Thursday, December 28, 2006

I don't want a lot for Christmas

There is just one thing I need
I don't care about the presents
Underneath the Christmas tree
I just want You for my own
More than You could ever know
Make my dream come true
All I want for Christmas.. is You
You, Jesus - You

That's the song that sticks in my mind every Christmas season, when preparing stuff for the services, helping out during service itself, and keeping up the aftermath of the services seems to occupy my days from beginning to end. So much so that the general feeling is that there is no "Christmas Mood" until Christmas is actually over! Heh! Standing on the feet for 12 hours a day or more, running multiple times across the length and breadth of Hall 8, doing everything by light-stick light, torch light and candle- light as Hall 8 was plunged into complete darkness. Bulletin making, candle poking (Hahahaha Rachel what a term!), stuffing the candles into bags, bag distribution, goodie bags distribution, cleaning chairs, clearing chairs, moving chairs, scraping the wax "droppings" off the chairs with ice-cream sticks, recycling, frenetically producing a few thousand more bulletins and candles as the attendance for the last service exceeded anyone's expectations.. All these were worth it. Like Meng Ching so aptly wrote, the best Christmas gift is knowing that you have made a difference to someone else's Christmas. No matter how small or menial the task given, it is where God has placed you and enabled you to impact others. Amen!

And so, we HAVE made a difference - to the 45,333 people that came and were blessed by the presence of God in all the services over the weekend. We have stood together with our Pastor and helped his dream and vision of 40,000 people this Christmas come to pass. Indeed God rewards all our faithfulness, hey! =)

I must admire all the leaders and ushers who served willingly and enthusiastically from Friday till Monday. Longest weekend ever, hey? It was obvious that you guys were physically tired by Sunday, but yet you kept the joy of the Lord as your strength and continued to serve humbly and with your best effort and saw the weekend through. I must say, 4S5 guys would definitely have got a good upper body workout this weekend.. with doing Internal Traffic for 3 services (ie moving close to 3000 chairs around the hall.. woo). Yet not once did I hear anyone complaining. Kudos to my great section!

Appreciating all those who gave me gifts this Christmas (i'll try to remember and describe correctly.. Digicam is on the blink!)
- Goong-inspired rich jewel-purple-hued jacket with flower patterns and gold trim, in a faux suede material from Gary
- DKNY watch and Teachers' perpetual calendar from my parents
- Purple (hee! purple!!) clutch with intricate lace designs from Rachel
- Glam oriental-inspired jewel-blue drop earrings from Jingxuan
- Sweet baby blue floral design earrings from Jing
- A multicoloured pencil from Cheewei.. I think it can write in all 7 colours of the rainbow at one shot but 我舍不得 to try
- An extremely cute teddy bear from Natalie (Boy if you guys could see my school desk.. It is overwhelmed with soft toys!)
- A dog with a difference.. The dog comes as a handphone holder! Haha! You have to see it to see how cute it is.. from Sabrina!
- my Stila concealer (yay) from Raine
- Faceshop eyeshadow in a very nice olive green from Jade
- A pair of super-kuniang purple shoes (high heeled, closed-toes, faux suede material with ribbons and crystals) that I love a lot but must think of how to match! Hee! PLUS a diamante-studded gold ring that I once pointed out that I liked but did not have the chance to buy (Thanks for remembering, Juan, Hui Erl, and Beatrice!)
- Oriental-inspired necklace and immense multicoloured glass ring from Roger (with help from Lynn hehe)
- A beautiful Japanese-kimono inspired handphone pouch from Kokon Tozai from Joseph the original prototype
- Glam-queen style gold and silver inlaid mirror from Belinda
- a The Dog 2007 organizer from Meng Ching and Juliana
- a perpetual organzier in non-recognizable-but-still-very-cute -cartoon-patterns, PLUS a butterfly iron-on patch AND a pair of really unique bamboo?rattan?wood? earrings from Meizhen
- two raisin muffins from Charmaine (boy you can bake, girl! Section refreshments confirm 找你了!)
- a box of dark chocolate (yum) coated almonds (yumyum) from Jeffrey the pillar
- A glass angel holding my name, Joy on it (This is bad.. I can't remember who its' from!!!! Tag me please if its you!!! SORRY!!! Update: From Jayme! Thanks!!)
- Chunky black bead bracelets from Judith
- Orange beaded long necklace from someone (OK, also bad, but this is not my fault for not knowing who its from.. it just appeared on my table)
- Another(?) 2007 organizer from Tiffany.. Question mark as I'm not sure if it is or not.. Haven't seen the gift yet
- Some scrapbooky thing from Keqing (also have not seen it yet!)
- a bag from Youmei and Esther.. Will update on the description when it arrives, according to YM its "lost in transit".. Haha!
- Loads of handwritten heartfelt cards from people too numerous to count. Thanks guys!
- Two Ed Hardy teeshirts! From myself! Hehe!

Such a long list.. I am so blessed without even knowing it! woo!

Post Christmas, I am also so very blessed by the "service" of my loved ones. Mother has been cooking up a storm to nourish her exhausted and sick daughter.. Storm includes roast beef, potato salad, mushroom soup, pear and almond soup, konnyaku jelly, chunky vegetable soup, beehoon, macaroni salad.. Teehee! yummy!

Also had a blessing for dinner last night at Pearl River Restaurant at Suntec City, which is very worth it for Chinese banquet-dinner style food! They have an ala-carte buffet concept where you pay a fixed price and you can order as many dishes off their ala-carte menu as you want. The menu is extensive and the food is good. I think we ate our way through close to fifteen courses..
- Steamed fish
- Deep fried fish in sweet and sour sauce
- Broccoli with crab meat
- Spinach with abalone mushrooms
- Fresh shitake mushrooms in oyster sauce
- Buddha jumps over the wall
- Fish maw soup
- Roast pork cold dish
- Chicken in claypot
- Beef cubes fried with celery
- Beijing duck
- 三层肉 (don't know the english translation)
- Drunken prawns
- Oat prawns
- Mango, durian puddings, 龟龄膏, red bean pancake, mango sago etc for dessert.

And we ordered barely 1/5 of the menu! Solid right!! So next time you want to pig out on Chinese food, you can give this place a try. Should go with a large group of people though, cos the dishes come in pretty large portions.

Yumm.. And so we look forwards to the new year of 2007. Time to start thinking, planning, and preparing. Time to (oh no!!!) go back to school. May 2007 be our best year yet!


Update: I got blessed at CG too! A Tangs voucher from my CGL, dearest Xueling, as well a stunning Body Shop Cranberry giftset from Jeffrey and Cindy.
Story of the Body Shop giftset: We did gift exchange this year, and we were supposed to specify a gift we wanted for below $20. I chose a Cranberry lip balm (which costs $8+). So imagine my surprise when I went for cell group thanksgiving yesterday and saw a huge paper bag with my name on it! When I opened it, I saw NOT JUST the Cranberry lip balm, but it also had body butter, shimmer body lotion, and soap! Whee! Apparently when they tried to go and buy the lip balm, they found it was sold out, so decided to get me the whole gift set instead. It must have cost more than 30 bucks! Wow! I am so blessed!

Monday, December 18, 2006

Love comes in fluffy forms




Indulgences

Just when I need to lose weight the most, its the festive season and mouthwatering food pops up everywhere in delightful combinations. All my fats are rooting for MORE members of their community to join them so they can ovewhelm, by sheer majority, the rest of my body and subsume me in fatness for the rest of my life. Argh.

Its also the time of the year when it rains intermittently throughout the day and the windchill factor is enough to make you shiver, especially on the 23rd floor of an unblocked HDB apartment building in ulu Yew Tee. That only contributes to the poshnosh-wishings.. Sigh...

All I want for Christmas (Dinner!) is...

1. Original Sin
Blk 43 #01-62 Jalan Merah Saga Holland Village (Chip Bee Gardens)
Vegetarian food at its best. Tofu burgers, wraps, hummus dips and mushroomsOMGmushrooms.


2. Le P'tit Breton
200 Upper Thomson Road, 01-11A, Thomson Imperial Court
The best crepes you can possibly find in Singapore. The flavours are so intense its scary.

3. PS.Cafe
28b Harding Rd

Imagine eating fudgy chocolate cakes as tall as my face in the glass-paned interior while watching the dappled sunlight sift through the trees. Need a car to get there though - its way inside Duxton Road.

4. Cafe Les Amis
Visitors Center, Botanic Gardens, Cluny Road

Experience Les Amis on the cheap, I say. The food at Cafe Les Amis is good, comes in mountains of portions and the setting in Botanic Gardens is beautiful.

5. Ichiban Boshi

Forget Sakae when it comes to conveyor-belt sushi. Fresher, cheaper, more flavourful and a larger variety to boot.

Sigh.. Food glorious food..

Monday, December 11, 2006

1.47 am

and I am NOT TIRED.

Whoohoo.

Either I am officially mad or I am regressing into youthfulness from hanging with my section too often..

back to the admin work.. boo!

Saturday, December 09, 2006

Wherein a long unbroken monotony of words is uninterrupted by pictures

UPDATE!!
Photolog can now officially begin cos I've managed to rip photos off Rachel! hehe.
here goes/// pics are jus inserted in between the diagrams
(whee)
___________________________________________________

.. because my digicam is spoilt.
Boo!

*fanfare* Electronically Suay Chronicles Episode Two! Our heroine strikes back against EVIL white lines that mar the display of her digicam and cause her to be unable to document two whole fun-filled days at the 4S5 Chalet! Will the White-Line issue be resolved soon? Is it as simple as it seems? Stay tuned to find out!

Yes, there are real white lines on the display.
No, I did not spill liquid paper or french manicure white on it.

This is the second time typing this post, because my laptop SHUT DOWN!!! previously just as I was through with describing oh, one-third of the 4S5 chalet?? Bah to evil computers! (Ah, sneaky insidious creatures, they form Episode Three of the ESC.. Of course they would have to shut down, or else your erstwhile heroine would be out of work and we wouldn't want that would we?? We all know that huiming's "job" as a teacher is just a masquerade.. The REAL part of her life is in Battling Evil Electronics!)

Erms, yes. Nevermind! Deep breath! Announcing the arrival of the long-awaited blog post on *drumroll* the 4S5 CHalet!!
Have you guys yet noticed the marvellousness of the timing? 4S5 chalet on 4 and 5 December! Am I brilliant or what? *hopping around excitedly*

Oh right. No one else is as excited as me about the wonderful, amazing coincidence of dates. Harrumphs.


Day One!
I had to get up at 6freaking30AM to pass my car to Yongquan! Sigh. Poor old Nissan Sunny (not to mention poor Yongquan) had to HDB-hop around Singapore, fetching people and things for the games. It was a stretch of my car's capacity. =) Thanks to all you who wake up so early and prepare so many things for the day! Rachel, Ray, Natalie and XiaoEn!

After passing the car to YQ, I went to Yew Tee to buy stuff (yes! Oolong tea!) courtesy of ahemchaoturtlealanahem who assured me that the NTUC opened at 7am. Pooey! It opens at 8am!!!!! So I joined the brigade of aunties and uncles milling around the supermart waiting for it to open. I tell you, Singaporeans are fantastic. So Kiasu! No queue, also must fight to go in. No need to rush off to work, still must kan-cheongly cheong into the supermarket like two minutes makes a difference. Sigh.

Oh and when I finally *Very Gingerly* got my paws on Alan's Humongous Honda Airwave (AHHA! hahaha! WHat an acronym!).. Guess what.. I got lost! Goodness! How far was the distance, you ask? From the Airport.. TO... Pasir Ris. (Chorus: Kwa Kwa Kwa, please.) Yes, in that short stretch of like, 5km or so, I managed to get myself lost. After getting intimately acquainted with Tampines and Loyang, I reached White Sands to find to my immense relief that my propensity for getting lost does not outweigh my section's propensity for being late. We breakfasted at Macs, we unhealthy ones, before finally proceeding to Pasir Ris Park to begin the day's games.

Xiao En and me hiding behind a tree while waiting for the other teams to arrive

We started off with a game of Minesweeper. This is truly a strategy game where the team must cross over a minefield in order to reach the opposite side. Its both about attack and defense. At first I thought the small minefield would be peanuts to cross, but it was actually very challenging. And I really admire the opposing team captain's brains in strategizing. Apparently all the rarefied air at his altitude hasn't done TOO much damage to his brains (ahemjeffreyahem).

The battlefield

Strategies fly thick and fast

There were other games at the shelter station (the dog and bone? and the kick-the-ball-AKA-goodness-knows-what-this-is-called) before proceeding on to the Amazing race segment. The clues for the amazing race segment were jus right - not too difficult and not too easy, the preparation was well-thought-out, the timing was kept to well. We were kept busy and bustling from Pasir Ris Park to Downtown East to Costa Sands and Wild Wild Wet. Both teams were often neck to neck in the competition. Amazing race ended up with both teams arriving at the foodcourt for lunch (Haha! Good planning!) after a good one hour plus of running around the whole of the area. I must say, Vanessa is fantastic, she has such good knowledge of the whole resort and such good direction sense. Follow Van = cannot go wrong!

The before-math of the sabo

The AFTERmath (After chili, flour and vinegar...err!)

Save us

After lunch, there was a rather interesting segment called Picture Lu Kou. We were to find and take pictures of items starting with letters. The first item was the biggest problem - Nike shoes! Not a shop in Downtown East sold the silly shoes! So Genevieve and Charmaine charmed a passer-by into taking off his shoes to pose with us. Hehe. Who wouldn't take off his shoes for a pair of pretty girls..

Picture Lu-Kou-ing

Final roundup of the games was the Flag game. Oh boy, super confusing.. And the loser has got to fish out little strips of paper from a tank filled with seawater, vinegar and raw eggs! WITH THEIR MOUTH! Ugh! I kenna'ed the fishing thing and it was soooooo yucky.


The Flag game

The water USED to be clear

Its obviously not so now.. eek!

What can I say about the day. The weather was perfect - sunny but not stifling, the games were creative and brought about exactly the right amount of participation from the teams who played, the forfeits were gross but yet still doable, courtesy of the theatrics of Nat and Ray. Welldone all of us! -clapclap!-

The BBQ!
After that, we commenced our BBQ. Rachel, your estimation is fantastic, we had jus the correct amount of food.. Everybody ate till they were full and we had jus a little bit left. So we bought like 105% of the food that was required! And we fit it into our budget! Praise the Lord!
I learnt so much about BBQ skills that night.. Haha.. Like putting an aluminium tray at the side of the pit to fry crabsticks and fishballs in.. makes them hot without making them chao-da. Barbecued roti prata is also very nice! Yum! And the chicken wings bought were so good.. They are so huge that one chicken wing is big enough to make most people feel full. Mighty chickens!


Eating and cooking makes 4S5 a happy bunch

Jayme, Charmaine and Rachel

Programmes for the BBQ included dramas by both teams (Erms, what did you think the fishing out paper strips was for!) The 2 teams had to string together whatever words they fished out into a coherent drama. Super nonsensical! But super funny!

Then, there was a performance by Jeff and Kenneth. Oh dear. The 2 of them are super Buay Hiau Bai! Seriously Buay Pai Say! But also veryvery funny! The mere sight of the 2 of them just makes me laugh. Yongquan is also in the "funny" gang but fortunately, he did not sing! Heng ah!

Don't sing! Argh!

And then, touching moment of the night (aww) 4S5 sang a song for me! Erms, it was 老鼠爱大米 which got transliterated to 4s5爱慧明. Hmm, 你们是老鼠吗?那我就是猫。。猫才可以对老鼠凶! Hehe. So sweet! I found out you guys practiced it while "bluffing" me that I and Rachel had to go and move things into the chalet. Humph! No wonder I thought "what an un-chivalrous group of guys!" Cheh.. No you guys (and gals) are not unchivalrous! You're all so sweet! (melts into puddle) AND, after the song, I got a lovely bouquet of red gerberas and a gift pack from Body Shop. THANK YOU 4S5! 谢谢你们. A leader can never be great without great followers, its you guys who make me who I am today. And thanks Rachel and Xiao En for painstakingly making the pens.. Every single 4S5 pen is a treasure I am sure each of us will keep for a long long time!
Ps. Gerberas are my favourite flower, along with sunflowers. I wonder where you got the information from? Hehe..

Richie came! Along with Grace. Woo.. They heard THE SONG (paisay!) and hung around for about an hour or so, chit chatting with the ushers. Thanks for coming! =)

The aftermath
I have forgotten the energy of youth it seems, young people who can stay awake till 3 or 4am just talking, playing guitar and playing cards. In the immortal words of Erica, "Who comes to chalet to sleep?" And so sleep we did not. I was one of the first to concuss at 4plus am while the others were still out at Katong for supper. And apparently you guys continued playing till 7am! Siao bo. I am old already lah. And no wonder it was so difficult to rouse all of you from slumber at 8am!

8am-10am Dragging the people out of bed, chivvying them into the toilet, to eat breakfast, and to pack up.
10am - Returned the chalet keys and adjourned to Pasir Ris park.
10am-1pm - Sat in Pasir Ris park, continued to play games, guitar and 吹海风. Thats when I stepped on my satay stick (haha!) As retribution for our having cannibalized so many of their kind last night, the satays took revenge by attacking me (humph!)
1pm - Lunched and I went home.

Apparently the rest of the people continued hanging around at Escape and East Coast before finally making it to dinner and then going home at 8plus pm. Wow and all that on just one hour of sleep. You guys are truly amazing!



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Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Chalet-ed:

4S5 chalet!
Is over!
And was great fun!

Hehe.

No pictures of my own cos my cam's on the blink, but heyy, we had an excellent photographer (Rac!) who ensured that every single moment was captured.

Will post more when the pictures are up.. and then it'll be a superlong photolog.. teehee.

Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Everyman's New Dosage of Engrish!

Hello, are you feeling well today?
Should be a hit among students..

Your daily motivational motto
(found in a train station in Japan)

I love the part about "we edit the manual carefully". Gosh how do people ever understand such instructions?

OMG! Aunt Geraldine! Are you in there? Can you hear me???
(Taiwanese food)

Woo lets try and see if we dissolve into blood streams

Times are tough eh.. I guess the floor is unemployed and the window is on strike?

I shudder to think of the translation services available in Taiwan.
TASTES!!!!!! Argh!!!

Too funny. Imagine the service list..
1. Blow Dry Job
2. Sperm your hair

That Ham has rejection issues!

Erm, a little bit too much information.

From engrish.com

Saturday, November 25, 2006

Magical Urbanism >> The Architecture of Density


Link here
. Defly a new fave site. =)

versus Ming's own attempt on a 2004 HK jaunt:


This comment struck me:
"it appears as though we are meant to believe that these buildings stretch inifintely towards the sky, but somewhere up there, way at the top floor, is a person whose bedroom window looks out over the entire world."

I'd love to have such a window.

Thursday, November 23, 2006

New addition to the wishlist:

A pair of satiny ivory- or creamy-white 3-inch wedges, with simple clean lines. Decor with a small amount of lace, pearls or diamante.

I speak as if I've met the pair of shoes before, but no I haven't. But if you happen to see, please tell meeee!!!!

(muacks)

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Introducing your favourite new series: ESC!

How electronically-suay, -disadvantaged, -unlucky and -kiam chye-mia CAN one person get??

Meet Wang Hui Ming(TM), heroine of the Electronically Suay Chronicles (ESC). Watch her as she battles non-existent internet access, unpredictable power outages (perhaps MORE times than ANYONE ELSE IN SINGAPORE), and mysterious auto-offing handphones. Will the the combined power of the Evil Electronic Devices triumph??

Or will our heroine succeed through all the adversity and ESCape from it all?

Watch and See!

(written in a pique of frustration against malfunctioning water heaters, burnt-out modems, and sloppily constructed sliding handphones. And yes, my toilet runs cold water now, and my home internet access does not work. Any more fan mail?)

Sunday, November 19, 2006

The Group 4 Breakfastclub

We had a breakfast bash this morning at Expo before duty. Should have taken photos but boo, my digicam's on the blink. S0 anyhow, we group 4 ushers enjoyed a sumptuous breakfast with beehoon, fried "liao" for the beehoon like nuggets, sausages, luncheon meat and eggs, potato salad contributed by ahemyourstrulyahem, chocolate chip *experimental* cookies, some cakes and hot drinks. Yummy..

But even better than the food, was the fellowship. Rare that we see an entire group's worth of ushers gathering around, sitting, chatting and enjoying each others' company. Most of the time, ministry often about work, work, work and many would have the impression that Usher is just a work-oriented ministry. But we are also a FUN ministry with great people! hehe.

I saw sabie taking photos with her trusty phonecam though! Hmm.. Should see pictures of the bash (or well, at least the food) on her blog soon.

Thinking of ways to name the "breakfast bash" and help it achieve iconic cult status among the UM. Mm.
- Group 4 Breakfastclub?
- Eat's My Party? (woo sounds so contrived)
- Any ideas, all?

this post also published at the sectionblog

Wednesday, November 15, 2006

Tough

When the going gets tough, the tough go bimbotic.

=)

I bought a purple (yes! purple!) handphone cover from a singlet-wearing ahbeng at yew tee. And I've covered it in nail polish, crystals, nail stickers and made it look oh-so-kuniang. Heh. Minds me of some carribean summer. And looks like the kind of blogskin I'd love to be able to create in photoshop. Skin phones then, if I can't skin blogs properly..

And I made chocolate chip cookies! Whee! Though they look more like misshapen, dirty plates, I'm sure those I made them for will love my cookies.

AND I spent hours tweaking my 4S5 blogskin! Heh. Its got all sorts of cool effects like matrix text, image fades, and custom-made buttons now, courtesy of dynamicdrive, so VISIT, and 4S5, BLOG!

Woo.. Bimboticity..

___________________________________________
Update:
OMG I BROKE THE SLIDER MECHANISM WHILE TRYING TO SLIDE THE BIMBO PURPLE COVER IN.
OMG OMG OMG.
Anyone knows how to save my Nokia 6280???

Now the *bldy* phone, with all its crystals and stickers, is being held together by a rubber band. Sigh. So much for glamming it up.

Sms to G: I can't believe it! I broke my phone.. Literally broke the sliding mechanism! Argh! Stupid nokia.

The start of his reply had me LOL-ing: Aiyoh.. why you so strong?..

Why, indeed. Sheesh.

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Publicity:

: the 4S5 blog is up.

Improvements still to be made but do drop by and tag.

For invites to the blog, ask pp like Rachel and OMC. Not sure if those without a blogger account can get in though.

Have fun!

UPDATES:
BLOGGER BL**DY BETA will not accept my template! Even though it works FINE in blogger normal.
And I can't switch back to Blogger normal, because Blogger only accepts signups in Beta now.
And guess what, when you sign in to Blogger in Beta, you get logged out of any other gmail accounts.
How ridiculous is this.
I shall find a way around the problem.. For the meantime the template lives on, partially, at my testblog.
Boo.

Friday, November 10, 2006

A small part of me died today - a corner of my world spun to a standstill and crashed.

Where have I gone wrong that even my most basic intents are not understood?

Perhaps it is not fit - I am not fit - I should give it all up.

God, help me.

Thursday, November 09, 2006

Imitation

.. is the sincerest form of flattery.

Bored with writing next year's lecture notes, I turn to blogsurfing for inspiration.

Presenting short snippets on the freaking-ridiculous-weather written in the style of:

Timmortal
The rain whips down on leaded panes and melts my soul into puddles that drain into the sewers. I stare out into the grey and it strikes me that the rain, at least, has constancy. I want to step out into the rain and feel it wash my thoughts, my mind, my heart clean.

Raine
It's raining. Argh!
Shall finish my work and get out of here..
(this post published at 9.38pm)

Kenny Sia
It is raining.

I am driving in the rain.
Mumble.

Ah Law
Aiyo y the rain. Stupid me nv bring umbrella.
i gtg or else late for cg liao. Sian the rain.

Juan
Hmm it's raining again today. It has been raining in the afternoon for the past few days! Fortunately, my nice colleague Mr X. has offered to drive me to school so that I will not fall sick. Hmm shall make sure that Mr X. will get to eat my next batch of cookies.

Hermione-Liyi
... raining... yupp.. is like how i am feeling now.. lightning.. thunders.. reminded me of the days past..
but there will be sunshine after the rain.. yes.. holding on to God's promise.. rain.. or thunder.. or lightnins.. wouldn't last forever..

Roger
When I looked out into the rain, I saw..
(insert cheeminology here)
So what does raining mean to you?

Wednesday, November 08, 2006

The holidays sap me of energy... the absence of normal routine, the I-can-do-what-I-like-whenever-I-like-because-I-have-no-fixed-deadlines mentality starts to seep in and I find myself more unproductive than ever before. Bah.
Or perhaps its just the flu I've caught that makes me want to slack, sleep and generally spend the day in idleness.

Boo! I have so much more time, but yet so much less gets done. To the the extent I can't even be bothered to blog.

Sheesh. So here goes for a longlong series of updates, should blog while I have the energy and outrage to.

________________________________________

Hackers and Viruses et al get more and more inventive lately. I opened my email this morning to a slight panic as I saw a message from some "circuitcity.com" place that claimed I had bought a Sony VAIO to the tune of 2000plus dollars. One of those hoaxes again, I assume. My slight panic turned fullblown as I googled the sending address and found that there was a genuine internet electronics company by such a name. Oh dear.

But suspiciously enough, the email contained no credit card details nor sending details. Just genuine looking enough, but just generic enough that the same email could have been sent to anyone in the world and it could probably have elicited the same response. And it had the (very convenient!) disclaimer that
"Please do not reply as this email was sent from our automated confirmation system."
Smells very fishy to me.

I emailed circuitcity.com telling them of my suspicions and am now awaiting their reply.

________________________________________

The past few days have been completely dreary, with the weather turning threatening in the early afternoon and clearing up to a drenched twilight. How helpfully cheerful to someone stuck at home for the next month or so. Bah.

________________________________________

On the bright side, christmas shopping has started! Woohoo! I have a longer list than ever to look out for this year, so I'm getting myself into the christmas mood by trawling online auctions, shopping malls and all for pressies for the near and dear ones. =) Bah instead of selling my things on yahoo auctions to raise money, I end up buying stuff and spending.

Hm. Flea marketing anybody? Calling Juan, Jan, Raine, Cass and anyone who might be interested! yoohoo!!!

At least the yahoo auctions thingy and the need to make christmas cards and pressies has started me on clearing up my room. It started from the realization that I had no idea where my stencilling sets were, and is now evolving into a fullblown 天翻地覆 of said room, trying to root out all my useful stuff and dump the dust-collectors. Oh well. Might as well do it when my parents are not around and they won't get a fit at the amount of nonsense i have accumulated. All the better for letting the rubbish spill out of my room too. Yay.

Saturday, October 28, 2006

All I want for Christmas

Might as well put it up now so all you people who love me can start getting your dollars ready. Heh.

1. Black strappy heels
2. Cream strappy heels
(To these, ahemahem, my shoe size is 37 and I adore shops like Pazzion, Gripz, Mondo and Mitju.)
3. Cigarette pants (the kind that make your legs look oh-so-long and oh-so-slim! ahh~)
4. Purplepurplepurplepurpleeeee anything. =)
5. Stila concealer
6. MAC lipglass. A specific colour - translucent shimmery gold. Yum. (Updated! The colour is Go Lightly!)

New items on list:
7. Earrings from Fie
8. Stila foundation
9. Manicure and pedicure package
10. A Fujitsu laptop (Hey a girl can dream!)
11. A large slouchy ruched bag in fall/winter shades
12. A Year 2007 organizer. This seems easy but it's not! I am super picky about my organizers. Heh.

I shall put up more when my next bout of narcissism strikes. Teehee.

woo~ Looking forward to Christmas!

/ O holy night
/ the stars are brightly shining
/ it is the night
/ of our dear Saviour's birth
/ Long lay the world
/ in sin and error pining
/ till He appeared
/ and the soul felt its worth
/ a thrill of hope
/ the weary world rejoices
/ for yonder breaks
/ a new and glorious morn
/ fall on your knees
/ and hear the angel voices
/ O night divine
/ O night when Christ was born
/ O night divine
/ O night, o night divine

Christmas season always makes me remember the December of 2004, which I spent in San Francisco. The frosty coldness, swaddling in thick layers of clothes, darkening afternoons, fog and mist, steaming mugs of hot chocolate, five-storey high christmas trees festooned in lights... ahhh. I love cold christmases - it somehow just seems right for the season. =)

Friday, October 27, 2006

blardy yahoo auctions, them!

Just when I need to sell stuff to raise money, yahoo auctions goes on the blink in front of me. Boo.

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

*singsong* its the holidays!!!

The SECOND LAST DAY OF SCHOOL!!!

(omg omg goes off into raptures of freedom)

Things to do in the *singsong* looooong holidays!!!

1. Blog skins. Woo! An activity I indulge in once a year or so. Bwahaha. Perhaps I shall start a 4S5 blog and skin it? Mm.
2. Lose weight! By taking on Jingxuan's challenge of running and her personal exercise regime.
3. Christmas SHOPPING notice the emphasis on the SHOPPING! Teehee I love buying gifts cos gift giving is my love language. It makes for a poor but happy Ming. Heh.
4. Read books books and more books. Woo. Happy day is a day holed up in a public library and reading to my heart's content. And it's freeeeeeee! Refer to point 3 above.
5. Bake cookies and cakes and allsorts. I hate cooking but I don't mind baking.

yay!

but boo~ i am broke and in need of moolah. Not been this broke since uni days when my spine would regularly meet my stomach and lament about the lack of filling in both.
Anybody want to rain dollars from above??
bah..

practical ways to make the bucks roll in
: yahoo auctions, long defunct, here I come!
: want paying for blogskins! yarr right.
: more tuitions!
: act pretty, enter a contest and win myself a prize. Heh.

And of all times this has got to be the time when the Arise and Build is coming up. Help! What a stretch of faith that when I have nothing left, I need to look to the future and pledge.
Besides looking to the future, I need to look to the past. And be reminded of how God has shown Himself faithful so many times over. So many times when I thought I must surely "cannot make it liao", God has come through for me. Mustard seed faith that I have, please grow!

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

sometimes we all just need a little..

.. fun for the hiddenchild in us..

virtualbubblewrap

.. escapism..

.. confusion..


.. quick-and-easy problem solving..


.. and the knowledge that females are diabolical hehehehehehe.

Have a nice day.

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

walls

There is a wall I cannot scale, the wall of the human heart.
I would love to have you open your heart to me but it seems like it just is not happening.
And when I question myself as to what I could have done better, I can find no answer.

Is it me? Is it me? Is it me?
the incessant question in my mind.

But when I look at the others whom I can connect to, I realise this disconnection, misconnection, cannot be laid at my feet alone.
Yet it seems like I am the only one trying to do anything about it.
She is not at all bothered.

How can we become more like God?
When we know His heart.
How can I make you more like me?
When you know my heart.

Find the cat



woo i love the furriness~

Saturday, October 14, 2006

Meme

Comment on this entry and:
1. I'll respond with something random about you
2. I'll challenge you to try something
3. I'll pick a colour that I associate with you
4. I'll tell you something I like about you
5. I'll tell you my first/clearest memory of you
6. I'll tell you what animal you remind me of
7. I'll ask you something I've always wanted to ask you
8. If I do this for you, you must post this on your blog

Tagged: jingxuan, tiffany, jing, raine, juan.

Update: Reply from Juan!
1. Superwoman
2. Go with me for a baking class (Haha..i dunno if this counts!)
3. Gold or rather glam stuff (I like it when you really dress up. Hee!)
4. You are very meticulous.
5. Staring at every single water droplet that I failed to wipe off before returning stage tumblers to you at logis!
6. Lion (cos you are always courageous to try new things and have the confidence in yourself)
7. Hm how do you honestly find time for so many things-work, tuition, family and ministry?

Reply from Jingxuan!
1. you are the most glam unglam queen, and the tallest short person i know.
2. for the entire nov/dec hols, you must jog 2km and do 100 sit ups, 2-3 times a wk =D
3. Red/purple! your hair!!
4. you’re spontaneous and loud, but gentle too- all at the same time =)) oh and you look pretty in photographs ( hey, i said 3 nice things about you, can you tell me 2 more nice things abt me?)
5. i dont know if this counts: but at xmas service, jessica passed me cookies and said that they were from you, so i wondered who was this “sister huiming” while gobbling up the cookies.!
6. DORK! haha but you remind me of lioness because you roar; and i promise i didnt copy someone else’s response.
7. Can you please not ostracize against people who eat salads and take me seriously when i say i want to lose flabs too?

Reply from raine:
ooohhh...here u go...think may have duplication in answers but neber copy orh...honest to goodness. Hee.=)

1. Diamond: cos of the beautiful bling bling on your finger and why, you're a girl's best friend.
2. Come diving with me. teehee.
3. hmm....tough one, ohhhh....purple!
4. Your go-getter attitude =)
5. Back in Jurong West, i remember vividly of how you'll greet me with either "i need a hug" or "Do i look good?". heheheh
6. Scampy!
7. How do you manage to keep going with so few hours of sleep each day? Mdm, you're a superwoman.

Reply from Tiffany:
1. Dedicated
2. Try to sort out you and your other half's pics by the end of the year, write captions for them AND email them to me. Heh
3. Purple, just like the wall in your room
4. You are always so cheerful and colourful
5. Us hanging out together in HJC
6. Scampy, nuff said
7. Can me and KQ sit down to dinner one day with your other half? We want to know him better.

Thursday, October 12, 2006

counterproductive


but heck.
makes me happy to see me besties.

memories like these are the ark of hope when marking and admin flood my world.

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

take all of me/

take all of me/
i give you my all for all of you/
move in your power/
open the heavens Lord today/
take all of me/
make us your light for all to see/
change this world we live in/
let your harvest in/
let your harvest in

you call us to follow/
and we place all we have into your hands/
you're all that we desire/
you show us your kingdom/
built into our hearts forevermore/
jesus our lives belong to you/

headache

blinding pounding headache that's occupied the left side of my head and shoved my eyeball out of its socket to make way for its large throbbing self. On the way to gr0wth, development and differentiation, it will eventually metastasize to cover neck ache, back ache and finger cramp and perhaps, if its hardworking enough, toe cramp as well.

ptoooeeyy.
the side effects of concentrated marking.

now excuse me while my eyeball fights the monstrous headache to regain its rightful place in its socket. I need to give my eyeballs peace while they fight, no?

*NB. kidding on the eyeball bit. bahh to exams.

Monday, October 09, 2006

what is precious, is never to forget

One night a year, I am happy to be in school; one night a year, I feel like Hwa Chong is truly a home to me.

(Apologies to the yuffer and others for ripping pics:)

(OMG! So unglam can?? Sigh..)
I've got a picture of the yuffer posing sexily on the floor of Serene, but that's for another day. Heh.

MAF is better than a reunion dinner, better than a 30th anniversary celebration. It's a dose of chicken soup for the collective hwachong soul and gives you the feeling of tumbling back into youth.

I love MAF and always will. Yay.