Last Day of 2006

I attended my cousin's wedding today. 31st Dec 2006. Wedding Lunch Banquet of Rudy & Shirley in JB at Hyatt Regency. Initially, I had planned to stay overnight in JB but as my brother and Binny needed a ride back to Singapore... I drove them back and now I'm spending the last one and a half hour of 2006 in Bishan, Singapore. Together with my mum and my dog, Happy.

I bought 7 magazines just now. Well, it's been a while and I thought why not? These are the mags that'll last me till the end of this year right through to the new year!!! :P Spent $28.80 in all. One of them even came with a floral hardcover weekly calendar diary. The floral design is in pastel pale pink against a light blue background. Very soothing colours to the eye.

Hmmm... maybe I can count 10 blessings as I end this year:
1. I thank God for my salvation.
2. I thank God for who He is to me - my everything, really.
3. I thank God for my loving family even though we bicker.
4. I thank God for allowing me to serve Him at EAST.
5. I thank God for new friends I've made and old friends I still cherish.
6. I thank God for the internet. =D
7. I thank God for giving me the ability to think, feel and type.
8. I thank God for time to reflect.
9. I thank God for the students I taught from July to Nov 06.
10. I thank God for a peaceful and contented heart and soul and mind.

Okies, I may be off to bed soon... may not stay up for the count down to the New Year but here's wishing all of you a Most Blessed 2007 Ahead!!! =)

Work

Did a fair amount of work today. Only 2 classes of evaluation forms left to create and print. They should be done by next Wednesday and all slotted in by 5 Jan 07 as scheduled. Pretty happy abt that. Progress on the summaries is still slow though... Hopefully I'll make more headway next week. No one's at home now except for Happy & me. Everyone else has gone to JB already. I'm sleepy... though it's still early... zzz...

Up but slow

There's internet connection in the office today! Hooray! It's up but it's slow... and the connection is not available at my desk, I'm typing this at the graphics pc. It's been a rainy day... drizzle, drizzle, drizzle... rain, rain, rain... let's hope it won't start to pour too heavily afterwards...

Today, only Justin and me are in the admin office. Peter's on leave till the new year begins and Julie took urgent leave today. Tomorrow, Julie & Justin will be in only before lunch. After that, it'll be me alone. I've still got a few more evaluation forms to create and some evaluation summaries to complete. Hopefully, all these can be done by next friday!!!

Yes, I'm looking forward to the coming long weekend though it'll be yet another busy one coz my cousin Shirley is getting married on 31st Dec 06, Sunday. I'll be going in to JB on Sat morning with my bro and Binny. We're hoping to drive in around 9am. Hope the traffic will be smooth flowing. Okies, me going off now... Fare thee well! :-)

Internet Downtime

Today, the internet was down for most part of the day. It was affected by the earthquake that hit the seabed of the Taiwanese waters or so it was said. The snapped fibre-optic cables that were buried in the seabed were what slowed down or stopped the virtual traffic of the internet superhighway! Funny though, the internet downtime kinda made me a lil more productive at work today! ;-P

Oh and dinner at Casey & Davina's home just now was simply superb! Will post the pics soon on my picture blogs! Too tired today... Glad that I still managed to squeeze in an entry today! =D

Boxing Day Today!

Hello all! So much for my effort to post an entry a day! Nevertheless, I have a good reason for the short break. I was in JB since Saturday and returned to S'pore on Monday. Basically, Christmas was spent there with my family! We had a feast and a whole host of relatives at the Christmas Eve's gathering at my parents' home in Taman Pelangi.

It is Boxing Day today! Hope it's still not to late to wish all my faithful readers (if there is still any left!!!) a Most Blessed Christmas! =)

Amos' Birthday!

Today is Amos' 32nd Birthday! Sent him an sms greeting ard 2am and he replied thus, "Thanks couz! :-) i've got a shoot tmw but I ain't wasting the day sleeping! Can't stop praising God for the mercies n marvels n marbles of life... we are older n wiser... no, u'r older n I'm wiser! hehe"

I couldn't let him off with the last statement by keeping quiet so my reply was this, "Hey, no matter what I'm still your Jie Jie, kiddo! Show some respect! Heh! I'll let u off just today cos it's your birthday! ;-)"

I'm glad that we're still keeping in touch and when we get together, there are still lots of things to talk about... I'm glad that he's also walking closely to the Lord, trusting God more and more each day. I pray that he'll continue to grow in Christ and enjoy his birthday today!!!

Night Out

I had a most exciting night out with Yaling & Gwen! We ate good food as always. This time it was at a restaurant in the new extension of the basement of Raffles City. Can't remember the name but the food was pretty yummy! Aside from that, the most exciting part of the evening was getting them to be slaves of my new found wrapping company!!! :P I must say that they did a fantastic job and I would highly recommend their services should anyone so require!!! Haha! :-D

Anyways, it is getting late and I should be in bed. Don't wanna get into the office too late tmw... Good night everyone! :-)

Post

I was quite excited about putting up at least a post a day when I first started this blog but now I realise it is quite an impossibilty... There will be days when I have no access to the internet, days when I'm in no mood to type, days when I just want to do a whole host of other things rather than blogging but... I shall still try to post an entry a day so long as I have internet access and my interest in blogging does not wane. ;-)

Christmas Cards

Some time in the beginning of December, I was wondering if I should send out any Christmas cards at all this year... when I received the very 1st card from Su Ming, I decided I should at least reply to those who send a card to me and so I went to buy 2 boxes. 1 box contains 16 cards. Today, I've used them all. All 32 cards gone and I still need more. Will go get 1 more box soon.

Birthday Post

It's an entry on my birthday. I'm posting from home as I'm taking MC... Down with flu... again. Need more rest. Throat feeling really painful and nose starting to block up. What a birthday! Then again, I've already had a celebration with my family yesterday by going to a Hakka restaurant for dinner and eating the chocolate cake from Lana Cake shop. :-)

I've also caught up with Velvet, my friend of 25 years since Primary 1, last friday. She gave me a birthday treat at this restaurant called Charcoal. It's kind of opposite Adelphi, near Funan and it used to be called Petals, run by SHATEC. The food was fair for the price she paid. Also, I've had 2 advanced birthday celebration at EAST. One was with the faculty and staff and the other was during the EAST retreat after the Christmas party with the students as well.

I've received 2 cards and 3 presents thus far. I like them all very much! A card was from EAST Staff & Faculty and the other was from my brother and binny. The 1st present was from Pauline and it was a really adorable teddy bear. The 2nd was from Binny, also in the shape of a teddy bear - a photo album with the face of a teddy! The 3rd was from my sis - a Jim Thompson cosmetic bag with its signature elephant prints! Lovely! :-D

A word

Haven't typed a single word on blogger since Sunday, 10 Dec. First, there was the three days two nights East Retreat called Connection at Watercity Resort in Malacca from 11-13 Dec. Following that was 2 days of blissful annual leave for me to do nothing. Idled around a bit. Caught the movie by Denzel Washington titled Deja Vu. Prepared for Pam's wedding where I had to coordinate the banquet tables deco and do a speech. Glad that everything basically went off without a hitch and the happily married couple will be off to Italy for their honeymoon soon! :-)

I'm exhausted. Wish for a long holiday... like a month long type. Or maybe 2 weeks but that's pure wishful thinking... will have to settle for the mini long weekends that are coming up over Christmas and New Year's day. Okies, will stop here. Gotta rest.

1st Birthday Present

I forgot to blog that I received my 1st Birthday Present this year on Friday, 8 Dec 06. It's a really adorable, cute and very soft teddy with a bumble bee on its head with flower prints on its body and its name is Teddy Bloom! It's a gift from singing tigger! I'll be on leave after the EAST retreat and she'll be flying home on 18 Dec, so she gave it to me in advance! Thank you so much! I love it! :-)

I left it in the office coz I think Teddy Bloom & Phoebe (my bunny) look so compatible together. Fear not, I shall photograph them when I return from my holidays!!! You'll be able to see them on Xanga and Multiply! :-)

1st Card

I received my 1st Christmas Card of the year today. It is from Su Ming, Kar Tzen & Baby Ethan (who is 7 months old). It's good to hear from Su Ming and know that she's settling down in PJ. Not so good that she had a bout of chicken pox recently and was off work for 2 weeks. Sounded pretty serious. Hope that she won't have any scar from it...

Sometimes it's funny how a friend is being thougt of and being missed only when one receives recent news... Often being out of sight truly means out of mind... for a while... till times like Christmas!!! :-P

Day Ahead

It's Saturday and I've got a housewarming party to attend at 11am. Following that I thought I had to chauffeur mum and dad for their one night hotel stay at Conrad, a gift voucher from Binny & Kor for their 40th Wedding Anniversary. However, now it seems like Kor will provide the chauffeuring service as well. That's good. It'll give me more time to twiddle my thumbs before my dental appointment at 4pm later. I hope to take lots of nice pics at Hwee Yen & Cher Wee's new home! Hopefully it'll be a good time of catching up with the rest of the CBDDG people whom I have not caught up with in ages!

Meanwhile, I hope to get some laundry done... Oh and I've already crafted the wedding banquet speech!!! Thanks to singing tigger who gave the brilliant idea of using a poem in my blog!!! Haha! :D

Speech

I've been asked/begged/told/demanded to do a speech for Pam on her wedding... sigh and so I agreed. Now, it's abt a week away and I've got to think of something... I've been asking around too, trying to gather tips for such a speech as it's my 1st! She's my guinea pig! She knows that and she resents that but hey, she's got no choice and neither have I!!! :P

Okies, did a few more evaluation forms for the 2nd qtr classes today... abt 10 more or maybe less to go... and gotta think abt that speech due next Saturday... afternoon. Any ideas, tips, pls comment ya?!

Evaluation Summary

When will I get those evaluation summaries done?!! Somehow I lost the momentum midway and they're all now just hanging in the air... It's 7 Dec 06 today and next week I'd be on leave for the entire week. Perhaps when I return on 18th Dec 06 which is my 32nd birthday, I will have the added motivation to complete the task that is set before me - Evaluation Summaries. Meanwhile for today, I'd better just get David Tan's evaluation forms for his missionary care class ready for tmw and leave them in his mailbox before I leave for home.

Actually, on top of summarising those evaluation forms, I've also gotta come up with 14 classes of evaluation forms by 1st week of Jan... okies, gotta go now. bye!

Night

Finally picked up the family photos that Amos took for us a couple of Saturdays back!!! :-D I'm uploading most of them onto both xanga and multiply. He did quite a few shots of Happy, our chihuahua, too! Happy actually looked pretty good! :-)

I'm going for a medical check-up at Healthway Medical (Toa Payoh Central Branch) tmw morning at 8.30am. However, I think I ate far too much for dinner tonight because I was at Holland V. I'm pretty sure the medical results will turn out to be horrific!!! I'm mentally prepared... for the worst possible results now at least... but hey, maybe that'a good thing... for my future medical reports may go on to show progressively better results!!! :-P

Okies, no food from 10pm tonight. In fact, no more food from this instance. Only water. :-(

Morning

Was reading Gwen's blog this morning and came across this verse, "give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." 1 Thessalonians 5:18

That's a great verse to begin the day with. Oh, a friend sent me a photo of a starfish this morning! It looked so pretty! It was found on the beach of one of the southern islands of S'pore - Semakau Island... It so brightened my day lor! :D Just thinking abt that starfish makes me smile! :-) Think I'd go upload it and make it my newest profile pic!!!

Digging

Was digging up some old emails... and thus I found some good old ones. I've posted the poem Listen on all 3 sites - Multiply, Xanga and Blogger... and quite suddenly, I remember I do have yet another blog on friendster!!! I probably had only one entry there. The entry was a record of the Bukit Timah Hill Hike with Pauline, Angela & Yaling some months back... I haven't updated since... probably gonna let that blog die a natural death... Meanwhile, I'm thinking if I should just restrict this blog to recording my own thoughts instead of posting poems and such... Have yet to decide. Any comments from anyone?!!

Listen

I Try to Listen Better Now

When God gave out brains,
I thought He said trains,
And I missed mine.

When God gave out looks,
I thought He said books,
And I didn't want any.

When God gave out noses,
I thought He said roses,
And I asked for a red one.

When God gave out legs,
I thought He said eggs,
And I asked for two round ones.

When God gave out chins,
I thought He said gins,
And I ordered a double.

When God gave out heads,
I thought He said beds,
And I asked for a soft one.

Since then I'm trying to
Listen Better Now.

-Anonymous

_________________________

Listening is a rare happening among human beings.
You cannot listen to the word another is speaking
if you are preoccupied with your appearance or
with impressing other, or are trying to decide what
you are going to say when the other stops talking,
or are debating about whether what is being said
is true or relevant or agreeable. Such matters have
their place, but only after listening to the words that
is being uttered.

Listening is a primitive act of love in which a person
gives himself to another's word, making himself
accessible and vulnerable to that word.

[Received this from an ex-classmate... back in Jan 1999]

1st Gift

The 1st christmas gift I have received this year is from Casey & Davina! It's very prettily or rather adorably wrapped with brown paper and a picture of a reindeer! Inside the wrapping was a pretty shawl. I've uploaded the photos on my multiply and xanga sites. Kai, you can go there to take a look! :-)

Oh, yesterday's dinner at Imperial Treasure Nan Bei Restaurant was excellent! Very yummy Chinese food! :-)

Okies, here's praying I won't be as sleepy as yesterday and that I'll have a fruitful day ahead!!!

Yay!

My student Young Keun is back from Korea and I'm so happy! I will be teaching him again on Tue and Thu starting tmw. I will go and dig out all those history books and science books for Sec 1 and show him what he will be in for next year!!! Then again, I should also ask after his grandmother who very recently passed away...

Next week will be a "break" for me before my usual routine of work in the day and tutoring at night kicks in. I kinda miss the routine... maybe I'm just a bit masochistic... :-( more likely though, I miss those kids I get to torture, oophs, I mean tutor!!! :-P

Sleepy

Why do I feel so sleepy today? I felt sleepy when I woke up. I felt sleepy on my way to work. I felt sleepy after wolfing down a BK breakfast. I felt sleepy before lunch. I felt sleepy after lunch. What is the matter with me??? And it's a rather bright and sunny day right now... How can I be feeling so sleepy on a bright and sunny day?!?? It's just not right...

40th Wedding Anniversary

Today is my mum and dad's 40th Wedding Anniversary. They got married back in 1966 on 4th December and my sis was born the following year. Next year, my sis will be celebrating her 40th birthday!!! It's inconceivable!!! The big 40! I'll be 40 in 8 years' time... Meanwhile, back to my parents... we'll be having dinner at the Imperial Treasure Nan Bei Restaurant on level 5 of Ngee Ann City at 8pm. Looking forward to a scrumptious dinner tonight!

Sunday Morning

It's sunday already and nearly 10am. No, I didn't make it to the 9am service but fear not, there's still the 11am though I may just have to slip out slightly earlier to meet pam & adrian at 1pm later. Okies, that's all the news there is this sunday morning. Oh wait, another thing, my identity has been discovered by quirkiekai. guess i won't be receiving any "polite" comments from her anymore... sighz! :-P

2nd Post on 2nd Dec

Yup, I've decided to make just 2 entries today! I went for a mani and pedi at 4pm after a power nap in the afternoon. Just got back home from dinner with mum and sis at IVINS - Specialist in Peranakan Cuisine, at their Upper Thomson branch. We ordered 6 dishes and it only came up to $35. Really reasonable price for pretty good food. :-)

Pam confirmed the time to recce her wedding banquet venue - Changi Village Hotel at 1 Netheravon Rd. It'll be 1pm tmw. Looks like I've got to go for the 9am service tmw to make it on time for the recce. I didn't take any photos today at all... even though I saw some interesting looking features in J8, didn't bring my camera out with me today. It prob deserves a break, just like its owner! ;-)

Oh, 3 families have confirmed their attendance to a get-together of NIECF friends at the Botanic Gardens on 23rd Dec, 9.30am. Lucy, Tiong Nam & Rennie will be bringing their families and I'm really looking forward to it! It's going to be a good time of food and fellowship I'm sure! Just got to make a few calls to check if some others can join us. I pray that the Lord will provide perfect weather for that morning!

Right, that's all the update I have for today. Have a very good evening everyone! :-D

*edit* re: the gathering on 23rd Dec, we're expecting a really good turn out! All who are in S'pore on that day should be able to make it! Only 2 families are away, Jason & Bee Kim's and Kurt & Sally's. I'm really looking forward to that day!!!

2nd Day on Blogger

It's 2nd December and it's my 2nd day on blogger! It's been a while since I've got nothing planned on a Saturday and today is just such a day! That makes me feel happy even though the weather's kinda crappy. It's a good enough weather to snuggle under the blanket with the air-conditioner adjusted to the perfect temperature for a good read and a good nap with good music playing in the background. Good everything is simply bliss, isn't it?

Okies, I'm heading back to my bed... have a blissful Saturday, everyone!

Before Bedtime

Just so I make a perfect seven entry, I decided to make a last entry before hitting the sack... am really sleepy actually, so gonna keep it short and sweet. Sweet dreams everyone and have a G-R-E-A-T weekend! :-D

After Dinner Post

Wow! I seem to be posting an entry pre or post meals... Just came back from dinner with sis. We ate at a restaurant near 6th ave along bukit timah rd. Just for a mushroom soup, a salad and 2 main courses, we had to fork out close to 90 bucks! That's pretty pricey for food that's not that fantastic really... But the music and deco of the restaurant was... nice. Again, not fabulous. Hmm, maybe the food is hindering my thoughts and typing... Blood and oxygen from the brain is still rushing downwards to digest that sirloin steak burger I had... Trust me, the food was only OK for the price we paid.

Evening Entry

5th entry in a day! Goodness gracious me!!! I'm blogging more than I'm eating!!! Isn't that amazing?!??? Oh well, since it's coming to the end of the work day and work week for me and since the office is only left with me, I thought I might as well post a final entry from the office pc before I leave... Am gonna meet my sis for dinner later, at 7pm. Had a good time praying with Pauline before she left for her 5.30pm appt. I've been having lots of good times with Pauline and I truly thank God for our friendship!

I thank God for Gwen and Yaling too but sadly for me, they have left my work place and gone on to other places... Miss the many fun lunch hours we shared, the crazy car rides, the corny jokes, the chemistry we had whenever we're together! Looking forward to catching up again with them on 16 & 27 Dec. :-)

All the best to Pauline & Yaling for their 10KM run this Sunday!!!
You go, gals!!!

Tea Time Post

Okies, scheduling of timetable done. There'll be 11 classes in the 1st qtr of 2007-08, Lord willing. I can hear the grass-cutters doing their job somewhere behind me... vroom...vroom...vroom... The office is rather quiet right now - with only Peter and me holding the fort as Justin is away on annual leave and Julie works only in the mornings on Thu & Fri. Peter is busy chatting away with Benson. I'm just trying to see how many entries I can possibly make today!

It's 1st Dec and I love the month of December! It's my birthday month and it's the Christmas season. I used to go for lots of camps during this time of the year. This year, I'll be attending the EAST Retreat from 11 to 13 Dec. Kinda looking forward to that. Oh before that, I've got a doctor's appointment on 7 Dec morning, 8.30am. It's a diabetes care package I signed up for with Healthway Medical. This weekend I'm supposed to go recce the hotel where Pam & Adrian are holding their wedding lunch banquet. Pam hasn't confirmed the time but I think it's on Sunday.

Yanna, a secondary schoolmate, will be in town from KL this weekend too. Might be able to catch up. Dunno yet. I'm helping to organise a get-together for my NIECF friends. Hopefully it will materialise on 23rd or 30th Dec morning. We are hoping to have a picnic brunch at Botanical Gardens on a Sat. Lucy & Tiong Nam have both indicated interest. Hopefully Jason's family, Rennie's family and all the rest of the ging-gang can make it...

December seems to be THE MONTH for gatherings!!!

Post Lunch Entry

Hmm... came back from lunch with singing tigger from the usual coffeeshoop at cambridge... casey came to me asking about scheduling 2007-08 timetable. Man, that's like looking at 23 Jul 07 onwards lor... someone's gotta look at it and right now, it's gotta be me... well, at least it's about time to do some work I guess! :P I wonder just how many entries can I possibly post in a day?!??

Lunch Time Post

Well, think I might just do another entry since this is such a new site. I think this is pretty much gonna be a wordy site... The template I've chosen gives it such a bookish look. I really don't think I'd post any photos here. There's a "certain" anonymity here since no photos will be displayed but what's the point of a blog if my friends don't know about it?! I've announced this blog's existence to 4 people so far: Gwen, Yaling, Pauline & Alice. Don't think I'll publicise it any further... for now at least! Okie dok, signing out.

1st Post on Blogger

Okies, I started blogging on Xanga, end of 2003, through Eunice. Then picked up Multiply through Pauline and now, it's mainly coz of people like Gwen & Kai that I started Blogger... Yes, Pauline, I'm only one blog behind you now!!! Can't believe it myself!!! Maybe this is the result of too much free time at work?!!?? Just dun ever let Casey or any of the "management people" hear of this!!! :P

Oh well, I don't really know how useful this blog will become... or how long it will last but meanwhile, just wanna say hi! to all the rest of you bloggers in bloggersphere! :-D