It's CNY eve tomorrow!!
Boy am I excited.

Haven't been to Chinatown yet but seeing the red subtly pop up on my feed is EXCITING.
Dong dong dong qiang~
I don't think I'll mind the flood of CNY #ootds and reunion dinner shots on instagram
BECAUSE OF ALL THE LOOOOVE

 Hahaha I am quite excited to meet up with all the relatives this year because somehow coming back to Singapore this time made me really appreciate my family a lot.
It's like my family is really A+, everything they do is actually for my own good (wow a child admitting this!!!) and no matter what I know I can rely on them in the end.
Gonna arm myself with a camera to take photos with the distant relatives as I bainian!

As Pastor Isaac said, pray for safe reunions everywhere and opportunities to act out His great comission :)

I am also loving this owl pajama set I got in Bandung (Rumah Mode)!
And yet the material is strong enough to wear out!
Especially love the top :P


Have a great Chinese New Year everyone!
♡♡♡

Ah ah ah just tried to change from classic template to the newfangled blogger.
(in an attempt to make it look nicer)

HAHA i was like what's this help help CHANGE BACK

I'll try again someday! Seems like you can do a lot of stuff with that template :)

Constantly in awe at Philip's flickr photos.

I reckon he's a camel

I just realised Judith follows my blog!! Hi Judith!!! *waves*

What I like about the weekends is the resulting photos on Instagram.

My mind is a flurry of activity!

People care about themselves 99 percent of the time.
When you find someone who actually cares about you, hold onto them.
It’s very rare to find someone who actually listens when you are telling a story.

You were a whirlwind.

So I am typing this out half asleep.
Update, i went to the doc's today!
Perhaps it's the meds making me drowsy.

Wanna hear the story of my morning?
I mean if you don't want to you can scroll down but i will still put in the effort to make this part of my life irrelevant to you as interesting as possible :)

Hm so my grandma called the clinic early in the morning to get an appointment. But they were so busy i could only get to see the doc (Dr Kam yayyy) at 11:30! Had to endure a Grandma Grumble about how it was so close to lunchtime and the sun would be shining bright in the big blue sky.

Trundled over to Dr Kam's at 11:30 and we had to wait even more since there was quite a queue. Haha man how many people have i lost at this point? Anyway 婆婆 and i tried reading the eyesight test on the wall to pass the time. She could only read till the second line while i could read till the fourth! HAHA mini achievement but i'm getting so old i used to be able to read till the last line (albeit not well)

Good gosh this is boring isn't it.
Well finally it was my turn to go in!
I really think going to Trinity has made me braver and more outspoken since I was talking to the doctor so much.
Dr Kam doesn't talk much :(
Oh well i like coming to the doctor/dentist in any case! Cause i feel safe and the equipment being cold feels quite cool. I don't know if i make sense? Like a happy quarantined bubble where you get pampered LOL.
Ah so first he asked if I was running a temperature, and he stuck the ear thermometer into my ear. So nope, no fever, but I told him I had one last week.
I don't know if that information was useful to him or not.
Then he checked out the back of my mouth with a torchlight. And he asked me to breathe in and out while he checked my back with a stethoscope. I liked that part! I was wondering if he heard wheezing through the earbuds.

Duk duk, duk duk is the sound of a heartbeat isn't it.

Hah so then he asked if i needed MC so that got us to the topic of us being DISTANTLY RELATED as schoolmates! (Melb U) And perhaps to my uncle as well. Turns out they were enrolled one year apart~

....

I have 3 types of pills, 1 syrup and 1 packet of lozenges to take.
The lozenges are Tussil's. Erk! Don't really like the taste T.T
And one of the pills MAY cause drowsiness. I asked the lady and she said 'nah, that usually won't happen. It's cause when you have a cold you tend to feel sleepy.' Noooo lady why do i feel sleepy now D:

How come when i want to hafoo hafoo i still can type so much?! So crazy. Also i was trying to remember when i went out with friends cause it doesn't seem that many but i couldn't remember! My poor memory brain :(

After eating the medicine i was ready to go out but then i saw my pillow so i snuggled it nawww.
It was sooo comfy :3 Then we were cruelly torn apart by the fact that i had to leave the house :( Maybe that's why i was so tired!!

I went to revolution cafe at buona vista with Juliette, Miron and Kevin~ It was pretty good! I took quite a few photos, maybe i'll put them up in a post? Haha i'm horrible la my new year's post is still due. And the xcape post.

And as thanks for bearing with this overbearing auntie typing this! Here is a picture of a cat that snuck onto the roof of an alcove and stared at me while being glamourous.

Y'know really i don't expect anyone to read the whole thing so you should get special privileges if you read it from top to toe.

And is this what the young popular bloggers do, just go blah blah blah all the way on their blogs? Like just regurgitate their day.

NO LEH WHY THEIR BLOGS SO INTERESTING!!! Hahaha they must be doing something right.

Haiyer maybe cause I talk so much and nobody wants to listen so I just write it all down.

TOO BAD READERS YA GOTTA BEAR WITH THIS BAD QUALITY BLOG.

I apologise!!! Learn and grow yeah?

Hmmm I should take this opportunity to write more Christian stuff!!! Hohoho since I blabber away I can write book reviews :)

"Hack hack hack," is all I've been going today.

Admittedly a little grr because of this afternoon.

I need to stop talking so much T~T

You need to be physically healthy.

You need to be around people who inspire you.

You need to write down ten ideas a day to keep the creativity flowing and the idea muscle exercised. 

And you need to keep the gratitude muscle exercised. You can never give enough 'thank you's.

So very thankful for the Daily QT Group and its discipline.

Every single year after camp- even back when I was still a foolish fledgling- I'd always "strive to have better QT" in the next year.

Surprise!
Never. Ever. Happened.

They always say to never wash your dirty linen in public, but here goes anyway (it's essential to my gratitude): my family doesn't really have the habit of doing QT.

So after all that spiritual growth, during the next 6 months it'd just be a gradual [sometimes even rapid] decline back into my secular (wo)man.

But now!!! 2014!!! I really don't know how to document this relief.

The sharings from the other's QTs are a mixture of rebuke, encouragement, promises, instruction, even history. What a treasure trove of wisdom!

As 2 Timothy 3 : 16&17 says,

16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:

17 That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.

Thoroughly furnished unto all good works- QT has indeed started to equip me for battle against Satan!

Ah yes I was talking about the discipline.
When I don't feel like doing my QT, seeing others post makes me feel guilty.
And also somehow I want to post as well, to hopefully touch someone in the group to grow in God!

This is like i-feel-so-obligateddd instead of crap-they're-gonna-cane-me-if-i-don't-post.

So anyway when I do get around to doing QT, I realise that I can learn another thing of our Almighty Father. It's always so cool, yknow, deciphering the Bible.

And then when i see the summaries that the others post! Sometimes they are so motivational/scolding that i really want to know the commentary behind it.

This 18 days (+ camp days x2)
I've probably learnt a lot more about my faith than a few sermons combined.
QT is like constant revision, so yeah, trying not to dip in my spiritual studies! :P

x
Setting my affections on things above, after realising how foolish i was to place Him second last year.

Also God is the only constant- and a good Person to htht with. He promises us help and strength when we need it :')

Today my maid shared a story with me.
When she was back in Myanmar for a vacation, she saw this little boy- about 6 or 7 years old?- on the streets.
She heard another lady ask the little boy why he wasn't in school,
And he replied that he didn't have enough money to pay the school for some thing
(could be an outing, or textbooks, or classroom fees...)
So he wasn't able to go to class that day :(
And afterwards, my maid called him over and asked him how much he needed.
"200 Myanmar kyat," he said.
[Initially with  my IQ I thought that would be like $50]
Without hesitation my maid gave him 500 kyat:
200 for the school, with instructions to GO TO SCHOOL the next day.
300 for his mom to cook a good meal that night.
The little boy was so overjoyed and excited, y'know, he ran all the way back to his house!
(But not before asking my maid where she lived)
And I just got feel-good vibes from that act of kindness.

But on the other hand it makes me sad.
500 kyat is just... 50 cents in Singapore.
The boy couldn't afford 200 kyat for school.
And how privileged are we to be going off to Uni, $60k a year?
Yet we still throw away our opportunities to study and waste even more of our parent's money on frivolous stuff.
The little boy was so thrilled to go back to school. Why can't we be a little more like that?
I'm not saying that I (or generally anyone in my generation) loathe school but I feel like studying has become less of a priority than the social interactions we get in school.
Of course, I'm not saying we should be 'study hermits' (which is what my mom was ._.) and study study study without having fun,
But to just have a desire to LEARN and not be like "what am i doing here i wish i didn't need to study".
Show respect to profs and try not to sleep in class!
I will try my best to pay attention in classes this year. (muscle emoji)

On a side note, it feels good to be validated.
Like bringing joy to people's lives and being recognised and all that.
Mental NTS to watch out for the 'pride of life'!!

Am typing this out on a proper desktop instead of on my ipad and typing on physical buttons feels goood.
Maybe I should get the Blackberry Q10 that Jemma has been raving about!!

Hahaha I'm so dumb man

Temptation of side fringe appears!!!!

There's this piece of paper stuck to a small glass cupboard in my home-

It's an assignment we had to do for Primary One: take a picture of yourself and describe yourself. ^-^

Needless (looks like needles doesn't it?)  to say, I looked like... A Primary One.
HAHA like young and excited to go to school with my bag half my size :P

And yeah a basic description! I'll try to scan in the photo (but probably not) to show y'all.

Actually on second thought I shouldn't reveal the description cause y'know info on the internet.... Hmmm
Yes i was brought up with a sufficient fear of being kidnapped LOLOLOL.

Anyway I was thinking of like recreating the piece of paper, if you know what I mean?

Like COLLEGE VERSION HAHAHA HOW COOL WOULD THAT BE.

Yeah!!! Haha i'm just hyping myself up whoop whoop.
But what photo would i use?!
Like one of me and my luggage??

Sah cool to imagine a Paper 2.0 next to the original one ^~^

INNISFREE INNIS RANG HORSE TUMBLR TOO CUTE MUST GET

MET SO MANY OLD FRIENDS HAHAHA SUCH A GOOD FEELING :D

Met:
Claudia,
Qiaole,
Eliana,
Kahpoh,
Charlene,
Jiaqi,
Isabel,
Alicia,
Shilei,
Arnold,
Rebecca,
Shize,
Nigel,
Nich Tan,
Nich Tey,
Jess,
Beverly,
Yentung,
Wensiang,
Kaisiang,
Ahhh can't remember anymore!
But seeing everyone was so so good and HC was so vibrant
coughpropagandacough
And yeah it was a good afternoon basically :)

Oh right also met Qiao's cray cray friend Swee Guan :D
We were both so crazy that we hit it off immediately!

--

Also had feelings of nostalgia as I travelled home from Clementi!

Prayer meeting message was awesome too cause it talked of how God never forgot the Israelites even as they complained against Him. And we can be assured He will always remember us and bless us if we are willing to repent!

xx

And now for the rest of the week it's time to meet up with the Melbby people <3

I just finished The Fault in Our Stars by John Green.

"That's the thing about pain.

Really refreshing to hang around like-minded (Christian) friends.
It was good seeing YF friends again!
(& KT went again! :D)

 But aside from that,
I'm really puzzled about this thing that happened!!!
Like WHY would you do that do you hate me now or something I don't know :(
At least give a reason right RIGHT

xx

It's okay
Have to set my affections on things above

OH but I have to upload photos!!!! >~<

So I realised I never did actually post about the house 5 meetup.

*intense drumroll*
IT WAS GREAT!!!!
Good to see them again nawww
Sophia Giselle Mel Shona Eonji ❤️ (Missing Minn :()
I really want to go back to Palmie and relive those carefree days againnn.
The Whatsapp group isn't enough!!!!

And I also met 409 last night!
Haha laughing with them made me realise how much I missed them.
Honestly in Aussie I didn't really remember them cause they were so busy and Palmie was just there
But then last night everybody was so inclusive and it was pretty fun, actually.
Like I felt the 409 spirit again last night :D

EH ELIANA LAW PLS HOW TO CONTACT YOU NO WHATSAPP YA

Honestly i'm feeling quite fed up with myself.
Like a real feeling of frustration...
That i'm still a babe in Christ.
It makes me so FRUSTRATED.
That's the best way to put it.
Not infuriated nor mad nor sad.
I thought i was reading and praying much but apparently not,
I thought i could give good sisterly advice but apparently not,
I thought i could make good Christian decisions but apparently not.
It's so frustrating you know???
That i can be such a stumbling block to my brethren
And also to myself
That my thoughts and actions and words are not giving a good testimony of the Lord.
And that is my resolution for 2014.
I see how one of the older ones walk uprightly following God, lacing every sentence with praise, or reverence, or submission to Him.
What about me??
Still in the babe phase of saying 'oh i'll pray for you :)'
How can i even say that with confidence when i have strayed so far from Him!
Am in no way ready for his blessings or even DESERVING of them.
So frustrated that I can't even give words of encouragement without sounding like a hypocrite.
AGHHHH this is like playing Candy Crush till level 100 and feeling smug before realising there are like 300 more levels to go.
Far far away from the standard of Romans 12:1
"I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service."
Looking at this any way brings me to the same conclusion: that i have to reconcile with God.
I have to purpose in my heart not to be a Pharisee of the OT, -> NATO.
I have to equip myself with the armour of God before battling, yes??
What's the point of just going out with little knowledge and getting beaten?
With God all things are possible
And i trust He will guide me back to His way.
Fervent prayer and QT are essential to be more like the great Counselor above!

Came down with bad nausea (which = vomiting) and diarrhea on the last day of the tour...

I don't know if i'm "lucky" or "unlucky"?
"Lucky" that i wasn't burdened by this on the entire tour, or "unlucky" that I was totally fine until THE LAST DAY.

(using apostrophe marks cause it's not a matter of luck since everything is under God's sovereignty!)

Hmm.
Think positive! :)

Aish anyway Aunty Ann, Louis and Alice also experienced vomiting and diarrhea...

Perhaps it was the hotel ventilation? Or the hotel breakfast?

But I was quite heartened (not in the sadistic way) when I heard about the others cause it meant I wasn't alooone~!

Haha and I slept for most of the 12h flight... Cray cray.
And didn't eat either of the 2 meals provided cause I didn't have any appetite :(

Anyway yes so that means I'm back in sg!
Really really hope i can make it for House 5 meet up later >~<

Also I'm glad to report that I've made some friends on this Spain
tour!!

Tristan, Kang Ting, Kang Siong, Uncle John, Aunty Ann, Uncle Peh, Aunty Peh, Alice, Shawn, Mavis, Louis~

Haha they're a humorous and lame bunch >_>

Glad we met on this tour!!!

Tbh I am quite relieved that nobody on the tour is a typical Singaporean!!

-Like someone who prefers shopping to sightseeing IN EUROPE-

So the tour has been really enjoyable cause everyone is enthusiastic and willing to visit more places :D

Haha oh man so sian to write more Spain updates~

But I will persevere!
Have to record down what we did when we travelled!!

Eeee new year's post is long overdueee~

OH RIGHT very excited to meet up with house 5 on the 8th!!!

Me bbs
Come to me

I really really hope i won't suffer from jetlag aiyo >_<

Waaa it's been so long since i updated on the Spain trip!!

Since the last post I've travelled to Portugal and Gibraltar and come back to Spain.

Pease bear with this long post if you wanna read it! ^_^

DAY 4
From Madrid we had to travel all the way to Segoviaaa~

But first we made a stop at the Plaza De Toros, or the bullring of Madrid!

Sigh... It was closed though so we could only take pics with its exterior (again like Bernabeu) :(

And then we were off to Segovia!

(AND IT DIDN'T SNOW I AM SAD)

Perhaps the most outstanding monument in Segovia is the Aqueduct!!
It was built by the Romans almost 2000 years ago, and is one of the most well-preserved Roman structures in the world today.
It survived the 1755 Lisbon earthquake!

And you know what? It's all bricks, no cement. And there are arches.

OH GLORIOUS PHYSICS!!
Testament to the Roman architects.

Haha okay then we toured the town, and during our free time exploring the streets we stumbled upon this really really nice cafe!

(hokay looks like this post is gonna be really long)

Anyway the cafe was tucked in this little alley, and my mom felt cold so we wanted to see if they sold hot chockie.

Turns out, they did! And it was so cheap!!

That's not the best part- the cafe gives its customers food on the house just for ordering something. <3

Erm it was called El Roelgo/Rielg (something like that) so if you can find it do go in!

The walls of the houses in the city were really pretty cause they had engraved patterns on the outside :)

After that we saw a castle with a moat of 26m deep (drained of water, so even more dangerous!!) ö

And next was the Cathedral of Segovia with its pretty dome! So many pigeons perched on the dome that it looked black.

Oh then WE HAD SUCKLING PIG FOR LUNCH.
Just 3 weeks old, them pigs!
The restaurants have a strange tradition of cutting the meat with a plate to show how tender it is, then smashing the plate on the floor.

After that, we left Segovia for Salamanca ~>

I will continue on with DAY 5 soon! Very sian to write write write though :(

Why do I feel like everyone is so far away...

(but ya la Giselle can feel your love LOL you so cute)