41st Birthday

Today, I am officially a middle-aged woman. I read a quote where it says, 40 is the youth of old age and the old age of youth. I have truly entered my forties. Much as I am pleased when people compliment how youthful I look, I know I am no longer a youth. Perhaps, this will impact how I treat others and myself - for the better, I hope.

4 Huge Thanksgivings on my 41st Birthday
1. Thankful for my living Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ who brought me out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light.
2. Thankful for my loving parents who have been loving and caring for me the best way they know how for the past 41 years.
3. Thankful for my loving siblings who have grown up with me from my birth, fought with me, laughed with me, cried with me, shared my faith with me and continue to spur me on in life, in love and my faith journey with God.
4. Thankful for my loving friends whom God has bestowed upon me to brighten my journey on earth and help us enrich one another's lives.

First Post in December

Posting on a blog has become quite a challenge for me. I have written less than five posts this year. And when blogging was all a rage, I remember having almost 5 posts in a week, on different blogs.

December is my favourite month. It's my birthday month and it's Christmas. Today, 15 December is my friend's Dr David L's birthday. And I've known David since 1999. That's 16 years. This month, I had a reunion with my NIE buddies, Michell and Tammy, whom I have not reconnected since our graduation in 1995. It's amazing to get in touch after 20 years.

Tonight, I'll be meeting Wen Tin, my old pal from MGS to celebrate our December birthdays. Hers is on the 13th and mine five days after. 15th is always a good day for our combined celebration. :) I have known Wen Tin since 1987. That's a good 28 years to date.

On the actual date of my birthday, I will be spending it having lunch with mum and dinner with sis. They have both known me all my life. And mum has of course been God's instrument in giving me life, together with dad. Sis has grown up with me till I was 10, then left for the US for about five years and returned when I was 15. We've been living in Bishan together for the past ten years, sharing the flat with our chihuahua Happy who passed away two years ago. Only recently, this year, 2015, mum and dad moved back to live with us because of dad's ill health.

This has been a rather tumultuous year because of dad's ill health.

However, there have been happy moments and a new friendship that has developed unexpectedly since April with a young American pilot has brought me much joy. Just hope that this new friendship would not be too short-lived. :)

Movies in Sep & Oct

In September, I caught two films screened by the Design Film Festival - 1. Hand Made with Love in France and 2. The Salt of the Earth. 

I watched "Hand Made with Love in France" as my debut movie in a refurbished Capitol Theatre. I thoroughly enjoyed the film and the venue. 

As for "The Salt of the Earth", it was a movie I caught together with Imel on 27 September. She gave me a lunch treat that day as well because it was her birthday month and she had a special discount at Coffee Club. That was really sweet and generous of her. 

Tonight, 23 October, I caught "The Martian" starring Matt Damon with Doris. It was a movie treat from her as she received movie vouchers from NTUC and kindly offered to share her complimentary movie vouchers with me. I treated her to a MacDonalds Samurai burger in return for dinner. 

I wanted to catch "The Martian" coz Troy has caught it a few weeks back and so has YK. It seemed to have received pretty decent reviews and turned out to be a decent film. However, in view of all the three films I've caught these two months, my favourite is "Hand Made with Love in France". Perhaps it's the theme of fashion, artisans, art, luxury and time honoured tradition that so captivated my attention. Or it could simply be the romantic, iconic backdrop of Paris which made it quite unforgettable. Either way, that's a film which I will remember for quite some time to come. Or so I hope. 

First Post in 2015

It has been over a year since my one and only post in 2014. 2015 is whizzing by and I had almost forgotten that I even have a blog in here. Since my last post, my dad has had a big toe amputation on his left foot. Both him and mum has moved back to Singapore from JB to live with sis and me. We have since hired a Myanmar helper called Mar Mar Oo to help care for dad and relieve mum of household chores. The dynamics at home has changed quite drastically for the past six months. It has been quite a challenging six months with dad's ailing health.

I spent the 2015 NYE with Guat Ping admiring fireworks from her Suntec office view, past midnight. The Gila Gals will soon meet to celebrate Guat Ping's birthday. Her 41st. Both Guat and I are entering into middle age, the youth of old age. I "celebrated" my 25th baptism anniversary this 7 Oct 2015 even though I could not take a day off. I served at EAST that day (It was registration period.)

I met this young pilot called T through M on 12 April this year. He has been my muse for the past six months or so. But I feel that it is a friendship that isn't really sustainable. Though, he has been quite a good support to me while dad was in poor health.

First Post in 2014

Surprisingly, for the entire year of 2013, I did not have a single blog entry here.

I wonder if life was so full of other social media distractions like Facebook and Instagram, plus I had other social and work life to deal with as well. But travel wise, I did not venture further than Pulau Redang on my aunt's 80th birthday cruise onboard Superstar Virgo last Sep/Oct. Other travel destinations were Malaysia bound too, KL for June ARPC church camp and Penang trip with Yaling and Gwen in Dec (sans Guat Ping as her Grandma was terminally ill at that point, and eventually passed away, holding a sea burial on Christmas Day).

My dad had a rather inauspicious start to the new year by fainting on New Year's Day.

Thankfully, he recovered from that fainting spell and had a good check-up with his colorectal surgeon afterwards.

I spent New Year's Eve at Eugene's house and attended the watch night service at Yaling's church (Faith Methodist Church) together with Yaling and Doris. On New Year Day's, I spent it with Doris and Amy Yao watching Frozen (a Disney animation movie) at City Square Mall Golden Village.

Evelyn and I attended the EAST Retreat and shared a room together for one night. Following that, I had really sore and aching left shoulders. Had to get a good massage in JB that very weekend.

Two weeks in the New Year of 2014 has just whizzed by. I am starting a new semester in UniSIM with two classes very soon, Professional English Writing and Feature Writing. I should get back to writing and blogging more. Just to get more writing juices flowing again.

Last Post of 2012

Amazingly, I have only made one post on this blog in Jan and now the last post in Dec. I met up with V Ng EL last night and we had a jap meal at J8 Watami to celebrate our birthdays. Her belated birthday was on 23Nov and mine on 18Dec. I received a handcrafted beaded pink crystal pendant painstakingly made by her mum, order was placed by her ofcourse! What a delightful birthday present! My favourite this year!

2012 is just about to go by in less than two weeks and I'll be reaching 40 in less than two years! The big 40 sounds a bit scary to me. Maybe it's mid-life crisis that I may meet soon... I dunno... But I do want to stay rooted in Christ and keep thanking Him for each day, each year of life He has given me. Every day and every year is precious. Let me learn to number them and may God grant me a wise heart to live out each day and each year.

1st Post of 2012

Today is 16 Jan 2012. It seems like I have only had 4 posts in 2011 and 4 posts in 2010. I wonder if it will be the same in 2012. Will there be more posts or less? Last year, on 23 Nov 2011, my second god daughter, Illary Shashonna Alarcon-Tan was born and I didn't even blog about it. She is ST's second daughter, Elsa's younger sis. She shares the same birthday as my best friend V Ng EL whom I've known for over 3 decades since 1981.

Last year, I had a memorable 37th birthday in Perth. Mummy and I had a lovely lunch at Cottesloe and we attended Ingrid & Jason's wedding ceremony at Sunken Garden on that beautiful summer's afternoon. Perfect way to celebrate. I also caught up with Kenna, another really great pal after the wedding reception. I had beautiful memories of that day and night. :)

Viadolorosa Xanga Shut Down

Today, I shut down the very first blog I started. All the entries that I've painstakingly posted since 2004, for the past 7 years have vanished. Or at least, not accessible to me anymore. I'm not sure if Xanga actually stores them digitally somewhere but it doesn't matter to me anymore.

Somehow, digital memory on cyberspace has lost partial appeal to me... Partial because I am still blogging. Words only, no pics. And this address is hardly known to many... only a few friends come by to read it, if at all... And I don't open it up for comments anyway.

I may go back to journalling, the old fashion way. Sometime.

Fine Appeal Went Through

Got a reply from the HDB Senior Estate Officer today and the fine appeal I sent in earlier this month had gone through! Yipeee! I don't have to fork out an additional $50 for forgetting to pay the $75 monthly season carpark ticket on time. However, in the email reply, the officer stated that this is the FINAL TIME they will accede to my appeal. Maybe they do have a record of the number of times I have written in to appeal afterall... Nevertheless, I really should not be so forgetful...

Scaling Mount K in June 2011

This Sat AM, I'll begin training with Hui Ling and possibly Yaling at Bukit Timah Hill. It's a dream to scale Mount K in June 2011. Hope that this tiny dream comes true this year. :)

New Day in a New Decade

1 Jan 2011 is a new day in a new decade. May this herald a new beginning of many good things that God has in store for me personally. I look forward to walking more closely with the Jesus each day. I want to be filled with his joy, his love, his peace which surpasses all understanding. I want to have faith that moves mountains and abides deeply with quiet confidence in the Father's goodness and never ending kindness, love and compassion. I want to be wise and yet not overly so. I want to experience a greater measure of God's glory and grace in my life each day.

Father, may you be pleased to grant all I ask. Amen.