And that won't change. Hopefully, the sunflowers that I buy for the patients again will bring joy to their hearts in knowing that someone, even if it's just pathetic little me, cares for them and loves them. Through learning that no matter who you are, be it doctors, nurses, social workers or just students, you can't help every single patient, I'm somehow comforted that man has limitations and God's grace will surface amidst human struggles. Still, if God ever gives me the honour of being empowered with a slightly greater ability to help the sick, I believe He'll guide me in showing love to all these people, even if I'm just playing a small role. Thank you Lord for being so good to me. Thank you that I'm alive, healthy and live in a country in which I can freely worship you and have a personal relationship with you. Finally, help me to trust you more and more each day. Help me commit all my dreams and wishes fully into your hands and walk through life, becoming more and more like you with each step of this journey that I take.

*Note: If you're still reading up till now, congratulations! you've passed the long-windedness test =) Thank you for considering me important enough as a friend to read what I've typed. God bless you. Bye...

Exams Galore!

2006-09-27T23:12:00.000+08:00

Felt like putting a random picture there :) It's something I designed as a backdrop for an event and ya...I painted the bulk of it...so I like it :)

Yes, my exams have already started...but I'm sneaking in this post because...well...I'm tired and don't feel like styudying for a while.

Speaking of tired, I think something's majorly wrong with me. Why do I always not feel well when exams are approaching or already here. I really felt like sleeping for both GP and Econs yesterday (wait. maybe i did fall asleep) but.... I dunno.... I didn't finish any of the 4 papers... :'( Pathetic, man....

It's ok... (I'm talking to myself... Crazy...) At least there's always something that never fails to cheer me up (besides God) And that is...

haha...anyway...don't know how many people have been following up with the 40 days ofpurpose thing. I have! :) And I've been memorising all the verses for each day too...haha... some people say it's over-achieving, but..nah...It lifts my spirits :) These are my favourites so far... (all NIV)

Colossians 1:16
For by Him all things were created; things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities, all things were created by Him and for Him.

Ecclesiastes 4:4
And I saw that all labour and all achievement spring from man's envy of his neighbour. This, too, is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.

James 4:14 (must say it in a very excited tone!)
Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.

Psalm 149:4
For the Lord takes delight in His people, He crowns the humble with salvation.

Whee!!!!! By the end of these 40 days I'll have 47 more verses in my vocabulary :) That's a really nice thought! I shall go study :) See ya!

Paul goes downHill...

2006-09-07T23:50:00.000+08:00

SI update:
Paul Twohill's tears said it all... He's out of the competition.
However, I think he has a pretty long career ahead of him in the media industry.
With his natural interesting behaviour and the sincerity he seems to display, I think he'll go far.

Right now, three vie for the title (which may not do that much actually):
Hady, Jonathan, Jasmine.
It's pretty tough to say who's going to make it to the finals because, well, it's where the money comes from that decides...not always the talent. Oh well...

Moral of the story: Indulge in something else! Like studying...lol... Ok fine, I'm guilty for not studying much these few days (cos I really think there's something awfully wrong with me). No excuse, but I might not do well for promos... (I'm not betting anything!) Sigh...I better study again after this post...

Things to do:
1. Study more
2. Look scarier to protect myself from unlawful creatures on the earth
3. Find out what's wrong with my eyes (it's very very unreceptive to light...hurts like crazy in the day when outdoors..)
4. Find out what's wrong with my body (I think I'm cold-blooded...because my body temperature on the inside fluctuates like crazy, which means that I fall sick for no reason pretty quickly)
5. Buy a nice handphone cover...preferrably with smiley faces :)
6. Homework... Loads of it. Die...
7. Discuss important stuff with God (I got a calling recently...scary)
8. Study more
9. Study more
10. Have I mentioned about studying more?

Ya well, got to go. I'm pretty sure I'm failing my mock chem paper tmr :)
Still, have to TRY to pass lah :)

God bless you...

The September Rescue Mission (SRM)

2006-09-02T21:31:00.000+08:00

Yes, it's time.
We've wasted too much time...
Done too many unnecessary things...
And now,
Hope must return.
Presenting...
The September Rescue Mission!

I've come up with a schedule that will hopefully save me from too many failures in my promos... It's a 25-day last-minute preparation...that squeezes 5 million pages of horrid content into less than a month. And...I'm gonna die!!!!!!! Ahh!

Thankfully, I managed to cram 10 chapters of Econs over the past 2 days. Because of school hw as well which I need to finish by this Monday (extra lessons...) I might not finish what I set out to do... So I better be prepared to mug harder * already stoning...* Don't know what I'm typing. Can't be bothered to know.

SRM...Let's see if I survive my own rescue mission... (welcome to my sad, pathetic life...)

COLD...

2006-08-31T22:14:00.000+08:00

Yes...I'm cold...literally. And falling sick...which is sickening (pun unintended)

Well at least I got to rest today, cos there was only half day of school. Yes, teachers rock! haha...we get a free holiday!!!!

(clear throat) More importantly, Happy Teacher's Day to everyone! You must have taught somebody something in your entire life :) Otherwise...hmm.... your life is sad.. lol

Special dedication to my teachers in school:
Bio: Ms Angel Yang, Mr Suresh
Chem: Ms Quek Boon Shan, Ms Grace Chua
Maths: Ms Tan Wei Lin, Mrs Jasmine Yap
Econs: Dr Sivaraman
GP/ PW: Mrs Nirmala Ong

(In case you're wondering why I have so many teachers, hat's cos we changed teachers for alomst every subject this year)

And teachers in church:
Aunty Ying Kheng and Dorothea
as well as...
Joel, who's still my guitar teacher (oh ya...I'm supposed to learn bass from you too...haha...)

Oh ya...watched the Singapore Idol results show just now. Joakim is out finally... hmm..haha...Which proves 2 points: 1. A lot of people really vote based on looks and not talent.... 2. The producers still have to keep the right people in to maintain viewership (can you imagine if Hady was kicked out and Joakim was in the finals?)
hmm... shan't comment too much cos I'm seriously cold (no, there's no air-con here and no pun intended) but yup, may the talented one win. Otherwise, bye bye SI.

24 hours too short...

2006-08-24T23:18:00.000+08:00

33 days to promos...
7 days to teacher's day concert performance...
4 days to chem and econs tests
1.5 days to ge yao...
13 hours to SPA assessment...
3 hours more to do project work written report...

dying...

The ressurection

2006-08-23T23:10:00.000+08:00

yes yes i know I haven't updated in months
sorry......

hmm...things have changed. The innocence level of people in this world has dropped by another 50% I think. I guess that's what happens when we grow up. No wonder we're told to have child-like faith...and Jesus welcomes children openly, "for such is the kingdom of heaven". Sigh...it's getting harder and harder to live in this world.

Well, for this morning's prayer meeting, we shared about the struggles we're facing in life. I can't post one of them here, but the bigger one is that i'm struggling a bit with the future. I think God has inspired me with big dreams and hopes, but that's the point. It seems God helped me formulate these thoughts, but I'm worried they're just my own ambitions in life. Then I'll be disappointed and really sad if they're not fulfilled... Trusting is not as easy as I want it to be...sigh...

Hmm...now for a topic i don't normally discuss about... Guys. Is it just me, or is at least half the population of guys infatuated with girls, and many for weird (i shall not specify) reasons? Then so many guys start "chasing" girls in school, even carving names and trying to find means and ways to get close to "the girl of their dreams"...It's sweet if the girl happens to like him too, but half the time, the girl gets freaked out instead. Some girls in my school have even at least 4 guys pining after them.

The main thing is, most people at this age aren't even ready for a lasting relationship. Puppy love floats around looking for trouble. I hate watching friends break up. Most of the time, they never become friends again. Maybe... that's why I would never date in JC... especially after realising how immature, stubborn, selfish and unloving I am. Sigh...seems pretty ungodly...

For the next 1 month plus, I shall study hard, and work to draw closer to God every day. When I manage to capture the light He shines on me, I will be able to reflect His light towards the rest of the world, and shime brightly, hopefully guiding the path of the lost.

If I love, I shall love the Lord.
If I hate, I shall hate the devil.
If I give, I shall give with all my heart.
If I take, I shall receive with gratefulness in my heart.
If I live, I shall live my life abundantly.
If I die , I shall look towards heaven.
For You are with me, Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.

I shall update more regularly I hope :P
Signing off...

Praise the Lord!

2006-05-01T09:45:00.000+08:00

When life gets tough...I find it hard to say "Praise the Lord!" or give thanks for whatever circumstances i'm facing. Most of the time, i'm even embarrassed to ell anyone about how I feel or what i've been through. It's so much easier to hide everything to myself...

Then God tells me to share my life with others. How does He tell me? I don't know exactly. It's just suddenly knowing what God wants from me after having a personal relationship with Him for so long. And trust me. Sometimes, I don't like knowing what God wants from me. Like the following lyrics, it's just so hard to follow what He wants...

But it goes against the way I am, to put my human nature down
And let the Spirit take control of all I do;
'Cause when those trials come, my human nature shouts the thing to do,
And God's soft prompting can be easily ignored.

What should I do?
I don't know. I know I'm weak...but I wish I had enough strength to at least make my friends happy, if I can't make myself happy...
oh well, I guess I might firgure out one day...I can only wait patiently...

Thoughts...

2006-04-25T20:05:00.000+08:00

Disclaimer: I am not depressed! Just "penning" down some thoughts...

We lead a carefree life at first
Little problems, or at least..
Nothing too big for us to handle
We sit on the thrones of our lives
Crown, robe, staff and jewels in place
Yet never satisfied
Where is God?
Nonexistent... or far away
"God exists? Ya right! Prove it!" the mocker says.
And He does.
Plague after plague after plague
And like pharoh
We're struck to our knees
Begging for mercy
But soon, our hearts harden once more
Against God we choose to go.
Boom!
God's mighty hand revealed
The final display right before our eyes
And in the midst
Losing something precious
A loved one, a memory held so dear
So hard to let go
To say goodbye
What if God was on the throne from the beginning?
Would things be different?
This pain
Inflicted by ourselves, on ourselves
With no one able to heal or comfort us
But God.
Tempting thoughts...
"Is God sadistic?"
"He allows pain then brings about healing"
"What's his problem?"
But we know better now.
Trust God first; find out reasons later
Miraculously, we do
Years down the road, our eyes are finally opened
A mature Christian we've become
Moulded and refined
None other than through prior trials
Each one served its greater purpose
In God's beautiful plan
Pleasing, perfect plan.
The tears we shed
Every drop collected and stored
In the same blood that Jesus shed
The price paid once and for all
What we went through:
The valley of the shadow of death
Of sorrow, of pain, of suffering
For who can take away
The joy of the Lord in our hearts
When we are held safely in His arms

So let's rejoice every day
Knowing that we have the ultimate victory
Through our Heavenly Father
Who made heaven and earth
Knitted us in our mother's wombs
And who cared for each one of his precious children
Dying for every single one
And rising from the dead
Displaying the wonders of the true and living God
And yet
He's our Father, Brother and Friend
What a mighty God we serve!

Another random thought. Ok maybe not so random. Just can't help thinking about it when there are many similar cases out there.

Losing you was so hard
When my memories of you
Were so beautiful, so pure
You touched my life
In a way no one else had
That note...
How was i to know that would be the first
And final one?
The only one you wrote to anyone...
Then you took that plunge
Jumping out of everyone's way
Into emptiness
Till reality hit you
When you touched down
Dead
"Move on; get on with life!"
Why does everyone say that?
How can we move on
Knowing full well that at the same time
Someone has already been left behind?

2006-04-09T00:30:00.000+08:00

haiz...maybe i'm getting sick and tired of blogging...hahaa
people are asking me to update, but there's nothing much that i don't mind telling the whole wide world! haiz...
I'll post sth next time...

Hols ending :(

2006-03-18T21:22:00.000+08:00

Haiz....
Too fast!
How can hols be coming to an end?!
Preposterous!!!!
haha...

Haven't been doing much.
Oh sewed for hours today
My dear school uniform...with skirt worryingly long (yes, even I think it's long..haha)
so sewed up by 5 cm. Haiz...fingers can die
In huangcheng, we also sewed quite a bit

ok
my family's watching "fearless" now
bought from malaysia
haha
i'm talking rubbish!
oh well...

yay!
tomorrow's church!
finally :)
missed it last week cos of huangcheng
so didn't get my weekly re-charge
tomorrow I'll probably start studying too
slacked too much!
haha

yup
nothing to say right now
oh wrote a song just now.
anyway, I'll try posting moe readable stuff next time.
God bless :)

3 months...

2006-03-16T22:17:00.000+08:00

wow...haven't posted in a looooooooooooooooooooooong time...surprise, surprise! lol...
I'm probably retreating back to my "keep-everything-to-myself" mode again.
Which, could actually be a good thing, considering the number of people left who can actually keep secrets...haha

Anyway, let's see. These 3 months haven't been easy. Been happy, sad, backstabbed, hurt...blah blah blah. A whole rainbow of feelings and events were probably more significant in school. haiz............. I thought life would be a lot easier there, but I guess you can't control others-the way they think, the way they do stuff- and neither can you always rationalise why they would want to do so. It's sad, and tragic...Only when the world ends, will all this rubbish go away...

On a brighter note, what's kept me strong in school is probably our prayer meetings in the mornings. Thank you faith, sophia, joann and yuhan for bringing me closer to the Lord each day and for reminding me that God doesn't fail us in any way:) Soon we'll be starting something little extra! And hope that other Christians will join us in covering our school in prayer...

Another big part of my school life has been huangcheng! haha...I never knew it'd be somthing so massive, but after our performances on 11 and 12 March, it's WORTH IT! Every night spent doing props till 9 or 10+, every scolding that i got for doing something wrongly, every bruise or cut from carrying props, every practised step to ensure that we were "the silent killers" during scene changes... And now, most of us are suffering from PhD (post huangcheng depression). Been watching "Jewel in the Palace" to fill the emptiness...haha

Anyway, this holidays haven't been really exciting. Been either going to school for make-up test or watching korean dramas or packing my room. Oh and I went to the gym for fun too...lol... I feel like a "man"! :P

Next term, must start mugging...haiz...haven't really come to the kind of topics in any subject that i really like yet. I wish we were doing human anatomy...but oh well. ok I will post on more interesting stuff next time. In the process of writing a song too...

School

2006-01-26T00:43:00.000+08:00

12.39 am

I'm tired.
School's exciting
School's tiring

I'm blur.
Can't understand the tutorials and half the lectures
I will survive!

Nothing to write
Brain block

Oh I'm in guitar, PA and Huang Cheng
Anything else?
Er...next time then write

12.49
signing off...

Orientation Week1

2006-01-06T22:23:00.000+08:00

ok haven't bolgged in ages
feel kind of bad...
so I shall blog about my orientation! :P

Day 1: tue
Lots of talks, and a very "short" address by the principal. Boring thing was that most of the talks, well, the only applied to the mainstream ie. we already had the talks last year. However, after that, we met our OGs (orientation groups). Group 25 (my OG) had 27 people, and out of that, 19 were guys! (14 from HCI!) so the poor 8 girls in the group were like quite segregated... Didn't really know my OG very well even after the icebreakers, but they were ok lah.
At th end of the day, we learnt 3 mass dances, 2 involving couple dances.. Gee, I "LOVED" dancing with the guy. I mean, he as a person is fine. But me? Dancing with a guy? T-R-O-U-B-L-E!haha.. We also learnt the school song, some other songs and cheers. Yup, that's about it..

Day 2: wed
Probably the most boring day for the whole orientation. More talks and then a lot of the "qualifying tests" for the special programmes. Too lazy to go for any of them, so there was a lot of free time loitering about in the school. Bored...

Day 3: thu
less talks, more play :P Submitted our subject-combination forms. The spectacular staff said they could place us all into classes in 1 day! *clap clap* Anyway, This was also the second and the last day we would see our OGs. We played station games, Hexathlon (cos there were 6 stations) well, due to the bad weather, we only managed to play 4. Not bad lah, in 3 of the games, we managed to beat our opponent :) Got to know my OG a little better, though still couldn't recognise many. Oh well... Oh we had to do the couple dance again. Really anyhow do one. Gee...felt a little guilty...but I was really tired lah... After that, spent the last 45 minutes with my OG and OGL, Keng Fai. Hmm... maybe we'll all meet up some day again for lunch...

Day 4: Today
Early in the morning, the whole batch flocked to the notice boards to check out the results of the placings in classes. I'm in 06S74!!!! Meaning, I entered HCI in 2006, I'm in the Science faculty, 7 means I take Bio, and 4 is the class number :P We proceeded to the hal and got into our classes..Not bad lah.15 girls and 11 guys. Quite even :). Some classes have like 4 people of one gender and the rest comprising of the other gender..haha. hmm... 13/15 of the girls are from NY, 1 from RV and 1 from MGS. All the guys are from HCI...oh well..Almost an IP class. But we got along really well, somehow. We met our CT (civics tutor) Ms Angel Yang. Oh! She teaches BIO!!! Yay bio rocks...anyway, she told us the ruls and blah blah blah... She seems quite nice, but the sort that can also explode..haha..
Later, we crowded the Central Plaza and were shown our standing position for flag raising. Quite squeezy. Gee...
In the icebreaker games, we played the usual...whacko, the blacnket game, etc. haha... I have a male classmate that was also my promary 4/5/6 classmate, so if I needed to call a guy (save the girls!), it was quite easy..haha...
Oh..back to the hall again for more dances (today's was the most...er...expressive. Shake everything one..haha..) then more songs and then cheers. Oh if you watch campus superstar, the student from HCI in the top 20 is Chee Yang. He was forced to sing today...haha...first the song that we were taught (dang ni gu dan ni hui xiang qi shui) and then he sang the famous FIR song. He sounds so like the lead singer lor. Scary for a guy to go so high, since the first song mentioned was sung normally..haha. But he's got a nice voice lah. Got to give him credit for that.. Not that I'll swoon over him, though. Still not interested in guys, or girls, for that matter.
Ah, we also picked our mortals from our senior class. They are one bunch of wacky people. But, nice :) After the hall session, we officilly met up with our senior class and played MORE icebreaker games. There's only one bad thing. Most of the games have to do with guy-girl stuff. Apparently, that's the most "fascinating" part. So we played games like passing the pocky stick round the circle via the mouth, and obviously biting off the part that you grip. So as the stick gets shorter, well, it gets more and more worrying. I don't know why the short sticks always come my way! Ah! No choice lor. The forfeits were worse. Guy and girl-1 is the pole, the other the dancer- gross, I tell you. oh then we had to play this "elope" game. Sit alternate guy-girl as well. Everyone hold hands, then this "couple" will walk along hand in hand and tap one pair of hands. That "couple" must stand up (holding hands all the way)and run in the opposite direction. The "couple" that reaches the opening and sits down first can rest. The other pair taps another "couple"...and the game goes on. Well, a lot of the guys, in their excitement, caused the girls to fall or be injured. Sigh...good thing I was never tapped.

Well, on the whole, orientation has been pretty good. There's still a whole week of it next week, and many exciting stuff coming up. I'll try to update next week as well, esp after the campfire :P Now, the wisest thing to do: sleep :P

See ya!

31 dec

2005-12-31T16:44:00.000+08:00

Just came back from camp yesterday. Was pretty tired. Slept for like 12 hours...lol...
Anyway, Christmas was wonderful. Caroling went pretty well. Really thankful for all the presents and notes of encouragement :) Well, won't write much. Just take it that my blog's hibernating for now...haha... I'll still visit once in a while to check the tagboard.

School's starting next week :) I miss studying......

Anyway, if I do become a doctor, I think I know what my calling is :)...

Happy New Year, everyone! God bless you :)

2005-11-28T11:43:00.000+08:00

ok i feel kind of guilty for not updating..haha...anyway, what's been going on? well...

1. I know I'm going to HCI next year, so I'm quite happy
2. I kind of miss the NTU attachment...think yanting, stella, huijin and I will probably go back to the lab to visit our researchers next year or something.
3. I just had an interview for worship comm yesterday. I'm in...so yay! :) Hope I can serve God with all my heart.
4. Caroling's coming up on the 23rd of December, and we have another performance on the 21st at an Indian church, so I'm really excited! But...apparently, I'm supposed to be in charge, so it's kind of busy too. And there's a lot still left to be done. Ah! I will survive..lol..by God's grace...
5. I was kind of sad yesterday...not going to say why, but ya..I shall make an effort to be happier, otherwise i'll make the people around me very sad too. Sorry, everyone...
6. I'm going to do some quiet time now. See you!

"Come to me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rests for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."Matthew 11:28-29

more results

2005-10-26T15:58:00.000+08:00

hmm...4 more days to O level higher chinese. Really don't feel like studying though :( We have chinese intensive lessons this whole week (every period is Chinese) and so it's getting quite tiring. Yet, I'm not ready for the paper :( Sigh...

Anyway, got back the rest of my exam papers, so I guess I know my overall results already. Yay! I'm getting promoted! haha...well..the minimum requirement is actually a average B3. At least I got through that :)

Summary:

Lang Arts: Exam- 74, A2. Overall: A2
Integrated Maths: Exam- 82, A1. Overall: A1
Higher Chinese: Exam- 69, B3. Overall: A2
Biology: Exam- 69, B3. Overall: A1
Chemistry: Exam- 55, C5 :( Overall: B3
Physics: Exam- 77, A1. Overall: A1
(Other stuff)
CCA (Choir): A1
CME: A
PE: B (I think less than 5 people in the class got A...lol. Apparently, you have to get 80+ to get A. I got 77 or something...)

Hmm...for us, in orger to have the extended curriculum in JC, we need to count in the EL1B3 or English and best 3 results and got 8 or below. So I guess I got 5... YAY! :) Eek! I shall try to mug harder for exams. Bye!

Results

2005-10-19T13:21:00.000+08:00

Alas! The exams are finally over, but the results are here to stay. Oh well...no use putting up a front. I know I won't be happy after these 3 days worth of results. hmm...today's weren't THAT bad I guess...Just giving an update on the mark system for the IP programme:

20% CA1 (term 1 and 2)
10% CA2 (term 3)
30% SIA (student-initiated assessment: projects, portfolios, etc)
40% Exams (deadly ones)
TOTAL 100%

Anyway, I got back Lang Arts (English) and Integrated Maths today.
Disclaimer: posting these results are to inform myself (I'll probably forget them by next week) and those others who feel like they want to know. No other intention is implied.

English:
Compre: 14/25 :(
Summary: 23/25 :)
Stimulus Response Qn: 13/20
Argumentative Essay: 24/30
Total: 74/100
hmm..I guess you'd think I would scream since I missed A1 by 1 mark..but aiya..don't care already..lol!

Maths:
Paper 1: 66/80
Paper 2: 67/80
Total: 84/100
Content, I guess. Maybe cos I expected it. Wish I had done better though...

The rest of the papers will come tomorrow or friday, and then I'll also find out my total end of year results. Let's aim for an overall 70 :) I stress the word "AIM" :)

Blog

2005-09-30T14:16:00.000+08:00

Hey! Didn't plan to blog actually, but 2 major events happened today....

No.1: My junior invited Christ to come into her life!! :)
I was really really excited, because I hadn't expected her to say she wanted to be a Christian.
Anyway, it was an honour going through the prayer with her. I feel really happy, and I believe that the whole of heaven is rejoicing with us too. :P Praise the Lord! :)

No.2: Got my overall Higher Chinese marks (actually, I got the individual marks and calculated it myself..haha)
And...It's an overall A2!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Cheer!!!!!!!!!!!! haha... There are like a minute number of people who actually survived and got an A1, so I'm really grateful for whatever I got :) Ahh...one worry gone. Hope I'll be just as happy after the rest of my exams. Eek! Exactly 1 week left!!! Got to study...bye all! :)

Take care and God bless!

Exam Preparation

2005-09-21T14:51:00.001+08:00

Haven't blogged in a long time. Oh well...the following is what I'll be doing from now till the end of my exams

21/9 Phy: Radioactivity. Work, Energy and Power
22/9 Phy: Electricity (static elect, practical elect, etc)
23/9 Chem: Atomic Bonding. Atomic Structure. Quantum Theory
24/9 Phy: Pressure. Bio: Plants (Reproduction, Photosynthesis, Tansport-xylem, phloem, etc)
25/9 Bio: Plants cont'd (it's a lot!)
26/9 Chem: Acids, Alkalis and Salts. Quantitaive Analysis. Phy: D.C/A.C Circuits. Magnetism
27/9 Chem: Periodic Table. Redox reactions
28/9 Phy: Heat (specific heat capacity, latent heat, etc). Thermometers (callibration, modifications, etc). Density. Measurements (vernier calliper, micrometer screw gauge, etc)
29/9 Bio: Digestion. Enzymes. Food and Nutrition
30/9 Bio: Nervous System. Eye. Hormones. Maths: Matrices
1/10 Maths: Calculus (differentiation and integration). Chem: States of Matter (Pressure Laws, etc)
2/10 Chem: Electrolysis. Organic Chemistry (Alkanes, Alkenes, Macromolecules, etc)
3/10 Bio: Respiration (Lungs, transfer of gases, etc). Heart (semilunar valves, ventricles, etc) Chem: Atmosphere and Environment
4/10 Maths: Transformation
5/10 Lang Arts: CR2AP. Compo. Maths: Trigonometry (sin, cos, tan, cot, cosec, sec, proving identities, etc)
6/10 Lang Arts: Compre. Maths: Surds. Indices. Exponential Functions. Logarithm
7/10 LANGUAGE ARTS PAPER! Maths: Everything. Chem: Le Chateliers' Principle
8/10 Bio: Human Reproduction. Homeostasis (skin, hypothalamus, etc). Excretion. Kidneys
9/10 Bio: Cells. Genetics. Genetic Engineering. Monohybrid inheritance
10/10 INTEGRATED MATHS PAPER 1! Chem: Everything. Maths: Vectors. Permutation and Combination
11/10 CHEMISTRY PAPERS! Bio: Everything. Maths: Plane Geometry
12/10 BIOLOGY PAPERS! Maths: Everything. Phy: Transfer of heat (conduction, convection, radiation)
13/10 INTEGRATED MATHS PAPER 2! Phy: Everything
14/10 PHYSICS PAPERS!

15/10 It is finished.

Study times:
Mon-Fri---12.30-1pm, 3-7pm, 8pm-12am
Sat--- 9am-12pm, 1-6.30pm, 9pm-1am
Sun--- 2.30-6.30pm, 8.30pm-12am

Yay! Ok. I'm putting this up here so you can whack me if I'm not studying..haha... ok 3pm. Bye!

verses

2005-08-31T15:33:00.000+08:00

Matthew 6:19-20

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.

Philippians 4:8

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable-if anything is excellent or praiseworthy-think about such things.

Ephesians 6:13-17

Therefore put on the full armour of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm, then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

Psalm 37:3-5

Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness. Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass.

Psalm 121

I lift up my eyes to the hills-where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. He will not let your foot slip-he who watches over you will not slumber; indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord watches over you-the Lord is your shade at your right hand; the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord will keep you from all harm-he will watch over your life; the Lord will over your coming and going both now and forevermore.

2 Corinthians 12:9

But He said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.

Psalm 23

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for His name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

2 Timothy 1:7

For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love, and of self-discipline.

Cont'd

2005-08-09T14:33:00.000+08:00

On Saturday, I went for my church's Wild Goose Chase. It's essentially a race where we're fed with clues for different locations in Singapore, and we have to travel with our groups in a chartered bus to go there and do tasks assigned. I was in the group Luke (followed the names of chapters in the New testament) and I don't know what ahappened, but I was the group leader, even though there were a few adults in the group. So anyway, the first clue led us to Pasir Ris Park. Eek! I don't live in the east, so that part was hard for me:) But oh yay! My group was the first to solve that clue, so we left church and reached there first. We had 4 tasks: The swing, the slide, the rock wall and the spider web. We finished them quite quickly and went on our way.

So funny, the 2nd clue already said Little India...so we finally figured out it was the MRT...and went there. Oh well...the theme there was on spices, so we had to identify 7 sealed up containers of spices, and we then go out of the station and find as many of them as possible to get extra points. At the same time, we had to find 10 verses in the Bible that contained the word "spice". Eek! Lastly, after that (we had a time limit), we had to sing the most famous Indian song in our country in front of an audience. Guess who we found? 2 Indians! :) hahaha...ok...

We were then handed our 3rd clue as well as an envelope that gave us money to buy stuff to make music for the rap competition after all the stations. Our third clue was a tin, with the ice mountain water bottle plastic wrapped around it and a plant growing out of it. Oh well...who would have known that was Bukit Timah Nature Reserve? Fortunately, we got some help and found our way there safely. Oh, before that, we went to Turf City to have lunch. I ate at Mc Donalds with Elroy, Eugene, Nathanael and Russell. Steph, Sylvianne and Joycelyn went to some ulu place there. The rest of the group were also in Macs I think. After that, we went to Bukit Timah NR and had to find 13 different plants with very weird names, as well as a creature bigger than an ant (that wasn't easy) ...

Last of all, our clue was a picture of the cover of a Titanic VCD as well as a tea bag for BOH tea. If you haven't figured that out by now, it's BOTANIC gardens...haha...solved that in 3 seconds...nah..5 seconds...haha...Anyway, we had the weirdest tasks at this stations...and I think the marshals were forced to waste oup time cos we were too fast or something. First we had to piece this jigsaw ap of the place, then we had to find the pandan plant to find a bag of fruits (because they purposely didn't tell us that the bags of fruit under the banana trees ran out. Limited no.) Anyway, we found the fruits, and everyone had to eat. I thought they would taste disgusting, but they weren't so bad after all...haha..then we had to answer weird questions about Singapore and eat lime too. For the 2nd part of the station, we had to go onto this bridge and sing 3 national songs across the river!!! EEK! Blatently shouting and way off-key! Not my style..haha...but all in the name of fun.

And finally...after they wasted much of our time, we were given the last clue...which was obviously leading back to church. We practised our rap and then waited for everyone else to return (we were first!!!!!!!!) ok but for some underlying reason, we were not allowed to win. Our rap proved to be well-received though and we won 2nd prize. The worship led by Janis was good too. And we had a lot of fun, I guess. I'll post more about the rest of the events on Sat and Sunday next time. Goodbye.

Happy National Day :)

It's been a long while...

2005-08-09T13:44:00.000+08:00

Hello! I'm sorry, not been posting for ages. And yes, think we've all aged since then...haha...

Anyway, last week, I had many tests... What I know is, my Higher Chinese and Chem tests are confirmed goners. I was practically laughing when I did them, because my answers were crappy and I knew a "FAIL" on my paper wasn't far away. haha...That evening I went for worship prac. So tired after that but still had school the next day...lol...at least we did all the songs. Oh and I learned 4 songs in one night! I think that's quite a record.

Anyway, on Wednesday, I went to see my Bio teacher (cos my test was on Thursday) and asked him questions to prep me for the test. In the end, my friends who were with me kept laughing at the questions that I asked. Why??? I don't know..and my teacher was like..."Cherlyn..." Speechless. Haha...not my fault ok? Maybe my train of though was slightly different from theirs. But the greatest thing was, our test got postponed to Friday! Whee! Yup, so I was studying from the previous Saturday to last Thursday and didn't blog or whatever.

Oh yes, on Friday, I was supposed to go to my relative's house to celebrate my uncle's and aunty's birthday (they're twins). And apparently I was supposed to lead worship for the gathering. In my mind I wa thinking, "Me? Lead people from he age of about 4 to maybe 50+? What songs can I actually lead with such a huge generation gap?" hmm...I guess it took a lot of faith...and it turned out pretty good :) My cousin Gerald accompanied me last minute with his guitar too. Quite funny..haha..he's very good, and I felt a bit scared to play too, cos I'm still not very good. Oh well...it's for God, so he was looking at my heart:P The best part was that I think they could catch all the songs quite easily...and despite me being very nervous, I managed to lead worship like I would in front of just the youths in my church.

2005-07-25T02:07:00.000+08:00

hmm...ok it's like 2.10 in the morning, but yes, I'm still awake! sigh...I think I'm ruining my biological clock...I slept at 5.30am yesterday too. Both days cos I was doing SIA (student-initiated assessment) Why didn't I do earlier(days before now)? Because I was either doing other work or had extra activities...and I was so tired after church (yes, I stayed awake till it was over :P) that I slept in the afternoon.

argh! I feel subjected to torture! How do you enjoy a movie, and at the same time, try to prove (for the assignment) that the "scientific facts" in the movie are fake? Answer: Impossible! haha...and joel was even asking me to do on titanic, because he said,"titanic hit iceberg, iceberg win" and that if there wasn't anymore chemistry facts to agrue, talk about the chemistry between Jack and Rose. sigh...guys...

ok I need to sleep, otherwise in school later, what will happen is that, I'll suddenly be super awake and then suddenly be super tired. Don't know why. Need to work out the chemistry and biology for that. haha...good night. God bless :P

FOA

2005-07-18T00:52:00.000+08:00

before helen nags me again, I shall blog a short while before i sleep. It's almost 1!!!

Anyway, I couldn't go for the Deb Fong concert in church yesterday cos I was performing in my school's Festival of Arts . We had a matinee in the afternoon and a bigger one at night. For the choir, the matinee's performance wasn't very good. There was someone who came in early for one part, and it was super obvious. Then we started rushing during our 16 part Como Tu because I guess we were quite nervous. Result: Once we got out of the backstage, we had a huge scolding from our student conductor. Oh well...Then in the evening, my conductor was supposed to come, but she suddenly didn't feel well, and so she really tried by still coming down to school and sitting down to conduct us for one song, but after that she couldn't take it, and really needed to go home. Then she apologised to us Sec 4s, because a lot of us came back for this last performance and really wanted her to conduct (she really is one of the best conductors around. Dunno how she does it, but she manages to bring out the right emotions and dynamics in the choir...something no student conductor has ever done). Anyway, the evening performance was a lot better, but still not excellent lah. Of course SYF was better..haha...after taking away so many sec 4s and putting in Sec 1s, the sound just isn't the same. Still, it's my last ever performance as a choruster, kind of sad...but I'm still determined to join something else next year. Hope that fills an empty space :)

By the way, thank you Wanting, Liane Corinna, Cheryl, Phei Qi and Helen for the flowers and chocolate/Oreos. Oh! And people not from our school (dunno where they're from) actually said the choir sounded very good! haha...interesting...

Okay, I've typed a lot. Helen, you should be happy. Gotta go sleep. It's been a wonderful Sunday :) As usual. Back to dreary Monday. Good night!

2005-07-09T22:27:00.000+08:00

hello! It's been a loooooooooong week and I was pretty miserable for most of it...but it's finally Sunday tomorrow!!! Which means church! Whee!! Tomorrow, I'll be letting Elroy go solo on doing PA...hope he does well :) Then all my training won't go to waste. I'll probably still have to stand by just in case he can't set up all the stuff by 11.30...

Anyway, yesterday was a huge break from normal school...cos we finally celebrated Youth Day!! The morning started off quite boring, with weird announcements. Then there was this Indian Bollywood dance performance by some people. Was pretty cool, until we had to do it too...haha...I prefer watching anytime. Bollywood movies are actually pretty cool...haha...I've watched Kaal Ho Naa Ho and Kabi Kushi Khabi Gham...Anyway, after that, it was auctioning and parading of national costumes. The auctioning went crazy! The highest price for one of the items went up to $70!!!! They're crazy!! (but it was 2 teachers fighting for the item lah) Those not rich enough (like me) were extremely bored though. Aside from the occasional drama during big jumps in bidding, we were just stoning away for more than 1 hour :(

After that though, the mood changed as every class began to set up their stalls. My class was doing hennah, hair spray and temp glitter tattoo...so we split into 3 groups, and I was doing the tattoos. Well as you would probably know, I don't do this sort of stuff normally, but in the name of charity...haha...yes I even did for myself for publicity first:) Anyway, our stall was truly overwhelmed and swarmed by customers! haha...we were so busy that there were customers even before the stalls officially opened and after we were supposed to be closed. Oh, and I was the official carver, because we had some templates, but my friends also made some out of transparencies and they were struggling with using the blade to cut out the intricate designs. I like the blade (ok, that sounded wrong)...so I could do it quite well lah...hence, whenever there weren't too many customers, I would be carving out new designs. I also made 2 custom-made ones for those crazy about their CCAs..haha...and they had to pay more for that...so yay! Helped my class earn more. And my work as a tattooer was pretty fun too...I started off quite terriblym, to be honest, but as the day went along, I became a lot better :P I think the standard of service from my class was excellent! haha...and even though it was difficult dealing with so many people in one small location, (and we had to turn down some people at the end :( ) my class topped the level in earnings!!!!!! $535!!! The money doesn't go to us though..charity :P

Oh ya...then we proceeded to the hall...some rather uniteresting talks. Not a very nice way to end the day, but, oh well. I guess the fun fair was worth it. Back in class, we played with all the extra stuff. Sprayed my hair and did hennah for fun too...haha... Right now, what remains are 2 glitter tattoos on my hands and a hennah (totally untraditional one..haha). The tattoos are a rose and a frog(I carved this one!!!haha..)As for the hennah, ya I did on my own too. It says "God reigns" and for the "Indian effect", added some swirls at the sides...haha...so lame...but I like it though :P Anyway, we're allowed to keep these on one a week, but I've decided to scratch off the tattoos tomorrow. Already had some people staring at them for the past 2 days! haha... The hennah will remain till it fades off naturally. God still reigns after that though..heehee

That night, I went to watch the theatre production by my school's theatre club: Mulan. I'm really proud of them, because it wasn't drama at all. It was purely dance theatre;no dialogue, almost everything communicated through various movements. During the play, a lot of people were going "huh? Why so weird?" but I really really liked it. Well, I guess after being in performing arts for quite some time, I can appreciate more abstract but more beautiful art, so I think the money spent was worht it. Well done, Helen and WanTing. Oh ya...Helen was the Stage Manager too! Super pro...haha...My performance with other CCAs will be next Saturday...Choir(whee), CO, Band, String, Chinese Dance, Modern Dance and Guzheng. Hope the audience will appreciate the performance:)

Ok, now for today. I went for worship prac today. Argh!I was late! I hate being late...good thing Auntie Evelyn was there so she could set up PA for them first. I took over when I came. After that, we had lunch together...Me, Jonathan, Ivan, Liesl, Joycelyn...yup. Then I went to Bedok to cut hair (ah! It's very short now! Nvm...hair will grow...haha) and then to the library to borrow books...yes, once again, on the brain :) I seriously have to finish that project soon! haha... Later on, watched Center Stage, and then went to study. Yup. Just now, played Minesweeper Flags with Andy and Joel. I thrashed Andy 5 to 0. I only managed to play 1 game with Joel, and yes, he won. But we had a good talk after that :) It's been a long time..haha...for those who don't know, he's my ex-guitar teacher. Oh ya! They're going on a mission trip tomorrow to China to help Dr Tan Lai Yong (who's also from my church :P) Hopefully, they won't get stopped by customs because they're bringing a lot of medicine and supplies there.

Yay! Church tomorrow! :P Will have our first caroling committee meeting. A bit scary to be student I/C, but I hope the comm will be a huge help :) Ok, got to go. Good nite!

Essay

2005-07-07T16:12:00.000+08:00

Hi! Thought I'd post something in chinese for a change...This is an essay about how I felt after Lily's suicide... (eek! Just realised you may not even be able to see the Chinese. Never mind...)

恶梦

每天晚上睡觉之前，我当然希望我能好好地睡一觉，或许还会做一场甜美的梦。我相信没有任何人希望自己会在那一晚做恶梦，在半夜中突然醒过来，冒着一大把冷汗，才发现自己只是做梦罢了。但是，即使我们每天都要做非常恐怖、可怕的梦，至少我们知道梦后醒过来时，一切都没事了。

可是，如果从某一场梦醒不过来，那怎么办？

２００５年３月１１日，我在那一天刚刚从我校的中四露营回来。还记得，那一天早上，我班在全级的民间舞蹈比赛中赢了奖，所以我回到家的心情是多么的兴奋、快乐。我除了在网上的日记（blog）描写露营的情节，甚至还在那天晚上打电话给我的朋友诗恩，恨不得想把整个露营的过程告诉她。没想到，我们正在谈天的时候，我突然接到了一则简讯......

“你知道Lily发生了什么事吗？我明天会在大概傍晚六点钟去。你会去吗？”

Lily出事了？她是不是生病住院了？或者得了什么大奖？我根本就猜不到。于是，我回复了简讯，向我朋友问个清楚。

不到一分钟后，我又收到了简讯。

“Lily在今天早上自杀去世了。”

死了？怎么可能呢？上次看到她时，她不是好好的吗？Lily为什么要自杀呢？她是利用什么方法来杀自己的？啊！这是不可能的！我不相信！我真的不相信！　但是，大了一通电话给Lily的好朋友后，我才真正地确定这个事实：Lily真的死了。我怎么能接受这件事呢？我该怎么办才好？

第二天早上（星期六），我须要参加课外活动（合唱团）。幸好我们只是欣赏别校合唱团的表演，因为我的同学从露营回来后，大多数不是生病，就是差不多没有声音来唱高难度的歌曲了。欣赏别间学校唱的歌时，我的心可算是有平静一些。也许是因为有些歌曲含着基督教的内容吧，所以听起来给我一种仿佛在教堂内的感觉。

到了下午，合唱团的中四同学也需要做社区服务，所以我们都搭地铁到Owen Road去。我们去那里的目的是探访乐龄人士，为居住的老人家表演（唱歌以及跳印度舞）。可是，当我们在旁边开始排练时，我突然又想起Lily的事。我便想，我怎么能在这里开开心心地表演呢？Lily不久前才去世了，我怎么可能有心情唱歌，甚至还跳舞呢？

于是，我做了一件很丢脸的事情。我当场在所有同学的面前开始哭，而且越哭就越伤心。我放弃了。这次的社区服务，我根本就做不到，我不能再勉强我自己了。幸好主席非常体谅我的感受，允许我在下一次补充两小时的社区服务。

那天傍晚，我和几位认识Lily的朋友一起到她的家去。组屋楼下摆着几张桌椅，Lily的棺木也在场。在一张桌子上有一本空书，是用来让每个人写一小段话给Lily。我记得我写的话大概是（从英文翻译到中文）：

亲爱的Lily：

死亡永远胜不过你！好好照顾自己，好吗？

在上帝的爱间，
思美

写了这些话后，我朋友问我是否想去看Lily最后一眼。我当时心里真的很害怕，连全身都在发抖，但是我坚持要去看。没想到，棺木中的Lily的脸是多么的完美、天真，就像天使一样。她好像在睡一场很长的觉，也在做最甜、最美的梦，而这根本与她真正的生活完全相反。对Lily来说，活在这世上已经没有什么意思了，而死亡是她唯一能解脱，唯一能逃出恶梦的方法......

Lily应该去自杀吗？她这么做是好还是坏？我什么时候才能把这件令我难过的事忘掉呢？我忘得了吗？

到现在，我还是有那么多问题想亲自问她，我现在也对“死亡”这个话题也特别敏感。也许，我也做不了什么。我想我只能做到的是信任上帝，同时让他帮我治好我心中的伤口。如果我耐心地等待，也许我的伤口终于会在一天痊愈的。也许吧......

Yup...if you did understand that, I guess it's a pretty depressing piece. Then again, almost all of the 5 that i'm sibmitting in my chinese portfolio are depressing...haha...
Ok, got to do refelctions for each piece now (which is practically another essay...sigh)

2005-06-28T14:54:00.000+08:00

hello!

Second day of school. Sigh...boring! Can't wait for holidays again...haha... Anyway, for the rest of the term, I'll probably be under pure torture...Still got to finish up leftover holiday homework...then there's projects which are choking me terribly, and of course, tests that drop before me just when I start getting used to school again...sigh...

However, I'm going into this battlefield differently this time. After all that moaning, it's time for me to prepare for the real battle. I must overcome all these overloading obstacles and then focus on the spiritual battle, that's even more lethal and threatening than the above. If the devil wants me to be miserable, I shall purposely get joy from God and put a huge smile on my face. If he tries to tear me down, I'll get strength from the Lord and stand up strong before him. If he breaks my heart, I'll find comfort from God and my friends and continue to fight against him. If he tries to attack me, I'll put on the armour of God and shield myself from all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Sounds hard...but nothing is impossible with God :) Luke 1:37

Dear God,

Help me to survive through this term and come out even stronger because of you. Be with me every single step of the way and let me show the world who I really am: your child.

In Jesus' name I pray,
Amen

Party photos

2005-06-25T01:55:00.000+08:00

Hey! These are the photos from my party. Enjoy! And don't laugh at me please :P

2005-06-25T01:54:00.000+08:00

Yay! Let's get the party started! Everyone must wear hats...just for taking photos only lah. haha..so this is joan and jocelyn. Hmm...Joan broke the record by wearing her hat for the longest period of time. She only took it off when we were playing water games...

2005-06-25T01:52:00.000+08:00

Mark and Tim Han...both posing with more party hats! haha...Mark you look weird :P

2005-06-25T01:51:00.000+08:00

yay! he has a nice hat :) So sporting :P

2005-06-25T01:50:00.000+08:00

hey! Where's your hat? Naughty Steph..haha

2005-06-25T01:48:00.000+08:00

Ammunition prep done by the 4 of us...the guys...can't make it lah! hahahaha..

2005-06-25T01:47:00.001+08:00

It's monkeying time! Literally...haha...

2005-06-25T01:47:00.000+08:00

Right in the action! Way to go, Nicky! oops...sorry steph :P

2005-06-25T01:46:00.000+08:00

Wet. haha...and I had a part to play in that :) Sorry Tim

2005-06-25T01:45:00.000+08:00

Er...right...these 2 cousins are very...er...mature! haha

2005-06-25T01:44:00.000+08:00

Feast your eyes...and yourself...with da lovely food! Thank you Mummy, Cheri and Cheryl

2005-06-25T01:43:00.000+08:00

Ah! Cheryl announced my arrival and that I was wearing a skirt! Some of them turned immediately...

2005-06-25T01:41:00.000+08:00

Ah yes...forced to wear this blouse and skirt bought by Cheryl, Andy and Joel. It was a conspiracy! haha...but Cheryl has to help me adjust lah :P

2005-06-25T01:40:00.000+08:00

Whee! The beautiful pinata wrapped mainly by Chermaine. Thank you :P

2005-06-25T01:39:00.000+08:00

Before there was much destruction...but then some violent people came along :)

2005-06-25T01:36:00.000+08:00

Yes this is a very violent flying kick (literally) from Mark.

2005-06-25T01:35:00.000+08:00

Finally, after about 45 min of non-stop violence (haha), the sweets are out! And flying!

2005-06-25T01:33:00.000+08:00

and for the final programme before most people left...the birthday cake and song:) nice singing! They even sang in chinese too to make me happy :P

2005-06-25T01:32:00.000+08:00

of course there's joel and andy to play for us. Yay! Thank you :)

2005-06-25T01:31:00.000+08:00

lovely shot of my nice cake. Thank you mummy :)

I'm 16!!!!

2005-06-17T04:28:00.000+08:00

I am officially 16! hahaha...

I want to thank the really really nice people who made this birthday very sweet :)

First of all, my choir juniors tried to secretly buy me a present when we were in Malaysia, but their acting...wasn't very professional lah...haha...so I found out. But thank you Xin Yi, Gloria, Jacqueline and Ying Ting :)

On Sunday, I was feeling better (still got a lot of phlegm though) and then the party took place :P Who came... Steph, Joce, Joan, Nicky, Tim Han, Tim Soh, June, Mark, Joel, Andy (jie fu to-be..haha). Of course my parents and Cheri and Cheryl were there. Chermaine came back later. Yup...so it was a nice bunch of people. We had great food cooked by my family members :P haha... you'll only know if you were here. heehee...And we had games! We played the messy one first: Water bomb Monkey. I think everyone got wet...haha...hmm...but the older people (YAG) didn't want to play...I wonder why...haha... The game was a lot of fun anyway...

Later on...after getting dry, I was ushered to my room secretly by Cheryl to get the present from her, Andy and Joel. Yes, I already guessed what they were going to give me: feminine clothes. Sigh... but anyway I went to bathe first, quickly dried my hair (couldn't be that quick lah..my hair so long...) then I put on the blouse and skirt, let down my hair and blah blah blah... then Cheryl insisted on escorting me back to the place where everyone was gathered and made this funny "official announcement" of my arrival...haha. But that was a bad idea! Amidst some gasps, and some clapping, some people took out cameras. AH! And quite impossible to run away lah...but after the super embarassing moment, we went on to play Taboo...guys vs girls. Guess who won? Of course the girls lah! hahahahahaha... I think they had 20 and we had 37 so it was pretty cool :) Oh ya...in between all the games and all were of course the food...eat non-stop I think...haha. Anyway, for the final game, we hit the pinata-which contained loads of sweets- blindfolded, and tried to knock all the sweets out. After many failed attempts, Mark just helped us whack the outside repeatedly with no blindfold. I think he was quite violent lah...so eventually all the layers of paper ripped and sweets came flying out...haha.. quite a sweet affair. While they were picking the sweets though, I had to go in to prepare the cake. Ah! It was so cute! heehee...I purposely chose the kiddy sort this yr. Water (blue cream) with sea creatures (icing sugar) on top. Then they sang the birthday song in English and I asked them to sing in Chinese too (only some of them could lah..haha) and we ate the cake lor :)

Oh ya, at the start of the party, I made all of them wear party hats for a while and take photo. Then they gave me presents. Joan and June gave me a book each, Mark and Nicky purposely gave me this card meant for the 50th birthday, and this transformer toy (meant for guys)...lame! The rest shared a concordence(I think very ex..) and a blouse (feminine stuff, again...) I really liked all. Thank you :) After the party, Joel, Andy and June stayed behind (they're older)...and we had balloon fights plus we played very silly games till about 9+...I really enjoyed the day :)

Ok, now for other birthday wishes...Yvonne on my tagboard....Ian also...For smses, at 11.50pm, Joel wished me again. At 12 am on June 13, Hongzhou, Jacqueline at 1.29am, Jocelyn at 3.11am, oh! And Mc Donalds at 9.01am!haha...Joan at 10.01am, Harry at 10.43am, steph at 1.23om (even though she was just beside me!), Yan Yin at 10.57pm, and Sophia at 12.09am on 15 June. haha...and some of the girls in the room during the retreat also sang me a birthday song. Joycely, Sylvianne, Dorea and Cheri. haha...very sweet...Oh! And Isaac volunteered to buy me a cake on my birthday and smash it into my face :) Why do you think I said no need ? :P

Well, I'll blog more about the retreat either tonight or tomorrow. Got school later :( See ya!

2days...

2005-06-12T05:24:00.000+08:00

ah! Saturday! 2 days to my birthday! haha...ok that's quite lame! haha... but in this gloomy and bleak life, it's nice to have something nice to look forward to :)

Tomorrow's my party! yay! Sofar,I think only Jonathan can't come...but that's quite sad still lah. Still, it should be fantastic, I hope. Except for one part which I'm not exceptionally looking forward to...sigh. I think Cheryl knows what that is. But that won't ruin my mood! haha...in fact, I've got something up my sleeve too :P as usual...

Hmm...on Monday, I won't be "celebrating" any birthday because I'll be at the worship committee retreat! haha... yay! so fun! And wait till it comes to the games...haha... because I'm one of the masterminds behind them:) butmore of tuesday's games lah: the spiritual andmore meaningful one. Monday's games will be senseless and plain fun...heehee...not to mention dirty!!!!!!!!! haha...whee! honestly, I feel the standard of games match up to our SSS camp ones. haha...hope they'll enjoy them:)

2005-06-10T22:26:00.000+08:00

Hey! For those of you who still don't know, I'm back! haha... Anyway, I fell sick after coming back. Usual stuff lah..haha...tonsilitis, cough, flu...but the thing is, I was allergic to my medicine so my upper eyelids swelled quite terribly :( According to my mum, I looked like a frog. And also according to Chermaine, I looked worse than a frog :( Ok fine, I looked terrible! haha...
But I went back to change medicine, so the swelling's 98% gone, thankfully :) I'm on my way to recovery! yay!

Anyway, I want to thank Joel for taking me to the beach today. You're a very very very very nice person....hahaha...Anyway, the beach trip gave me a whole hour to think and er...finish memorising the last part of the Sermon on the Mount. I'll be ready on Sunday to be drilled by Teng Ngan :) And of course, I'm testing him too..hahaha...

hmm...I know a particular person is feeling very sad now, so cheer up! And ya...happy birthday :)

I'm leaving

2005-06-02T22:12:00.000+08:00

Hello! I'll be leaving tomorrow morning, so I guess just want to say goodbye. I don't know why but I feel pretty paranoid about this trip...Don't exactly feel safe, and I think Steph, Joce and Joan might know why I'm a little apprehensive. Something to do with the last days of me being 15...

Honestly, I'm quite scared. Worried. But I guess it'll teach me A LOT about faith. I need to trust...and go in peace.

But just in case...argh! Talk about lack of faith...but anyway, thank you everyone. It is still my only wish that everyone I know will get to know the God who is my Father, Brother and Friend; I believe my brothers and sisters in Christ will continue sharing the love God gave us with others...And no matter what happens, I'll meet all of you in a beacutiful place :)

Please don't start smsing me or tagging and asking me if I'm ok...haha...I'm fine. Really. (Then again, no one ever believes me when I say I'm ok. Fine, you're right half the time...haha)

Well, I hope to see most of you on Sunday. Shucks! Andy and Joel...I know, I know...you're going to force me to look pretty on that day. ONE DAY ONLY! And never again :) And steph, joce and joan, please...no more feminine stuff! Ahh! Last year you already did so...no need anymore :p, please...

Anyway, talking about feminine stuff, Cheryl lent me her make up for the malaysia trip. (for performances only!) eek! She kept asking me, "do you want anymore?" and then she suggested things like glitter powder and lip gloss and stuff...aiyo...super feminine! She has this whole plastic bag full of make-up stuff...scary...

Well, I've packed...er...halfway :) Will continue later, I guess. Not much lah. Hopefully I don't forget anything. hmm...guess that's all I have to say. Have a great weekend :P God bless..

stuff

2005-05-30T21:54:00.000+08:00

hello! Won't blog long, just want to mope a little! haha... I'm quite sad lah...cos of a few things. First of all, both my super nice PA mentors are leaving Singapore :( Yong Fa is going for a six-month mission trip in America, and Isaac is going to Australia for 2 and a half years for studies and maybe find a job. Ah! Very very sad :( They've really taught me a lot in the past 5 months and have become my very very good friends lah, so I'm kind of sad they're leaving.

Also, I'm about to do work I really really don't like. EEK! I don't like this funny li jie wen da...and I also realised I can't hand in my english portfolio tomorrow, because my mum has gone to bed, complainign thyat she has a severe headache, so I can't get her to complete the paretn reflection form. Yikes! Sad...

Anyway, gtg. See ya!

hols

2005-05-29T19:42:00.000+08:00

hello! Decided not to post anymore essays...too embarassing...haha...

Anyway, the "holidays" have started. However...WHAT HOLIDAYS? Sigh... Have school almost everyday for this week, then I'm leaving on Friday! For those of you who still don't know (you're slow...haha), I'll be off with my school choir for a performace trip in KL and Penang. Don't know why they want to see us also, but we're performing during a national choir camp and having an exchange programme with a school in Penang... Hopefully it'll be fun :) And I'll be be back...before my birthday :P Aiya, you can ask my dear sisters in church (if you do go there), except Chermaine lah, she's...blur :)

Hmm...got back my report book, did well enough to not be stopped from going for worship pracs, and my mother said, "ok, you deserve to go Malaysia". Yep, so I'm quite happy :) And cheri, jia you ok? You have more potential than me...just need to push a little harder... then your results will..."shoot through the roof"! hahahha...I think only my family would understand that... That excludes you, Andy :)

Hmm...I probably won't be posting till after I come back...so till then, take care and God bless :) Sec 4s, all the best for tests and exams. I'm behind you!

peer-editing

2005-05-25T17:25:00.000+08:00

hello! Over the next few days, I might post different self-written poems/essays here. These are for my portfolio...so if you can, please critique and give comments for me to improve ok? Thanks a lot :P whee!

Ok, this poem is about Racism...

The Race

The stage is set
Racers crouch low, awaiting the signal
White and Black team
Each to represent his World
Black in the first lane
"That's where they ought to be!"
White in the center
"Rightfully."

Minds focused; determined to win
Eyes roaring with rage
The stakes are high-too high to lose
Pulse pumping
Hearts beating
In sync

Double Double
Toil and Trouble...

3-2-1...GO!

Look!
A false start from the White!
Judges oblivious.
Off they go
White leading; Black lagging
One lap down, two to go

...Fire Burn and
Cauldron Bubble

How could it be?
Black's catching up
"He must not overtake"
"I must always be ahead"
A simple trip will slow him down
Buying time to shoot ahead
White slows down
On purpose.

HE catches up; full of hope
Equality within his grasp
Just a few more steps...
One trip
Sent flying
Falling...
Far behind now.

"The Black has fallen!"
"Serves him right."

Up on his feet
More determined than ever
"Must keep fighting; must survive"
Two laps down, one to go

Last lap finally
But down goes the White!
A gasp from the spectators
"Oh no!"
Sprain sustained
Detrimental, costly
Amidst the groaning, dread fills the air
The alarm sounds within
"The blacks will win"

Black
Catches
Up.
And slows down...

One arm around the shoulders
The other, supporting an arm
Black and White
Together as friends?
"Why help me?"
"I'm learning to be your friend"

The finishing line in sight
Once racers; now brothers
Winners hand in hand
Finishing together.
One race that taught them to be
One race.
The Human Race.

rambling

2005-05-24T22:53:00.000+08:00

hello!

Time has passed...and I haven't really updated...haha..sorry.
Anyway, guess what? I did the mainstream mid-yr english compo paper today and guess what the title was?

BLOGGING!

haha...I think I wrote crap lah...but hopefully I'll survive :)
Anyway, I took the international chinese proficiency test a while ago, and we finally got our certs today. Whee! I got A! ok, well, so did almost everyone else, but that's not the point :) It's quite cool to know that that multitude of hours spent in the exam room doing the more than 150 questions was worth it :) So cool!

Another thing I got back was my mid-yr higher chinese compo papers. I did pretty ok...got A2 overall for both functional writing and compo. The level msg was 4 lah...so I'm quite glad for the A2....and extremely grateful! Yay! Thank you, God :)

Well, my report book comes out on friday. Terrible thing is, parents must come personally to collect, and teachers are to speak to them...sigh...hope Mrs Chew and Mrs Seah don't have too many bad things to say about me :)

"Cherlyn doesn't hand in her work on time. She doesn't always pay attention in class. A defiant girl ho refuses to listen." Eek! hopefully not these...haha...

Gotta go...sleep's waiting for me. Bye! :) God bless and take care...

wednesday talk

2005-05-18T22:23:00.000+08:00

hello. Sorry...haven't updated in years...haha

Anyway, it's wednesday! Ah! A few more days before the weekend...yes I'm looking forward to the weekend because it will probably make me happier :) Well, I did something stupid today. I tried opening the container for my graphic calculator, which is this hard plastic that is sealed almost fully. I basically cut myself by slicing the scissors across my hand and so cut my fingers at 3 places...hmm..yes typical me :) I'm still alive though.

Honestly, as of now, I'm feeling quite weird. Nothing's wrong, yet nothing'g going right too. How would I know how to feel? Argh! I'll just leave it.

2005-04-29T23:39:00.000+08:00

the wonderful people of 401 '05! :)

2005-04-29T23:38:00.000+08:00

something..

2005-04-29T17:59:00.000+08:00

First of all,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHERYL!!!!
Muahaha...20 years old! Wow! So old...hee hee...
Well, just hope that you'll be more mature from now on...you need to act your age! haha...joking... oh no! She get angry very easily one...die lah! Go home sure get scolded by her :(

Anyway, being nice sisters as we are, Cheri and I went into her room at about 6 this morning, woke her up, and presented her with her delightful presents! :) The theme is obviously "pink" (gross, but that's not the point lah :P ) and so there's this crazy-looking chicken (why chicken? Don't ask me..haha) holding a whole bunch of roses of different shades of red and pink, on top of fashion stuff. Yes, not to my own liking, but to hers lah...haha. Think only the flowers (minus the pink) pass my "likes" section. Anyway, I spent a long time choosing them yesterday. There were other bunches that seemed quite appealing too, like just pink and white roses, or completely pink roses... but I finally settled on these so she can dry them, and I think with the different shades, it's pretty nice :)

Anyway, oh ya...yesterday we had 2.4...haha...I was aiming at just passing because I wasn't feeling very well, then I joked with stephanie the night before that I would reach the finishing line 1 second before the E band (just pass). In the end, aiya...I failed to do so. Just got a B/C...haha...then after tennis PE lesson, had food and then 1/2 hr later, we had body combat. Crazy lah, the arrangement. Had stitches, but I wanted to carry on because it was pretty cool :) Body combat is for us to learn some martial arts, and stuff like boxing and kicking as self defense. Heh heh...don't mess with me :)

Hmm...just now I went over to HCI (gee, the place is becoming more and more familiar. That's bad :( ). Anyway, I went to watch the finals for the Chinese debating. HCI vs RGS. HCI won lah...they were pretty good...I guess. haha... yes my schoolmates next year...was quite glad that they won lah.

I'm now sitting in school typing away and trying to release some stress...haha...quite grateful that I don't have worship prac today actually. Been doing for the whole month, quite tired out... but tomorrow still got full programme...SIGH!

In the morning, we have to report to school by 7.30 as per normal, have falg raising, then the whole school will embark on our "Walk for Fund" fundraising walkathon from school to CCA branch/the old SMU...yup. When we reach there, we'll be doing our final Body Combat stuff. Sigh...after that it's back to "Nan Zhong Quan" or the wushu choreographed for my school (which we've done for years) The body combat is only for 2 weeks... Hmm...then for my class, we have CIP after that! How did that happen? I don't know! Ah! We'll be doing flag raising for EEMC, I think. Honestly, I still don't know what that is...haha...will find out tomorrow I guess.

Hmm..time to go before gate closes. Bye!

It's a good day!

2005-04-27T14:39:00.000+08:00

Whee! Ok I feel a lot happier today :) Cos it's an exciting day!!!

To start off, we broke a Guiness World record today! Yeah right...haha...but it's true!!!!! Whee! You may find it stupid, but trusat me, it's fun :) We made the world's largest... POPIAH!!! The original record was 108m...today, we made history with 196.14m! Yay!!!!!!!! And of course, we got to eat too...hahaha...
While we were making, we started chanting (it's in chinese):

Bao2 bing3 bao2 bing3
You4 bao2 you4 bing3
Xiang1 cui4 wu2 bi3
Zhen1 shi4 ji2 pin3...

haha...it's really lame if you do understand it...but who cares? haha... I think it might be out in some newspapers tomorrow...quite spastic for all of us to be making popiah on a school day out in the super hot sun...but it fits my personality lah...so...yay! I was part of it!

Hmm...then today marked the last day of the Singapore Youth Festival competition for my school. Guzheng got gold and String Ensemble got Gold with Honours! Wheeeeeeeeee! This is a summary of the results for this year's festival (in order of competition/ results):

1. Choir: GOLD WITH HONOURS
2. Chinese Dance: GOLD WITH HONOURS
3. Modern Dance: BRONZE (but they were fantastic too! :P)
4. Concert Band: GOLD
5. Drama/ Theatre: GOLD
6: Chinese Orchestra: GOLD WITH HONOURS
7. Guzheng Ensemble: GOLD
8. String Ensemble: GOLD WITH HONOURS

Yay! Nanyang did EXTREMELY well this year :) This batch of Sec 4s rock!!!!!!! haha... Well done, everyone! I think what we really enjoyed more than the satisfaction of getting our results is the fact that we worked so hard over the past few months, and personally for choir, we hit rock bottom standard only one week away from SYF...so I think the determination to overcome everything else and just express true art on stage is truly commendable:) I know many other CCAs had problems too, but all of them overcame everything too:)...Congratulations! And in terms of results, we're probably one of the top schools in Singapore this year...Fantastic! hee hee...

Which brings me to what's happening in July. We have a biannual Arts Festival, part of which is a concert put up by all the performing arts groups in my school. If I'm not wrong, it should be on the 15th (matinee) and 16th (night concert)...It'll probably be a wonderful concert :) hmm....that will be my last concert as a choruster (I'm not joining choir in JC)...so if you want to come, let me know ok? :)

Okay, now to get back to reality...I still have work to do :( and tests to study for... gotta go. Bye and God bless! :P

Tuesday Blues....

2005-04-26T14:45:00.000+08:00

yes...it's tuesday, but the blues are still lingering on from yesterday...

Today's higher Chinese test was absolutely... horrible :'( If I manage to scrape a B3 I think that'll be quite good already...hmm...will probably be a huge drop from my previous test :( Ah! And yesterday's Chemistry was almost as disgusting...eek! I think even dolphins cannot beat my shriek...ok irrelevent... but the point is, I'm in trouble. Sigh...

And I thought CCA would be over after SYF. Far from it. I'm to Malaysia in June for performances in KL and Penang... I think it'll be quite exciting lah...but with my projects and work building up...it's gonna be hard to cope :( And with all the stories of coaches crashing on the highways, it gets a bit freaky...so please pray for me :) Thank you...

hmm...our guzheng will be going for syf today, and string ensemble tomorrow. Finally! SYF's ending! haha...dunno lah...the stress level built up from the beginning of syf was quite overwhelming. Kind of relieved that it's going to be over very soon :P

hmm...something's coming in July too. Will post more after I finishing doing my belated homework...haha...

hmm joel, I got Cheryl's present already. You can pay me money on sunday...haha...

wah! ok, I need to go. My dear (homework) is calling me...

2005-04-22T23:07:00.000+08:00

the 4 of us...hahaha

SPORTS DAY!

2005-04-22T22:43:00.000+08:00

Whee! Today there wasn't really school because we had our internal sports meet! It's quite crazy lah. We have 3 heats, 1 internal sports meet, and 1 more with the whole of HCI (both high school and college section) ...so ma fan!

Anyway, I came to a conclusion...I'm a record breaker! Yes! You know why? Because out of the 4 new records made so far, I was the student official for 2 of them...haha...so I helped make it happen! hahahahaha...okay I'm talking rubbish...but...nvm...

Oh...on the way back from Yio Chu Kang (I have no idea who's great plan it was to make us go there at 7.30! Yawn...woke up so early...) Anyway, I accidentally met Soon Ann at the station. He's my CG member at last year's metamorphosis camp...sowe took the train back to jurong east station together. On the way, he asked me to sit down (but I didn't want to) so even though he wanted to sit because of the long journey, he didn't. Sigh...said I was punishing him. Where got? haha...why should a girl always be given the seat first (and the guy can only sit when she does)? No need lah...hmmm maybe to jocelyn, guys better give in to her all the time, but for me, let me be the gentleman! hahahahahaha...ah! I'm talking rubbish...nvm, I'm bored :) anyway, we talked about lily mostly...miss her :) Somehow, death seems to strike us all really hard...

Whee! Drama got gold too! Goodie :) They are really, really admirable, because they're called the Theatre Club and I think most of them are talented in doing the true THEATRE! And still, their drama's excellent too! I think they didn't really have the confidence in doing well at first, but they've proved themselves worthy :P Well done! Congrats Helen and Wan Ting!!

ah...ok I have to go. Good night! God bless :P

2005-04-21T23:03:00.000+08:00

more syf results coming out...

our Chinese Orchestra got GOLD WITH HONOURS!!!!!!!!!! Yay! Dunno why lah, but I kind of feel like a part of them. Maybe because there are a lot of my classmates in there, and I've really supported them a lot this year (partly as an apology for giving them major stress when choir got gold with honours...), and partly because their songs rock...so do my classmates! Whee! So very happy :P :P :P

Also, hongzhou's CO got gold...think they're overjoyed too:) Other orchestras that got gold so far are ngee ann, river valley, temasek, pasir ris, ACS(B) and chung cheng. So far, only nanyang has GwH. But tomorrow should have more...

Oh ya! Theatre's getting their results tomorrow too! Yay! If it's convenient, might tag along to go ACS(B) and support the "results show"...hope they're happy with the outcome :) hmm...last 2 syf events are gu zheng and string ensemble. Hope they'll do well too :P When everything's done, then shall give a lovely summary of how my school did this year. Not bad, I think. Yay! Our batch rocks! Wheeeeeee!

Ok...have a lovely day and God bless :P

post-syf

2005-04-19T12:43:00.000+08:00

hmm...as much as I'm having really mixed feelings towards SYF now, all the best to:

hongzhou (vs CO) wed
jasline (CO) thu
yin shan (CO) thu
xiao meng (CO) thu
yan ting (CO) thu
stella (CO) thu
xiao jun (string) next wed
xiang jun (string) next wed
yi hang (string) next wed

and...
Helen and Wanting for their drama results on friday...
{Helen says: Mmph! Umm, erm. Yaay! Incoherency rocks!}

Congrats to:
{school friend and me :P}Meisi and me (choir: GwH)
{school friends}Suwan (chi dance: GwH)
{school friends}Margaret and Jacklyn (band: G)
{school friends}Regina and Liu Qian (mod dance: Brilliant!)
{church friend}Stephanie (dunman high band: GwH)
{sis+church friend}Cheri (nan hua mod dance: GwH)
{church friends}Joycelyn and Dorea (TKSS choir: GwH)
{ex-schoolmate}Chermaine (RGS choir: G)
{knew her from combined concert}Janice (St Nick's choir: G)