I think whenever it's my turn to take the Sec 1 and 2 Sunday classes, I tend to go wild on the topics because first thing is that I'm not bound by what we are doing on Friday youth services, and second thing is that the other adult auntie uncle teachers don't really sit in much so that means the discussions get way more crazy. So last week was honouring your parents, and it was pretty much the best setting to air your dirtiest laundry about our parents. I love my parents a lot, and I'm sure all the youths do too, but every teen I know has just about something to say about the irritating things that their parents do that bugs them. And everything was just "mum keeps nagging" or "dad keeps scolding", with a strict confidentiality clause that we won't go telling on each other's parents after that haha, but was good in the end to tie it up with honouring and respecting them.

Today's even more wacko, because we finished last week's topic already, so I did something that I really wanted to address for a long time. We were talking about swearing and vulgarities, and I think it was probably the only time they didn't have to watch their language and we could be a bit liberal with the f- and s-words haha. There was this long list of words that we all deem are not so appropriate at certain settings, and I've got all the usual swear words up there (with the Hokkien varieties), but then Rebecca, bless her, came up with "meow" and "gee mama" as her worst swear/cuss words ever. Hahahaha okay next time I am tempted to curse in exclamation, I'm so gonna just meow out loud to myself, and it's going to be so ridiculous that the intention of it all is all lost, haha precisely the point. 

And, the triumph of it all. Because I missed sermon since I was at class, and for some reason everyone I met after service kept referring to what was preached during service which I have no clue about, frustrating max! I managed to obtain the sermon notes which my corps officer left behind on the pulpit, I'm assuming they don't really need it anymore because they kept their Bibles but didn't bring along the notes, for the past few weeks too. I'm like vociferously going through it to update myself, and it's great their notes are actual essay speech too. And most of the time I come across Col. Bob's notes too, if he's preaching, because he leaves a copy in the control room for the slides projection, and his notes are great too as it's all full sentences. Would be very different if it were my own notes; it will all be one-word point form. Hahaha fastest way to recap sermons, just keep the notes they leave behind. 

This is an effort to put more pictorial stuff into my blog rather than just chunks of words. Wanna share something that has been really baffling to me, cos recently I've been seeing these posters around at bus stops and MRT stations quite a bit. So the WWF tells me to save the chilli crab, but then they show me a picture of a shark??? And if you read the fine print it does not really elucidate the connection any further too! What has crabs got to do with sharks? Okay yeah sharks are the top predators of the food chain, and I can infer mostly that this probably has to do with the "no shark's fin" movement, but that doesn't license you to just put chilli crabs up there with sharks!! 

And then there's that last bit which says "You can help by texting 'shark' to 98889992 or pledging 'No to shark fin' at wwf.sg", so I decided to text and see what happens, like maybe they will send me more info or something, but nope nothing. Actually this was what I really did... (I waited 15 mins okay!)

Conclusion, this whole thing just does not make sense. My friend thinks that maybe sharks and crabs mate together or something. I hope that's not true.

Currently on a crusade trying to weed out unwanted emails from all my email accounts. It didn't really bother me previously until in recent months, mostly because my emails are pushed to the iPhone, and it becomes really annoying when I have buzzers and alerts for each of these junk emails which I just delete without hesitation. The biggest culprit is the NUS school emails! They give me notifiers from all sorts of departments unrelated to me and my course of study! There's mailers on economic decision surveys, reminders for me to observe traffic rules, invitation to lectures on philosophy and psychology and science discoveries, free workshops, they even tell me when the provost blogs his latest entry! It won't be so bad if my own geog or lit department spams me, because at least that is my immediate department. But why are other departments abusing the "all students" email group?? And who in the world is the provost and why must I read his blog??

And I have been emailing all of them with vituperation telling them to unsubscribe me from their notifiers. Of course in all likelihood they cannot do that, I'm sure they can't just delete me from the "all students" group. But it's worth a shot I think, and lets me vent my frustrations at unknown office admin personnel who thinks that everyone in NUS is interested in their activities. I think they have their own department websites and notice boards and pamphlets for all of these notifiers already, there's no need to further promulgate it through email.

The Gmail account is much simpler, I just need to unsubscribe and usually it's a simple process. And I have to say, Gmail spam detection and group labeling is a lifesaver. I don't have to sieve through unwanted spam at all. Ugh okay angsty. 

I've decided at the beginning of this year that I shall place more emphasis on birthdays this year! I think for the past two years I have routinely ignored everyone's birthdays, and I no longer spend the time and money to write people birthday cards and presents. Well, unless there is a huge group of people sharing for someone's particular present, or something equivalent. But I compensate for it by writing lengthy Christmas cards and spending more on gifts during year-end. And traditionally I have always went by the policy of "cell groups first", so those in my cell group I am more willing to splurge more on presents and go entirely verbose on their cards! Haha so for this year I will take more effort to remember people's birthdays, and I will actually bother to type out that short Facebook shout-out (cos usually I do not).

And for the more observant people around me, yes I am trying to get back into the habit of wearing a watch more frequently to be more socially adherent to being on time! The last time I actually wore a watch every day I'm out was when I was in primary school. I think my mum forced me to, but I stopped wearing because I hated the feeling of things trapped/wrapped around my wrists. This wrist entrapment is good because it is so annoying that I keep fidgeting with it so much, and in the process I check the time a lot more often than usual. Still hate the feeling of it on my wrists. And kudos to the very observant friends that I have. 

This is slightly overdue, but on Sunday I was down at Dunlop Street and Haji Lane with Charmaine, with the purpose of checking out this small ukulele shop. She wanted to get one, and I heard of this shop before and wanted to see if I can take my ukulele interest anywhere further. Have to confess that the only times I actually visit that area is during cultural excursions, and from the looks of it I will definitely go back again, with the film camera this time and explore all the indie shops. And it was great catching up with her too, small trivia goes that she was in my cell years and years ago. Yes I am that old, and been cell leader for too many cells. Old =(

In the midst of preparing for a presentation tomorrow morning. The group members and I discovered a new place to eat in school! One of them suggested to go to the University Cultural Centre for the meeting, and then out of nowhere there was this Alcove Asian restaurant which wasn't too bad. New place for lunch in school.

Finally received letter from Priya again, I think the letter got lost for three months because the translated copy was addressed to a Miss Siew! But Priya's original letter had my name on it, and I have no idea how the error happened haha. But as always, each time I receive a letter from her I am instantly reminded of Bangladesh. Wanna go again, but don't fancy the hot weather so much haha. 

I'm bowing to intense pressure for me to reduce the number of words for each entry in this blog. Everyone tells me one big chunk of words isn't appealing to read, so from now on (until I get sick of it) I will try to be more succinct, cut to the chase, and paragraph more. Hahaha I like many many words, and I always think words are free-of-charge for you to express yourself, so might as well use as much of the inherited language as possible. Until I write an actual book, I think that this blog is my verbal diarrhea of everything and anything, so hooray to words galore. Honestly I don't care if most people just go TL; DR. But apparently not the same vision for everyone, and already as it is I am using too many words to write this. Okay, shorter posts, I will strive for.

Today I had lunch with two girls from one of my literature class, and it's like a collision of planets because I have totally no idea what really goes on in the lit department. They are updating me about scandals and juicy news about profs and students and whatnot, really interesting because I'm in my geog nut most of the time. All my lit classes fall on Thursdays and Fridays this term, and it's great that I actually have company in the lectures now, after being alone for all my past lit classes that I can remember.

This self-imposed word limit is an agony. Is this short enough?!!

Three times this week my phone ran out of battery before I can get to a power socket to charge it. And when my phone is dead, I realised immediately how vulnerable and how inadequate I get. Haha yes I am using one of those smartphones which can do everything from messaging and emailing, to getting on Twitter/Facebook/Foursquare, to playing a tonne of games, to reading news, to checking bus arrival times, to endless scrolling on 9gag.com (the latest app addition, and in a way, addiction)... So many things that I do each day with my phone that when the batt goes flat, I am instantly put to halt every single one of these things. Maybe I should go get one of those portable chargers so that I have a back-up power. But in a sense it kinda forces the involuntary caveman out of me, because only then do I pay more attention to my surroundings rather than on my phone. I'm so used to endless scrolling of tweets/news/whatever else while travelling on the go, and when the said phone is out, I take out a book and read instead. Should try leaving my phone charger at home more often, and when the phone batt is flat means that it is flat. Which means I should conserve.

And I thank all the creators of Wikipedia this week, because of their indispensable repository of knowledge that is superbly adequate and an excellent starter for research. The moment the professor says "actor-network theory" or "cartesian dualism" or "Falkland island", I am instantly looking at the Wiki definition and I am capisce in three minutes. Honestly, I don't understand why universities and all education institutes worldwide can't learn to embrace availability of knowledge like this. Sure I know, it is not infallible truth and it is amateurish and it is not corroborated by leading experts worldwide, but surely they can all get together on Wikipedia and turn it into something that is layman and professional at the same time? What if all the professors in the world stop writing research papers and scholarly journal articles for a month, and spend time improving Wikipedia instead. Three-quarters of the stuff they write gets into expensive journals that cost a bomb for an individual subscription, and is never going to be readily accessible for the mass public.

Which goes without saying, that I am checking up what Wiki has to say on my phone. I can never check the academic journals as easily as Wiki is so accessible and easy to grasp. Knowledge needs to be shared and spread, not hoarded up and protected by a million by-laws in the guise of intellectual rights. 

I've kinda always held the view that Gong Cha is better than KOI, mainly for the selection of flavours available at Gong Cha. They're more palatable to me. But in mitigation I've gotta admit that the number of times that I've drank from KOI were far and few, mostly because Gong Cha is just as readily available haha. So it was with an extremely skeptical take when I purchased my second or third cup of KOI ever in my life? I was helping Celine get her KOI fix, and you should know too that both Celine and Si Xuan swear by KOI's green tea macchiato as the nicest drink you can get from there. And obviously I have not got so much as a taste or a whiff of it before. I don't even know what's a macchiato haha isn't that one of the espresso-coffee variants? Why is there green tea involved?!

Anyway, I got one for Celine and decided to try one for myself too. Okay it's like creamy milk with green tea taste I think, it's a weird mix but I guess it worked for them because you get a little bit of both worlds. But what really amazed me was that you need an instruction manual to learn how to drink it properly! My instruction manual this time is of course Celine. Instead of the usual bubble tea straws that you poke into the cup to get to the drink, to really appreciate the green tea mac you can't use a straw! They gave me these little plastic blades to slit a tiny opening, and you sip it like that. Definitely weird haha! According to Celine there are pictorial instructions at the store, but I didn't notice it. And I even stupidly went to get those straws cos I thought they forgot to give me! Turns out nope, the plastic blade is all you need.

But nope I'm still not a convert yet, I think I still prefer my Gong Cha haha. The milky flavours there are definitely more full-bodied and stronger, compared to the delicate green tea. Give me the in-your-face stuff more frequently. Hahaha my ramblings for today. 

A month and two or three days into the new year, and already I've made one of the biggest decisions in my undergraduate life at NUS. Finally decided to drop one of the Geog modules that I've sat in for about four weeks so far. It's a big decision because that would mean that I'm only taking four modules this semester, which means that next academic year I have to take one more module to replace this one. Usually people do five a semester so that it evens out. And what led to the decision to drop? I feel like I am literally rotting in class. The subject is environment sustainability, but so far the lectures that I've sat through has not even fully tackled the subject head on! Instead the prof is making us do assignments like "what is learning to you" and then making us sit through some career talk. Oh cmon please if I really want to know "what is learning to me" I would have gone for a primary school civics class, I wouldn't wait till university to find out.

And the strongest hindrances for me not to drop it were because there isn't much else that I can take in the Geog department! Everything I want to study I've already studied. Not to mention the additional one module for next term, when I can just fully focus on my honours modules. Moreover the group project members have already been allocated! Which meant that me dropping the module now probably put them in a huge fix because they now have to wait for the prof to assign them into new groups or something. Kinda feel bad, but nah my friend's right, I wouldn't stop complaining about the module until I actually drop it. By the way this was a huge impulse decision, I bumped into a friend that I met while I was in army, and then after listening to me for 2 minutes he made up my mind for me and basically dropped the module for me via the computer. Right on, that's what friends are for haha. This ranks just as high when I was deciding between English Language minor or English Studies or English Literature.

Anyway, with that over, wanna document this. I was one of the unwitting victims of an orientation group's truth or dare target. So I was sitting in the train with this huge group of young JC students who were obviously out on their OG outing, when all of a sudden one of the girls from the group suddenly came to sit beside me and started asking me do I know the importance of recycling. HAHAHA the greatest irony of it all. I told her I was Green Link president when I was in JC and I used to give hour-long talks on that subject alone. But it was cool, her OGL took a photo for us and they got off the station before me. Hahaha this is the kind of dares that I would give to people, had I been the cell leader or OGL! My JC orientation was like 6 or 7 years ago, but I know I've got the chops and I rah-rah enough to be the most shameless OGL ever. *CONFIDENT SHRUG AND SWAGGER*.

Okay kidding, I'm getting too old for these. I hope I looked good in that picture. 

I wanted to blog about last weekend much earlier than this, but haven't really got the time and the stillness to sit down and really do this. Anyway last Friday I was at the National Museum of Singapore for the Dreams & Reality art gallery exhibition! It was sort of a mandatory visit because I am taking this module about visual culture and this is like a field trip out into the artistic-literary wilderness. The art pieces are all from the Musee D'orsay, which I've been before the last time David and Yurong and I were up in Paris! But to be entirely truthful, I don't remember much of the art that we saw there, only the really major ones haha. I think we visited too many museums and it was art saturation and millions of dollars of art zooming above my head without me really being able to appreciate it. But anyway, back to the Singapore exhibit, at least this time round I was able to understand it more cohesively, mainly because there was a guided tour and then we had some pre-readings.

And consequently got to know school friends better! I think I've always felt very two-bit in my literature classes, even though that is my minor. At least in my geog modules I've done projects with quite a fair bit of people, so we know each other and see each other all the time in common classes. But for the lit modules, a lot of it is individual essays, and I feel like all the lit majors think I'm some geographical misfit haha! Heh but I actually hung out the entire Friday afternoon with Shiyun, who is more than an acquaintance now because I know her dad and have been to her house before (not to visit her) haha which really brings the world to a small oyster.

Led worship on Sunday. One of the few and rare times I got on stage, and will get on stage this year. Thankful for each opportunity to serve and be part of it. I think I am actually doing it with a much bigger sense and a more acute awareness of God now, which is really ironic because I was definitely putting more hours in the worship team last time. Which reminds me, I have one coming up again this Friday. 

The angry rant for tonight is about eateries who serve Lipton Tea. I like coffee very much, from those kopitiam ones to espresso-based ones and all, but sometimes I want an alternative and I turn to tea instead. And most places I've been to price a cup of tea at about $2++, which is okay with me largely, until I see that ubiquitous yellow label teabag. It is a huge ripoff really!! It is one teabag in a cup of hot water that does not take anything to prepare, unlike coffee where you actually need to do some work getting the milk in or whatever. Not to mention coffee beans are probably more expensive. Do you know for $2++ you can go to NTUC Fairprice and get a box of Lipton Tea with 25 teabags in it? And in the spirit of up-selling, a box of 100 teabags is about $5++, which is even more value for money.

So you need to understand the uproar that is going on here. Assuming I am an astute businessman and I get the 100 box at $5, and I price each cup of tea at $2.50, I will be making 4900% profit! Okay that is not taking into consideration rental costs and maintenance and utilities and everything else. But I think even when these add up the profit margin will still be outrageous, which is why I think I can just sit here and sell Lipton Tea by my window and make a killing. All I need to do is throw the teabag into hot water, $2 each, you're paying for the hot water and for the cup. I will be nasty and stingy, so additional $1 if you want sugar and creamer.

I mean, cmon, you wanna sell tea, at least give me more up-market alternative brands! Actually all teabag teas are not much different in price, but at least give me Boh or Dilmah or Twinings or something else, to get rid of that Lipton banal tripe. Nothing against Lipton, I drink Lipton at home sometimes too, but I am thinking that if you are at least some cafe priding yourself with tropical coffee beans imported locally, then at least go import some out-of-this-world teabag and dump it into your hot water. Heck, if you sell it at $4 I would still pay for it if I have never heard of that brand before! It's the business psychology thingy, but not a chance when you're selling Lipton. I might as well flask my own hot water from home and then put a teabag into a small container and drink when I want to anywhere.

Actually if I were to be fastidious about this, I'm sure it will eventually apply for all other things, from fried hokkien mee to everything I eat. Or items I buy. But teabag!!! In hot water!!! No effort to prepare it. No need for a doctorate degree to learn how to make teabag tea. Furious. 

So the main thing that became the highlight of last Friday's cell group was some of the young ones discovering for the first time what the word "sodomy" entails! I blame David fully for this hahaha! We are in the midst of a Bible study on Genesis now, and David mentioned how the city Sodom eventually contributed to formation of the word sodomy. Now of course the older ones would know what that means, but the difficult part was trying to quell the young ones' curiosity because the more you tell them not to Google it, the more their curiosity is piqued and are dying to know! And when Federic eventually found out he wouldn't let me hear the end of it. The whole night was just laughter hahaha all the time and he kept wondering (although I am wondering if he is even wondering) why Lot wanted to choose to head towards the city of Sodom! How do you handle situations like this?! Hahaha I really didn't have the heart to tell him how Lot's life will eventually get a lot more juicier after the destruction of Sodom!

Okay that aside, I am really enjoying all the Saturday mornings at Serangoon Gardens teaching guitar to a few young children. I genuinely feel as though each Saturday is like the descent into the French quarter! Getting a glimpse of what French expatriate families do in Singapore on weekends. And I officially declare that it is no longer a guitar tuition class anymore! That's because I think I am actually enjoying myself much more than the little ones that I am teaching! I've been covering songs from Michael Jackson to Bob Marley to Taylor Swift, and I feel as though me playing these songs are so cathartic for me and I can no longer pretend that I am detached from whatever music I might be teaching. Really enjoy the sessions with all my students,  in part due to the great songs/music that we play hahaha.  

Chinese New Year is coming! Dad is back from the Philippines for a week or so. But anyway CNY has never been crazy bustling and travelling for me, because we don't do much visiting and I don't think a lot of people visit us too. Have not been surviving very well on irregular sleep, some nights I sleep like 10~12 hours and other nights 3~4 are sufficient. And don't think that this is very beneficial for me, but I'm trying to impose some sense of order into my sleep patterns. 

Plunging into the deep pool-end of the second week of school now, and I can't wait for the summer holidays, which won't really begin till May, and I might as well just sit here and cry because school just barely started and already I am dreading the days I have to go to school! Haha I totally understand it now when the secondary school people start whinging and whining about how they love the holidays so much and they don't want school to start. Quite evidently, I have no idea how I even pulled through so many years of primary and secondary and JC education myself. Not much recollection of those times heh. 

And I've got my full timetable, earliest days are Tuesdays 9am, which I foresee a lot of problems trying to wake up for that class! Nope, the problem is not to be on time for it, it is to WAKE UP for it. I think I might just conveniently sleep through it and waking up much later like 10 or 11am and realising that the lesson is already half over. But I shall be optimistic and sleep early on Monday nights (which I am not doing now hahahaha) and be a good student. And apart from that, the other trivia is that I am taking my third module under Dr Gilbert Yeoh, which is even more than my Geography profs haha because Geog is so much more diverse and they have more teachers for everything else. But I am thankful that I chose Literature as my minor, because I get to read fiction books in an actual school term, and I have a legit "excuse" to read books. Although this is a huge price because finishing 5-7 novels in four months have never been possible for me and it's no wonder that I have never ever completed the full reading list for all my Lit modules. There's usually some room to skip one or two novels haha. 

Okay that said, I am trying my best to clock some mileage for the second half-marathon of my life. Registered for Sundown marathon last week and I am determined to improve my 3h11m time! 

Yes school has started, and for most parts of it I am still in my own dreamland haha I am trying to give myself a bit of buffer between holidays and the start of school. But obviously that is not theoretically possible without incurring some form of academic debt. Already I am ankle-deep in readings and assignments, and if I do not snap out of holiday mood soon enough, I will be spending the rest of the weeks sleepless again and playing catch-up while at the same time trying to complete every single assignment on time.

Have been running as many errands as I could too, for now that is. There were one or two parcels to send, and things to buy, and so many things to do and to settle before the term gets properly underway and then I will have no time to devote attention to it anymore. Time time time. This is all about time management. Perhaps one of the more alarming things I've done all week is squander away all my free time in school eating and sleeping and lazing around. Haha and this is quite substantial, considering I've had various 2-hour breaks and a 4-hour one today. But on another note, I've managed to sell away most of my old textbooks and notes! Young entrepreneur award for me. 

Kinda realized just that I have been travelling quite a fair bit all over Singapore in the past week, rather tired of going out of house all the time almost everyday but holidays are ending! Quite glad for the chance to get out and do something for the remnants of the holidays, wished that it was longer but of course it will not be. And I have gotten all the modules that I want for this semester, it is going to be crazy and mad hectic. Whoever I meet, please nag at me to study and finish all my readings and assignments on time! Am doing two modules with no exams, which means that the continual assessments are my only shot at the two modules. And I do aim to score well this semester! Have no idea how it will be done, what with my constant distractions from studying (which I gladly indulge in haha). 

But anyway, I'm happy for the many rests and breaks that I have, or at least I think I've had. Like SAY service last night I was vaguely scheduled to play/sing, but I was helping out with sound only and it is refreshing, because I'm usually on the stage for such occasions. It's a reminder to myself that I'm old and I need to let it go and give it to others. Heh probably the greatest satisfaction I get is people claiming how good the guitar/vocalist/whoever/whatever sounds, because I am indirectly part of the final sound output and I channel the compliment indirectly to myself. Hahaha but yeah I think I wanna go for courses on sound, have been doing rentals for a while now, but never was formally trained, and even though it kinda sounds good to me, I want to at least be doing the right professional things. 

And I'm continuing the meet-up with friends thingy, was out with a large group of people just now because Amelia is flying off to Sweden for studies exchange, and in the process Tammy is going back too. It's a proper catch-up with Tammy because she vaporized from my life and then distance and absence means kaput, so I seriously have no idea what is going on in her life now and she doesn't with mine too. 

Last thing before I call it a night. I am finished with the entire Twilight series, book 1 to book 4! Very big thank you to Si Xuan for lending me all the books and for motivating me to finish reading it. For the literature student in me I think the writing is soooo tween and I cannot handle such laconic simplicity in diction and practically no stylistic features at all, especially after I did Charles Dickens and Emily Bronte and many others last year. It's like huge declining drop haha. But okay the story is very exciting! AND AND AND. Given that I am not some hot-blooded girl into romance genre, I think I did pretty well heh the book is totally for teenage girls. To be honest I'm reading it so that it gives me a fragment of something tangible in that aspect to connect with girls that age, but not that Si Xuan is that kind she is weirded out that the characters have *** hahaha. But I think I need this exposure, mightily glad that I made it through even though I really rolled my eyes so many times in the process. 

So far the new year has not been heralded with much fanfare, there were no fireworks and no wheezing sparklers and no confetti. Rather, it's been rather lazy and laid-back, I am trying to read a lot of articles on the internet and read some books here and there and a lot of magazines. And I did have the opportunity to meet up with friends that I have not seen in a while! And in the process exploring new cafes that are quaint and homely and great places to chill. Yesterday was with Khairul, because he is flying to Paris next week for about 4 months and I had to pass him some of the guide books that I inherited from my last trip there. And he suggested Loysel's somewhere in Kallang, have never been there before but the coffee is great! Today was with Linus, whom I have to be dreadfully honest and declare that this is the first time I am meeting him in like 5 years I think, and prior to the meeting I thought he was going to try and sell me insurance or some MLM scheme, because he asked me out first! But nope, great catch-up at Group Therapy (on Dora's recommendation because she works there but wasn't in today), we couldn't run out of topics to talk about, and I am really glad that I took the efforts to travel out to meet him. Usually I would kinda just decline or claim that I'm busy, because I am not the best catch-up conversationalist, but I shall endeavour to try more and ask more long-time-no-see friends out. And yup it's been quite a while since my blog posts are only one paragraph long, although it is a rather long paragraph. So it ends right here. 

In the vein of thought for the annual end-of-year writing as I reflect for the past year! Usually I try to churn this out before the year ends, but kinda left it a wee bit late this year and I am writing this on the first day of  the new year 2012! Okay second day, because it is past midnight now and I have to observe the temporal technicalities. In any case, this year-end weekend has been the busiest by far of all the years, because I took on Friday service and Saturday watchnite service concurrently, and then somewhere in between there was a wedding rental, and the traditional stayover in church culminated with the tallest order possible: to stay awake throughout Sunday service the next day! The calendar for this year-end and year-beginning is not really in favour of church services haha because New Year is on Sunday and that means watchnite is curtailed. But youth watchnite went ahead!

And I am so mightily glad that everything went well this weekend and that I am really really sane and energetic in the times that I need to be energetic! In debt to the worship teams and to the leaders who assisted me. And somehow I think we should just do our own youth watchnites from now on haha, or just convert one Friday into watchnite testimonies, because the amount of thanksgiving and praises is really staggering. Really uplifting and encouraging to hear of all the good things and how God is always in the business of transforming people's lives and growing them for his sake.

And I've already compartmentalized it nicely into home and church, and rewriting it here even though I've already shared my testimony haha, this is for future years' references and also to reflect somemore! First category is home, which I have to say is a complete upheaval this year because of all the changes and activity. Most immediate and most recent is the house renovation! We decided to renovate the kitchen and toilets and then repaint the whole house and get new furniture about three months ago, and after spending time in a rented apartment and then having to endure all the shifting and packing and repacking, I am really glad that it is all dust-free now and I shifted my bed into the study room. And unpacking was the most annoying because they kinda just threw all my stuff into many boxes and I didn't know what was where and I never knew I had this many unnecessary things lying around. I'm going to be as zen as I can from now on and not hoard unnecessary things!

Biggest change to the family is that dad decided to quit his Sentosa job of many years and relocate to the Philippines to work there permanently. I can't quite imagine the amount of thought and deliberation that he probably went through to come to this decision, but just want to thank God that everything worked fine. It really forces me to appreciate my family even more, and with all the floods and storms and typhoons to the Philippines past few months, it really is a blessing my dad is safe and generally not so affected. My dad is officially now a trans-migrant worker, haha which is really weird because I study about it in geography in school and I never thought now that my family will one day fall trap into the migration patterns due to my dad's work and all. We sometimes do migration topics in our geog modules, and I sort of better understand now the strains of maintaining a long-distance relationship. The funniest was when my sister and my mum went overseas too, which meant I was home alone and four of us were in three different locations in the world and we were Facetiming each other at different times. Truly transnational haha.

On the church front, I am still doing what I am doing with the Sec 1 and 2s, which to me is still as much a rewarding process as it was when I first started. Cannot really believe that it is my fourth year now, and quite literally watching some of the first few people whom I first took on now graduated from secondary school and no longer quite the same as when I first knew them. Haha and this year is significant, because it was the start of new cell groups! Previously it really felt like it was just adding on and on, each year bringing more people and then they all burgeon and nobody ever really leaves. This year was one where I could start everything fresh, and with Tim and Meng Ren coming along, with Jolene, all of whom have been beyond wonderful and beyond amazing. Owe it all to them, and I really would not have achieved anything without their help. Cell group is always something that I treasure above my other ministries in church, and I am really glad for all the opportunities to minister to them and be their friend. Amazed at how God has placed me headlong into this, and really thankful that it is making a difference! I can quite literally go at length for each cell member and how it is such a honour and a privilege to be a part of their lives, and it is a different story for each one of them and mere words can't quite do it justice.

Once again grateful for the many other opportunities to serve in other areas too, like sharing short messages or mini-sermons, Gracehaven, worship leading, camps, logistics... List can go on quite endlessly but I believe the work is never completed, and that is why there is always work and more work, too many things to do before Christ comes again haha. In particular, for my Malaysian trips this year, which is not my first time but is still just as strong a conviction that Salvation Army is really doing something right. The children homes in Malaysia is really very different from Gracehaven in Singapore, and each time I meet those friends that I've made over the years, I am astounded by their faith and their unwavering passion. I've got more people I know from different parts of Malaysia now, haha can't wait for the next opportunity to go up and catch up with them again. Thank God for the anointing too each time I take to the stage for worship leading, or to preach, and am eternally grateful for the chance to lead each time. And thank God too for new gifts, for developing me so suddenly in the aspect of mercy seat ministering, and also for my first forays into Sunday School and children's ministry!

All in all 2011 has been a really blessed year, and I think this post has been long enough, and I am sleepy enough too. Need to get enough rest to recuperate from the after-effects of staying over at church. Okay this is as abrupt as it can be, but I need sleep and I need it now. 

A snap decision and a really foolhardy endeavour led me to take care of all aspects of the youth service tonight! From leading worship to sharing message and the prayer sessions and everything. Usually I try to do just one thing and not take up any other things, because it has usually been disastrous past few attempts because I cannot sustain that level of energy to focus on more than one major thing haha. But tonight was good, so thankful that I pulled through everything without muddling anything up and that I was still coherent and sane enough towards the end! Thankful for as many as three different lozenges from different sources that helped my throat, grateful for the encouragements, and so eternally in debt to the wonderful worship team that made all the difficult songs sound easy on one seamless try.

Right before today's service, there was a 2-day worship ministry retreat which just about took out all the energy from everyone, which made tonight's service an even more herculean effort for everyone involved. According to Cheryl it's the first time we've ever had a retreat on this scale where there are group practices and instrument sectionals and Bible studies for a full two days. But what strikes me more is how the next-generation band is so compelling and so skilled! Remarkably, a lot of them are still beginners and still undergoing lessons, and it is really amazing to listen to them put together a song decently. And I think I've officially reached my sell-by date in youth worship team haha, everything is taken care of by the younger leaders and I am only hanging around at the retreat because I'm trying to find something to do, like oven-heat pizzas for lunch and praying for them and guiding guitars when they're probably more capable than they think they are.

All in all, past week has been absolutely great, and really thankful for all the opportunities to reach out and make a difference somewhere. 

So Christmas came and left, and this time it was right smack in the weekends! Which meant that there were more engagements, more parties to attend, more stuff to do. Haha I speak as if I was planning a tonne of activities for Christmas, but nope! This Christmas was really just relax and enjoy and attend and soak in all the peace and joy. Partly because I was having reservist right up to Christmas, which meant that I eschewed away from a lot of things haha. And really, this weekend has been one of the better Christmases that I remember of, maybe I need to do this more often heh take more breaks. There's caroling this year, we went down to Beo Crescent one-room flats to sing and deliver food parcels to them, which is always easily one of the more meaningful things to do for me because it really is getting down and dirty to the ground. It is one thing to go visit all the families I know from church and sing carols at their gatherings, but I can't think of any other more purposeful reason than to bring Christmas into people less fortunate than us. Haha and there were parties and gatherings here and there, which kinda completed the many activities over Christmas.

But one thing kinda remains the same every year, I think. After Christmas service in the morning, we have the usual gift exchanges flurry and everyone goes around being Santa and receiving presents from another Santa at the same time. And after all that has been completed, we always always always struggle to find things to do! Going home seemed quite inappropriate given that it's Christmas, but going out to hang out runs out of ideas after a while because there quite simply isn't anything much to do haha. One of the great mysteries of Christmas afternoon, that it is always so bleh.

I have a few days before I need to start bidding for my modules for next year's new semester, and I'm making the most of it by going out and trying to do as many things I can in the mean time before I'm trapped by the school cycle again, really not looking forward to readings and assignments and essays and presentations again! Feeling as if the holidays weren't long enough, and rightly so because there was reservist. Haha oh well will make do! 

So the sudden random activity for the night is to head down all the way to Changi airport to welcome the return of Joelynn, whose birthday also happened to be today! She was away in Thailand for a church mission trip, and a group of us decided to surprise her with an unexpected audience at the arrival gates and sing happy birthday for her. Then somehow along the way, we discovered that Meng Ren and his family was arriving back from Turkey tonight too! He told me he will only be back on the 23rd but it obviously turned out much earlier. And both the flights were like about 15 minutes apart from each other, and a few gates in between. Which meant that it was absolutely convenient for us to hop over from one arrival gate to another in a flash.

Other news include the many breaking-downs of the MRT system! I have not been affected much perfectly, but I do notice that it does take slightly longer travelling times due to the slow speed. More importantly, I am very upset at the way SMRT handles the whole debacle! You can't just "sorry" after everything has already happened, and then advising people to take alternative transport has got to be the most ludicrous joke. So we are all to find rocket boosters, or we need to grow wings, or we need to travel on horses and cows. Their PR skills are really very very poor, and don't see how this justifies the fare increases we always have to pay.

Okay, time to get to bed.