It's back to school...

Lectures are still slow-moving for now. I shall not go into how horrible my timetable is. 5 hours break on wednesdays before Korean class. Whoever's free on wednesdays 10am to 3pm, do ask me out! Or I'll be rotting away... somewhere... why is home so far away from school. Well, at least for some consolation, I'm ultra glad that gems this sem (Know Your Rights) is interesting.

And the girlies started snapping away before class..

Deir dear and I. With Aikky's hand, because she was trying to squeeze into the picture. =)

Saturday

Rehearsal for Aron and Amanda's wedding.

And introducing the wedding band... Haha..

After the rehearsal, I headed down to Daphne's house for our ex09 annual mooncake party! It was really traditional with the little teapot and teacups. The mooncakes were super filling. We also played with our paper lanterns. Oh yes, Daphne's lantern ended up in a ball of fire while we were talking away. Great time with the gang! =)

Sunday

Dearest crystal's birthday at fish & co...

Happy sweet sixteen, Crystal! Stay young, pretty, loving and cheerful! You're God's special blessing to us all. Love ya!

The rest of us. (koped off karen's blog)

Monday

The Secret Club gathering.

After so long, since our last pigging out at sakae, we finally managed to meet up! It has been so hard to arrange a time that we could all come together again.

TJC trumpet section 04. Laughing our heads off and having fun together always.

Today

Aron and Amanda's wedding. Nice weather, if not too nice. Lovely garden wedding.

Love is in the air.

Going back in time for the week

Thurs

Lunched with these dearies and Chanel at BigO. We took ages to decide on our orders, and when we were finally decided, Aikky and Deir's order was not available. So they had some stew with fragrant rice. Yummylicious bacon wrapped chicken leg for me! And for the joke of the day.. Okay, maybe it was me again. When I read my order to the waitress, it suddenly dawned on me that I could have ordered something exotic like chicken feet, especially when she mentioned that it comes in small yaki-tori-like pieces. So I had to change my order to something else, no way was I going to have chicken feet. But on a double confirmation, she said it was thigh meat. Why can't they just state it as chicken thigh?

The rest of the afternoon was a time for pampering and shopping. Chanel did her eyelash perming for just 25 bucks. -Free Advertisement up ahead- Aikky and I succumbed to temptation and signed up for the Swan Nails privilege card for 28 bucks, and it comes with 1 classic manicure (worth $23), 1 classic pedicure (worth $33) and a relaxing nutrient spa, 20% off Ala-Carte, nail art and french polish (both worth $20) for 3 express mani & pedi each. -End of advert- We got ourselves a good deal!

Cell was at smu this week. Turn out was good - a total of 8 this week! =) We all had something to thank the Lord for this week. And the main take home message was to reflect on whether we are glorifying God in the things we do. Is God the Lord of my time, resources, energy? A call for better time management, for me.

'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.' -Romans 1v21

Wed

This was what I thanked the Lord for during cell, for this week - being able to spend time with Dad. He took the day off, had lunch at Simply Bread, before sending me to school.

The rest of the afternoon was spent at Cibavisions contact lens plant, getting to know the various manufacturing processes. My class seemed the most enthusiastic, because apparently our civics tutor instructed our class rep that the visit was compulsory. Of which we found out, only on the day itself, that it was only an 'encouraged to go'. I shall not go into the details, but it was an educational trip. Of course, an enjoyable day with the dearies.

I headed back to the east, and met Dad for Arctic Tale, a documentary as narrated by Queen Latifah. It was the only show that interest my Dad. It was educational, and rather interesting. What really set me thinking was the difference in how walruses and polar bears lived. Walruses stick together as a big big family, and do everything together. When one decides it's time to leave the shrinking mass of ice platform, the rest follow after, abandoning it. The group mentality. On the other hand, the polar bears, all high and mighty, live such lonely and independent lives. Nanu, the polar bear, was abandoned by mama polar bear at the age of 2 because they will not be able to survive otherwise. Though unwillingness was expressed by both parties, they still had to leave their only family. Also, polar bears face danger when they are near a male polar bear, because it will attack them. I couldn't figure the reason.

Given a choice, would you rather be a walrus, with 200pounds of blubber, being a very sought after meal, but having a big family there for you, or the polar bear, seemingly the king of the arctic, but yet lonely?

I am thinking too much. On a lighter note, the kid beside me was really into the show, asking all sorts of questions inquisitive children will ask. Like, why is the ice cracking? Oh ya, and there was this scene that kind of tickled, when all the walruses were herded together and they even pass german gas together, after a 400-clam meal. The kid turned to his mum and remarked that it wasn't funny. So cute.

Tues

Hairspray-ed with Junren and Gabs. Nice show! Although I prefer Grease and High school musical anytime.

Band was all sightreading of some challenging pieces. And I totally suck at sightreading.

Happy Birthday, Jo! =)

Ouchies

And I fell today while blading. I forgot to pray for the first time for safety and protection before blading and this happens. It was quite a bad fall. I was trying to slow down when I saw that big puddle of water a few metres infront. But I guess I couldn brake that way, at the speed I was going, so I went out of control and fell hard on my back. Dont really know what happened thereafter, but I ended up lying on my front, perpendicular to the path. My new specs frame are scratched and were badly bent out of shape. =( But thank God the injuries were not serious. Just a few scratched bruises on my elbow and shoulder. Small scratch on my face. My wrist feels sprained though, and I think I'm going to have a huge blue-black on my back on top of my butt, cos that's where I landed on. Thank God for prompting me to wear my knee guards today or I would be limpping around by now. Dont usually wear them. If only I heard that still small voice of my Big Daddy clearer, I would have worn my elbow guards and wrist guards too. Then I wouldn't have bruised my elbow. Then I wouldn't have sprained my wrist. Shoulder guards? Back guards? Face guards? Haha..

'Pain is God's megaphone.' - quote Rick Warren. Maybe He's trying to tell me, Sheryl, you're going too fast, and telling me to slow down lest a bigger accident hapens to me. Who knows? Only God.

Aikky, I guess I need tutorials on how not to fall and how to fall with style too. How to fall safely maybe. Haha.. =)

Class chalet

Class chalet was fun! We had such a great time that we wanted to stay another night, but many of us were already falling sick with sore throats and flu.

Aikleng learnt blading! Leason no. 1, how to not fall or to fall with style. Haha.. Photos taken while waiting for the rest to come back from cycling...

Send me bbq pics please! =)

Updates!

Sat

Picture overload from family night dinner! Really enjoyable night with the cousins! =)

And the sisters in church! =)

Sun

Today's sermon was on the sin of sloth, i.e. the big fat laziness. And I think i'm so guity of that, sleeping till past noon, since it's the hols. It's true that with more sleep after the necessary, you'll actually feel more lethargic. So, starting tomorrow, I shall try to get up earlier. Haha..

5 Cs to overcoming laziness:
1) Convert God's 'You shall' to 'I will'.
2) Cast aside blindness that beset me, eg. procrastination, excuses, tardiness.
3) Constantly reset my goals to match God's standards.
4) Concentrate on goals not problems.
5) Cause my faith to match the task.

I'm so guilty of procrastination, leaving stuff till the last minute. My mum just told me a few days ago to start getting the momentum before the next semester starts. And I told her, I've survived 13 odd years of academic life in procrastination. I shall resolve to buck up this coming sem and stop procrastinating, but enjoy my hols to the fullest first! =)

The 5th C reminded me of how I used to runaway from leading worship at Luona's cell last time, telling her 'no, no, no... I can't lead.' But when I joined Genacts, leading worship first fell into my hands as an expectation. I remember how I prayed, prayed and prayed really hard for the Spirit of God to just take over the entire worship session, cause I knew my own abilities could never match up with the task. It was really a challenge of my faith. But the Lord is faithful and so gracious. Now, leading worship is actually enjoyable. Praise the Lord.

Girls talk with Anna, was really interesting! We should have more of these in future. =) Lunched at Rocky Masters with the darlings Yvonne, Yiru, Crystal and Dione dione, after service.

Terrific Sunday out with cryssy dear after that! Didn't catch No Reservation due to terrible movie timings, so we ended up...... shopping! Crystal little miss chatterbox is a great shopping buddy! Being in good company works much much much better than retail therapy! I look sooo retarded in that pic!! Like I have a swollen eye or something..... Town again dear, after your exams! You never fail to put a smile on our faces. Glad to be able to destrreeesss with you today. Persevere for your exams! It's the final lap! Gambatte, girl!

Happy Birthday, Chong Loo Kit!

Although I have no idea where in the world you've disappeared to.

Jolly scrappy day...

Shir and Dione were over at my house since early in the morning. And I certainly had a jolly good time with them darlings baking the brownie and making the scrapbook for Yvonne.



Dione caught me in action. The process of putting the scraps together. It looked as if a tornado had just made it's way through my room, leaving me untouched. Oh yes, and my guitar too. Everything else was spewed all over the floor.



Here's the group shot with our masterpiece...

And of course, our heartfelt thanks to our beloved mentor!

Happy Mentos Day, mummy dear!

And not forgetting...

Happy Birthday, Owen!

Weekend, and thereafter, never the same again...

Encounter was great! God topped up my empty petrol tank and i'm able to go another extra mile again, yay! He is really so gracious and loving beyond imagination, that he would love a wretched person like me. Tears just filled my eyes when the crossing was video was played, although it was the countless times i have watched it. His faithfulness is indeed new every morning. And I believe at the encounter, He poured in me a new sense of joy and assurance that comes from Him and Him alone, it's unexplainable. Thank you my Lord, my Saviour, my Best Friend.

For those who have not been to encounter, men's encounter and power encounter is still up this year! Ladies, you'll have to wait a year's time for the next women's encounter. But you need not wait for encounter weekends to encounter God. His presence can be felt and experienced in our daily lives. His love knows no boundaries. All you need to do is to surrender your lives into His hands. There's no better place; knowing that your life is in total control.

Exclusively for the darlings...

Shirlyn Shirshir dear aka san lao aka my lovely twinee! Thanks for the wonderful company. You've been such an encourager, sister and friend. Your perseverance and love for God and people is so encouraging. Cant wait for thurs!! Loads of whipped cream for you. All the best for your ftt! =)

Yvonne thanks for always being there for us, praying, encouraging, and guiding us in the Word to be better children for our Big Daddy. You're a terrific mummy to have!

Dione you shall be our hor fun, since shir's san lao. Haha. You've been a wonderful sister-in-Christ. I've been very encouraged by your enthusiasm and strength. You've taught me the need to rely on Him despite the many struggles we'll face.

Yiru lulu, that's what they call you right? Keep smiling as wide as ever because we have our eternal source of joy as our Friend. May you be able to spread and share this joy and be a great blessing to your family and friends. =)

Michelle wen jie aka my roomie aka my wei ming! You left before we could take a pic! So much for xiang yi wei ming! Haha.. thanks for trying to expand my limited (this is an overstatement) vocabulary of chinese. Hope your chinese standard didn't get pulled down by me overnight. Heehee. You're a super dee duper nice roomie to have, to crap with, and God-sent sister. Encouraged by your passion and heart for the Lord. Continue practising the tongues. Oh yes! Thanks for dragging me out of bed so early in the morning...