Goodie! I'm done with my research work. It's been like what 9mths of work? Hahhaa, then again, I didn't earn much from it. Ok lah, saved and spent some of them.

Talking abt 9mths.. AMY HAS DELIVERED! Should be I guess. She was induced into labour yesterday. Probably delivered either last night or this morning. What ever it is, welcome little Issak! Hope to visit her soon, either at the hospital or at home.

Am still waiting for the Thailand photos from the rest. Bugger, I really should have brought my own digi cam. Now I'm like a little beggar waiting for photos to be passed around. Can't post em either. Whatever, it's more important that they are gonna be in my album than online. I still prefer touching n looking at real photos, not digital ones you save on CDs. So unpersonal.

We'll see how when everyone meets up on Sat for practice for Youth Sunday. Yikes, why do we have to dance for Youth Sunday? Embarassing lor. Argh.. Anyway, we'll get to meet up with Sandy! Welcome to church girl!

I'm back from Chiang Rai! Man, it was an awesome trip.. Everything was better than I expected, although I was kinda plesantly suprised that the outskirts that we were in was a Christian village. So it was more of a time of encouraging people to continue giving their hearts to God rather than sharing the Gospel with people who have never heard of Jesus. Thought that it would be a 'wasted' trip initially cuz we visited many Christians, but on hindsight, I think it was a trip of lessons learnt. From day 1 to our final day (even just before we boarded the plane)

I've just been back like for 2days and I'm already missing the people there. They're always ever so cheerful, polite and gentle. How nice. Oh and the kids are sooo lovely! Bundles of energy. There's this girl who likes people to piggy back her. I still can't get her name, but we think that she's either an orphan or a farmer girl. Then there's our little darling Nong Ai. Very cute and a smart chick. We taught her stuff and she taught us simple Thai (cuz we usually had to rely on Rach to translate what she was rattling on abt) Hope she's got her holidays soon and comes to church with Pi Ben.

My prayers go out to Pastor Sutin (Ahzan-Boi), Pastor Pradit (Ahzan-Ken) and Pastor John (Ahzan-John) as they gather continually to pray for revival through out Chiang Rai. When I first heard about their desire to revive the place, I was so shocked. This same thing will probably not occur in SG, or at least not that I've heard of. Three men relying on nothing but pure faith for God to work a miracle in the land. To revive the church and stir up many hearts for God. Amazing eh!

If not for the pending Europe trip next yr, I think I'll definitely go back to Chiang Rai. Even if Pastor John welcomes us to join him in church planting elsewhere in Thailand, I think I really don't mind at all. We'll see about it. I may just squeeze both plans during the June holidays.

:::

Don't ever take budget airlines unless you're really ok with waiting. Air Asia is totally horrible. We had problems everytime we took their flights from day1. Yikes! And the price we paid was equivalent to that of regular airlines. It was kind of a blessing in disguise that our internal flight was cancelled and so we were given Thai Airways to reach BKK. And for that, we paid a price by not having time to meet Pi Arun at BKK to shop at Mabukong. Shopping at BKK was at a shopping complex, those considerably higher end ones in BKK. Bottomline was I didn't buy anything! Argh! I sound so loserish, going all the way to Thailand and not bringing back anything.

Anyway I guess I prefer Chiang Rai over BKK cuz the air is so much cleaner. BKK is dirty and hot. There's this layer of slime when you're there for too long. But it doesn't happen in Chiang Rai. Well, BKK is definitely more interesting cuz there are more places to shop and more modern.

It was great catching up with the rest yesterday night. Nice meeting Sarah! She's so petite. Very smiley too. Good match with Elliot. Heh.. Gabe, we're waiting for the next outing eh. Hmm maybe it's time we get to met Weiliang's gf. The task's yours!

Anyway so as I was walking home and indulging in my personal thoughts, I totally didn't hear this bicycle coming from behind and I almost got knocked over. Blimey, so careless of me. That's the problem when you are too engrossed in your thoughts. It was kinda weird but for that split second it seemed as though it was some scene out of those typical movies, the twist was that I saved myself. Haha..

Oh ryan and lydia, man I love you guys so much! Thanks for lending me the vcds and dvds! I've been enjoying my afternoons these past few days with the company of Hong Kong stars and Legolas. Hahah.. Thank goodness there are people like Daniel Chan, Edison Chen and Orlando Bloom to look at. This boring life of mine would have been so bored otherwise.

It's so weird how Mingbao's Ah Zhen plot (the one with Elliot, Gabe, Xian and the supposed mixed blood girl) is quite similar to that of Purple Storm. Just that Mingbao's was much shorter and less action packed. Hahah maybe it was a borrowed plot. Tsk. He should really put those comic strips into movies; just like the recent End Of Days. It'll be nice. Yeah, it's been a long time since the whole group of us sat around watching his movies and laughing at NG shots.

I'm a real sluggard. Can't get my ass off to do the stuff that I need to. Haven't prepared for my exam on Wed, neither have I started on Ming Bao's comics. Darn, I think I better start on his first. Then there are the things that need to be learnt and memorized for mission trip too. Yikes, I just sleep n sleep the whole afternoon away. I'm a real pig.

Tomorrow... Tomorrow will be the day when I find motivation to do everything. My new mantra.

We're all about to go for our misison trip really soon. It's gonna be more crash courses and rehersals for all that we're presenting to the schools. Gee, I'm really really looking forward to it. Just to see how even though the Christians are minority in Chiang Rai (it's <1%. can you beat that) they are still peservering on. We're also heading for some children's homes and schools to share the gospel. Our presentation will generally be more of the creative side because we can't exactly preach or share the Gospel in Thai. Oh but we all thank God for Pastor Sutin, his wife and other Thai members who are joining us there!

So for the past couple of trainings, we've been learning some simple Thai phrases and 4 Christian songs in Thai, simple drama and balloon sculpting. Hoho, I've gotta brush up a lot for all of them. My Thai is in pieces cuz all I know is sawadekah, thank you and how are you in thai. If I still can't really learn them, I'll just stick to some of the Thai people to translate for me. Heh.

Oh then there was the drama that's kind of like a Charlie Chaplin style mime (forget the white face tho) Boy oh boy, people who know me are very sure that I can't really act. All that self-consciousness and paisaeness. Haha, I just laugh at myself all the time. Thank goodness I'm just playing a minor role. Too bad they didn't need people to pose as trees or stones.

Picked up a little balloon sculpting from Pastor Cheng Huat yesterday cuz I missed the previous 2 lessons. Well a hilarious first attempt at making the sheep and lion. The sheep barely had a body, not to mention the weird head. My lion was probably a very skinny and tail-less cub. Ok, my second lion was much better, even though I took so long just to make it. Tying the knot after pumping the balloon already takes like a couple of minutes for me. Heh heh, so my only consolation is making a nicely shaped heart. Why? Cuz it totally doesn't involve twisting the balloons. Hahahha. Easy job.

Guess more than all of these, I really want to see how the misison trip goes in Chiang Rai. Wanna see God's hand at work in those people's lives. Also a time to finally surrender to Him and not always trying to run away from the call to try out missions. It's enough of running away for 2 years.

Supposed to meet the girlie gang at Rice Table later on. Aiyoh, but so many can't make it. It's the public hols girls.. Hahha oh well, nevermind. We'll gather the whole group another time. So meanwhile it's gonna be me, Fion and Xian at a large table which we reserved. Hahah.. Ops!

Holidays are just a time when you keep spending n spending. It's scary how much we eat and spend on entertainment. Yikes! What's making it worse is that I'm not working. Ahh...

Oh Chock, if you're reading this - Cheese's organizing ktv tomorrow nite with the rest of our class people. He asked me to tell u that Wai Mun's not going. I also can't make it cuz I'm meeting Wensi and dunno who else she asked. Should be the rest of the rugrats. Hahha, pls be prepared to treat us to prata when Yam comes back. Haahhaha... Bring Cliff along hor. That's part of the deal. Tsk!

Have been learning simple drums from David Alfred in church recently. It's some drums and guitar class that the church band has initiated recently. Obviously I opted for drums - wanted to learn back in sec sch but Nat said to gather more ppl to form a class, which didn't materialize in the end. So here I am, going for drums with some other ppl in church. Some from YZ and also my uncle. Hahha it's kinda strange to be learning drums with my uncle, who always look so serious. Apparently my mom says her two brothers were rock lovers when they were younger. Haha which explains why I always so CDs of those funny bands like Deep Purple and Scorpion in their houses.

Drums totally rocks! Not that I'm good at it, but somehow I've always been intrigued and facinated by drummers. How they can create this whole different vibe to music just with some percussion instruments. So far, I can only do the simplest style. Nothing fanciful. I still can't coordinate when they require both legs to move. Hahha, my motor skills are limited. We'll see whether I can do it by the end of the course. Hee.. Maybe my roots are still in the making of melody with the piano. Hahah, not that I'm also good at it. Always hid around by asking Joe/Xian to tune their guitars louder during worship back in those days when I was still in church band.

Church band. Guess I'm facing a huge huge inertia to getting back there to play during service. Cut the story short, I am very thin-skinned.

But whatever, I'll still just learn drums for fun first. Hahah..

Listen to Planetshakers @ www.planetshakersusa.com or www.planetshakers.com. An Aussie band tt's kinda nice, altho it resembles Hillsongs. Maybe I'll drag ppl to go with me to their next stop in SG from 28-29July.

The weather doesn't do any good these days. I so wanna play tennis!! Hmm anyone game to play tennis with me? Hahha but you'll have to bear with my out of court balls and everything else. Let's go play! Badminton is good too! Hahhaa, let's just get out of the house and move our asses!

Realize I'm so darn fair. Eeks! I totally hate being fair. Tt's why I don't exactly understand why people spend so much on whitening products. Why do people wanna look like a piece of bleached paper?? Then again, dark people might ask me why I like to be tan. Oh but being tan is good, gives you a healthy glow. Sentosa anyone?

Let's pray very very hard that Chiang Rai will be sunny when we go there for mission trip. Quite excited abt going for the mission trip. I've finally surrendered to God's pushing for a mission trip. Somehow He has let me run away from that for 2yrs. This time, He has pointed and pulled me back to going on a mission trip. See, we can never ever run away from what God asks us to do.

Not that I'm very well prepared for missions, but I guess God will prepare me in time. But I've gotta brush up on my thai in the meantime. Hahha I'm terrible at it. All I know is sah wah de kah. Hahhaha... Oh and we're all supposed to have a thai name so that it's easier to introduce ourselves in thai cuz english names are very difficult to pronounce. So I've got like 2 names either yin (lady. Hahhaa sounds weird rite. This is something Pastor Sutin gave. "Hi, I'm called lady." If you translate to chinese or dialect, it sounds awful!) or some translation of Magdalene, which is too long for me to catch.

The naming thing is werid cuz they can use fruits as names. Check it out, Pastor Sutin gave Rachel the name lemon (I've got no idea what it is in thai, but it means lemon in English) reason cuz he says Rach's style is like a lemon. Hahahha! We laughed till we almost died. And Rach had this totally screwed up face. But all's forgiven cuz it was just a fun exercise with names. Oh and Jess is given the name jambu (tt pink fruit) Hahaha, we form the fruity trippers!

Can't imagine I actually woke up at 6am today just to try sending my brother to sch. Argh my dreaded ride to ACS (I). Yikes, with my dad by my side. I'm already not very proficient in my driving skills, and I've gotta learn how to send my two bros to sch next wk! Aaaaahhhhhh!!!!

Sending Chris to Jurong is still ok cuz the ground is flat and there ain't much traffic in the morning, cept for the main roads. But to ACS?! What on earth am I doing there?! Not only is the path winding and narrow, but I feel so claustrophobic in my dad's little mini-van when there are all these Beemers, Mercs, Camrys and MPV blah blah blah around! I almost screamed in the van. What if I crash into one of em? It's not a very distant possibility. Especially if I've gotta stop in the middle of slopes. Oh man, check out the main entrance slope. It almost killed me and the car behind me. To think that female driver behind the Hyundai MPV had much 'faith' in me and stayed so close to the butt of my van. Argh, thank God I braked in time when I slid a bit. Phew!

I picture myself riding on a donkey taking careful steps up this trecherous mountain to reach a old and ancient castle at the top - to be devoured by the fire-breathing dragon in the end. Along the way, the donkey almost slipped off the narrow and rocky path. Looking down at the never ending abyss sends the chills.

For the first time, I sorta tried stopping on a slope and moving off without using the handbrake. Although my dad was all ready to pull it for me (again). Hahaha, I think I'm a totally dangerous driver. Pls dn take a lift from me unless it's a car (preferbly with auto gear. haha)

My legs are like jelly now, after all those leg exercise with the van. Vanessa, I agree that it's a total necessity to have an auto gear car. But I'll still ask you to retake your manual license. Pkg, haha I think I believe why you said you'll stall any manual car now. I stalled 4 times. Blimey!

This is gonna be just the first. Ah, I've gotta do it all alone next Tues to Fri! Pls pray for me k. That there'll be no accidents whatever. Although my dad said he wants me to send him and Uncle Richard to the MRT station on Tues, I think I better let dad to it. I'll take over from the MRT after they left. Uncle Richard's old and he better not be in shock. Elliot will kill me for that. Heh..

The feat of the day - I learnt how to control clutch and accelerator on a slope. Still learning, very lousy at it. 80% chance of stalling the car anyhow. Hahahahaha!

Holidays.. Smell so sweet. Guess I'm not going to really work cuz not only because no right minded person will still employ me for those super irregular work times, but also cuz I wanna relax. This is the last holiday ever. Gosh.. But for pocket money's sake and not to strain my mom's allowance to me, I might consider those one off jobs. Oh well, it depends lah.

Anyway I had a rather eventful Tuesday. I formatted the comp for the second time during the week (bless me cuz I've gotta do it again the coming week. it's infected again queenlay..)

Mingbao also passed me his comics to help him ink them. Hahaha think he might have made a wrong choice by asking a super not arty farty person to ink his nice comics. But yah he said it's going to be evangelistic like the last one he did, so it's ok. Yeah, so I was excited to try my hand at inking comics. Sounds chim rite, but it's basically outlining his pencil sketches. Hahha.. It's so fun!!! Nice. I won't say I did a great job, actually there were some mistakes here and there but I think they ain't tt major ones. We'll see Ah Bao's reaction when he sees them on Sunday. Maybe he'll pass me more to ink. Hahhaa, occupy myself during the hols.

For now, I'll just be a computer formatting 'expert' this holiday. Grr...

I'm gonna embark on my first attempt at formating the comp. Argh... I'm still looking out of the window waiting for Superman to fly thru my window and help me out. I never understand why on earth my brothers don't know how to do this. Doesn't all guys know stuff abt fixing computers? All they ever know is download some dumb games and play; complain to me when it doesn't work. Don't they understand tt I'm a computer idiot? Hahha, oh well, maybe after formating. I'll learn a whole lot more and save myself next time. Forget abt waiting for them to help.

Superman superman, where are you???

I feel a mix mash of things now. Partly happy that the holidays are just so near, looking forward to all the freedom and ultimate slacking. Oh and of course Chiang Rai mission trip. On the other hand, I'm totally freaked out by the exams. I've got a paper later this afternoon and it's the horrendous tax. Ahh..

I kinda love the subject, but it's scary at the same time when you've gotta take the exam. Liking it is one thing, but taking an exam brings on a whole different feeling. I hope Moira didn't set the marking scheme cuz she's darn strict and picky. An absolutely smart chick but very stringent. Going for her class takes up 110% of your brain power.

God bless everyone taking the paper later.

Meanwhile, I'll just chill at FAL and take a short nap. I can't think for a long time. My puny brain is you xian gong si.

I'm desperately looking forward to the hols, not exactly cuz I'm darn well prepared for exams. Kinda relaxed since it's open book. Somehow I sense tt I'm overestimating myself. Eee..

But yah, the lure of the holidays. Oooo.... I'm going to have the long awaited Rice Table lunch with Pkg. Oh, anyone wanna come along? Too bad Vane will be starting her sch again. This kinda sucks cuz the whole poly time schedule is so off and wrong. Dn dare ask Xian cuz her exams haven't even started, it'll be a looong way more to go for her. But the lucky lass is graduating this sem.

Pinning and hoping to play tennis when the holidays kick in. Miss those days where a whole bunch of us went to NIE (smuggled with Dav's one miserable NIE card) and took over almost all the courts. It was great! Time to move my ass.

This is a shocking morning. I just flipped the papers and saw that someone from NJ passed on last Sat. Boy, what a tragic end to his life. But thank goodness he was already saved (fr Church of Our Saviour)

I didn't know him personally, but just knew that we were from the same school. Somehow I can't grapple with things like this happening cuz we're all still young. Esp for guys when they just got to the next stage of life. This is tragic.

Lesson of the day: pls don't ride bikes. Those little moving things are dangerous cuz they're so little and wobbly.

God bless Jingwei's family

Blogger is going mad. Either that or my comp's going bonkers. I typed a whole lot of stuff but it didn't post! Argh..

Well, I'm not sure what the heck I'm thinking of with how I deal with my time. I'm complaining there's not enuff time to study, yet it's the same me who wastes it all away. Like what I'm doing now. Stuck at the comp again.. Got a hint of what God wants to tell me during yest's devotion. Proverbs 6 (verses 6-11 i think) "Oh you sluggard!" Tt's what my version says. Hahaha the word sluggard just POPPED out. Yikes, yet another 'lecture' frm God during devotion. Pkg knows how often this happens. Scary..

Anyway having lunch in sch yest was nice. A break from going to sch just for projects. Ryan treated me to lunch and we met Michelle (John's better half) Too bad I didn't really talk to her since she was with her friend and I was with mine. Oh her new hairstyle's nice. Interesting!

Oh Ryan, if u're reading this. THANKS FOR LUNCH! There'll be many more lunches once we start on Urban Planning over the summer break. =) There's Initial D too!

For those wondering if I've hitched myself with a bf: Ryan's a girl. Haha ok, I'm perfectly straight for the record. I'm not giving any prata treat any time soon, altho we can expect one big one from Chock. She promised to treat us. Hahaha.. We're waiting Chock.. Bring Cliff along! It's part of the deal eh.

Think I'm catching Suyu's infectious 'slothfulness' - I've been lazing around for days and I just plain tired even after sleeping so much. Drats. But yah, that's just how I'm evolving into a bundle of tired bones. I wanna sleep all day and do all things at my own pace.

Heard ppl saying there were tremors in SG yesterday because of the Sumatra quake. Hmm I was also in Jurong but didn't feel a single thing! It's both scary and awesome what God can do with the earth. We weren't created with a big bang, but by His loving hands. Yet God can also destroy things tt displease Him. Just like how it happened with the Great Flood. Yikes, who knows what will happen tmr.

For now, I'm contented to be living in tiny little SG away from all these disasters. God forbid it tt it shld also happen to us in the future. I'm a person of little faith and strength.

It's really disgusting how some people are so freaking rich while the rest of the world lives in abject poverty. For some, they're in a dilemma over which LV or Gucci bag to buy. To them, it's like a decision of their life. But for others, deciding on how to pay for the next meal's the big decision.

Some live by the principle of only finishing one thirds of their food to be on a diet. Some are already bone thin with only a third of every meal just to share it with their family.

The rich are striving to stay slim, with those stick figures with rib cages and collar bones jutting out, as their model. The poor are looking towards the day they pile on pounds.

Two world poles apart, but all living on the same planet, breathing the same air and having the same soul. Hmm, so ironic.

Maybe it's too extreme in this case to hit us hard. But it also happens in our tiny little world. How can some people (students actually) drive sports cars to sch, while the rest of us poor blokes spend like eternity each morning squeezing in the public buses? It's really disgusting how people are so rich to own their own car when they've yet to even pay taxes. Gross!

Ok, I sound sore abt it. I wanna drive too. Too bad the only way that I can ever do that is to really earn my bits to buy one next time. Meanwhile, I'll be a loyal customer of our public tpt.

I just went for some afternoon tea with the people of KPMG. Guess my definition of smart casual is really too casual. I can't imagine I actually went there in my jeans and a shirt. Gosh, I was kinda out of place in terms of my attire. Hahhaa, thank goodness we were sitting for most of the while. I thought it was some invitation across all the unis, didn't realize that it was just for NTU ppl. Ops, and I thought I could hide amongst the sea of people.

I'm glad I actually went for the talk. Not that I learnt a lot abt auditing, but it was a place where you learn how to really hold a conversation with strangers, or more precisely, corporate people. I ain't all that eloquent, but just talk lor. Talk as though you know em well, and just participate. Haha, sounds like a bit of an empty vessel rite? Yeah, I'm a vessel waiting to be filled with knowledge and life's experiences.

Anyway back to audit. It is a really competitive corporate world out there. You shine, or just fall off the track. Sounds all so harsh and brutal. But I guess that's true. I kinda gave up being overly ambitious, and got my bubble bursted last time and so I was almost going to be contented being a little person living my little life just being happy. Somehow this talk with the partners in KPMG ticked my little ego bubble again. Kinda makes me want to be more proactive. Like finding an internship or sth (but I can't cuz of FYP and the possibility of GE. Hmm..) Don't want to be overly ambitious cuz it can make one so cold and heartless, but I think just running at my own small little pace will do. Hmm, all talk is so easy, who even knows whether I can live up to my own standards.

For now, I'll guard myself against my little ego bubble. Better not let it get any bigger lest I am blinded. Shall shackle myself to the ground and God.

Listening to Boh Wai Fong do her silly Great Plains is a torture! It's pointless cause we're just following what she does at her computer terminal. I've no idea why I'm so stupid to attend the class. Not like I'm gonna be a Great Plains Expert. Darn.. Spoiler

Anyway the weekend was another wedding. One more to go this yr. Weddings are so nice to attend. Apart from the wedding dinner that is. Dinner is meaningless. Just a bunch of people sitting at the table n gorging over the endless dishes that come one after another. It's a great waste of good food cause no one hardly ever finishes them. Even Suyu's save the world mantra can't help her finish all of those food.

In fact the church wedding's the best part. So cute to watch those presentations. Hmm I've seen quite a couple of weddings. Haha don't panic, my friends are of marriageable age. Not some shot gun deep shit stuff. Funny how weddings somehow look alike but yet still capture your attention all the more. It's nice!

One more wedding to go - Furby & our ever-elegant Fat Lamb!
Vanessa and I can offer to be ur chauffers. Vane should get her license by then. Employ us! No more reception work already. Time for a change..

Listening to Boh Wai Fong do her silly Great Plains is a torture! It's pointless cause we're just following what she does at her computer terminal. I've no idea why I'm so stupid to attend the class. Not like I'm gonna be a Great Plains Expert. Darn.. Spoiler

Anyway the weekend was another wedding. One more to go this yr. Weddings are so nice to attend. Apart from the wedding dinner that is. Dinner is meaningless. Just a bunch of people sitting at the table n gorging over the endless dishes that come one after another. It's a great waste of good food cause no one hardly ever finishes them. Even Suyu's save the world mantra can't help her finish all of those food.

In fact the church wedding's the best part. So cute to watch those presentations. Hmm I've seen quite a couple of weddings. Haha don't panic, my friends are of marriageable age. Not some shot gun deep shit stuff. Funny how weddings somehow look alike but yet still capture your attention all the more. It's nice!

One more wedding to go - Furby & our ever-elegant Fat Lamb!
Vanessa and I can offer to be ur chauffers. Vane should get her license by then. Employ us! No more reception work already. Time for a change..