Shopping At Clementi

Today I was so bored, I decided to take a little trip down Clementi myself. I was craving for stationary and a walk you see.

I went to the shop where I usually get my cheaper clothes. They are cheaper because the quality and cutting is not so good you see. But unfortunately, there was nothing nice for me today. I walked round the little square and ended up spending the bulk of my time in Clementi Big Bookshop. There I brought some nice gel pens (6 of them) for a total of $1.80. They smell nice! I spent a whole hour just wandering around in that bookshop (which is not very big).

I always like this bookshop. It has all sorts of stationary that I long to buy but in the end I always end up not getting anything because nothing is cheap. Everything is reasonably priced, but reasonably priced in Singapore isn't enough for me. It always means that I can get the same stuff at a lower price in Malaysia. I was really tempted to buy lots of things, but in the end I was able to restrain myself.

When in bookstores, I frequent the stationary departments but the stationary I find are usually too expensive, not practical and not interesting. That's why I like the Clementi big bookstore, because it has a variety of practically anything. And the reason why I like stationary is they give me a reason to carry out my work more cheerfully. :) That's the reason why I manage to push myself to go to the Central Library in NUS frequently - I know the Co-Op is next to it, and though I rarely buy anything from there, it's fun to just browse.

Besides the bookstore, I went to Ayies too (which sells hair accessories). They had an enormous variety of products also and prices were surprisingly reasonable. I didn't buy anything from there, because I don't have the need yet, but if I want to buy anything to tie, pin or clip my hair, I know where to go to next time.

Ohh, I just added a little doggie player next to my blog. I haven't filled in the songs yet, but there's one soundtrack there already. I got the link from Mable's blog - she has a pink bear so I chose the doggie.

Combined Worship Sunday

The second combined worship I served in was over. James was the song leader like last year, and some of the songs were the same.

At first I thought the choir was going to be really big judging by the amount of the people who came to practice but in the end, it was just OK because some people left during 2nd service, and others didn't come until then. That pretty much evens out things.

I was pretty happy that I joined this time's combined worship. Got to know new people, fellowship with campus (supper!) and serve God in worship! It was a humbling experience too. I think the lady singers had great potential. The youth had nice voices, and could catch on quickly. The Filipino ladies had really powerful voices! I was lost amongst them, but I was quite glad they were around because if everyone sang my volume no one would have heard the singing.

Altogether it was fun and meaningful.

After worship we had our usual lunch outing. The car to people ratio was surprisingly big and we had empty seats for once. In fact most of the lunch/suppers I go to now have empty seats. Last time we used to squeeze like sardines (five girls at the back!) behind Simon's car, LOL. We had Peranakan dishes for lunch. After that we went to the PUB reservoir where Juin Ming fished. It was a sight, with most of them trying to catch prawns and shrimps formally dressed! I didn't feel like trying (as usual) so I snapped pictures with my phone instead. Will upload them to facebook some time (don't feel like doing it now, hehe).

I'm going back to Malaysia for around 1 week on the 2oth or so. Wish it could be longer, but there are things like house-moving to do, and I have to prepare for the start of the semester also.

I've been moving in and out facebook lately and discovered some nice games. One of them is UNO, which is something like MSN's UNO, only they match you with other people instead of the computer. Usually the matches are quite quick, and I like the fact that they give each turn a time limit of 15 secondsso that you can't drag time too much when you're thinking. Some people think so horribly long you see. Usually those still holding a lot of cards after some time will get impatient and leave.

Another game I like to play once in a while is Typing Maniac.

I don't play this too often because it's too fast pace for my liking. For those who know Waka-Waka, this is by the same producers, only more fun because they actually test your typing speed instead of how fast you eat enemies, which is more meaningful, in my opinion. And all in all, it is not actually your typing speed that gets tested, it's how you strategize while typing. In fact I think towards the end, strategizing is more important than typing (provided that you can type fast enough in the first place), because that's what saves your neck. They rank all your friends too, so you know how much they do. I'm now fourth place, but maybe I'll be overtaken soon because it seems to be the latest craze among RH people.

Today I've got lots of free time to study and play around as usual. I've got a new little list of things to source for but unfortunately I can't start work because I don't know the quantity needed yet. So this is it, till the next blog post :)

Little pains

I was just talking to God.

And I just realized that it is blessed to be able to feel those little pains in our lives - small minor unhappiness that do not turn your life topsy-turvy, yet still manage to affect you a little. It shows that my emotional nerves are still sensitive - and this only means that there are no major wounds that cause great pain there. For if there is great pain in my life, the little ones wouldn't matter, they wouldn't even be felt at all.

I hope I am making myself understandable.

It's just like doing a school project. When it's almost done, you tweak it here and there to make it perfect. You refine all the minor details. But when it's totally undone and the deadline is near, all you want to do is hand something up. And you don't really care how well 'something' is done as long as you have something to hand up (reminds me of last sem).

To be able to care about little details, even the negative ones, is a blessing indeed. It means you've got the greater things all covered. And when you look back after some time, you realize that it is the big things that really matter.

Learning to thank God for little pains and aches (even those inflicted on myself by me, which hurt the most). And learning the cherish this time too, where all still counts as bliss, and God's blessings come in the form of abundance and fulfillment.

Usually things like this should appear in my diary and not in my blog. But alas, I have yet to unpack my diary. I miss my diary! Yet unpacking it will clutter up my room much further, and it is a sacrifice I have yet to be able to make. You see, even my printer is not out yet.

Let's talk about happier things :) Worship practice! Went there today with Alicia, Andrew and Jon. It was fun. I get to know more of the Youth now in the second practice, and though we're a bit like oil and water, I think they are very sociable and fun. I love the songs. And I realize there's really a lot of good singers among the Youth too.

That's all of today's entry I think. I wish I could write more, but my ability to express hasn't really been back yet.

24 June 2009

Today's post is just a random number of things passing through my mind.

Firstly I'm not happy because after thinking through a whole lot of things in my mind in the bathroom, I realized that I'm still a very cranky person. And although I've tried to control and manage my anger most of the time, I didn't notice I had never bothered to stop crankiness. The difference between those: Anger is the emotion lashed out at others because they do something negative to you. Crankiness is simply being angry or fed up with others because of circumstances that inflict myself. The latter is more subtle, and alas, it is the 'greater sin', I feel. It's like being angry at people for no reasons of their cause as well.

Sigh. Just when I thought I am so disliking putting up with crankiness, I find out that I'm very much a culprit of it myself.

Anyway, for the happier things :) Cikgu Teoh added me on Facebook! Somehow I found it very surprising that he actually had a facebook account - I mean so far only Ling Xuan (his daughter) has one, but not even his son has. And he even has photos in it now, so lovely :)

And yay, Zhi Jun is updating her blog for two consecutive days! I suppose it means that she's very sien but at least I guess I have more entries to read. Hehe.

OMC, My Laptop and Central Library

Yes, these three probably sum up how I spend my days.

OMC = RHOM = Raffles Hall Orientation Marketing Comm. We had a meeting yesterday and I felt that I was suddenly left with nothing much to do. The CDs were going to cost a bomb and by tomorrow if no one sends in replies to me I'm going to have to call again. I'm try going to help Float instead once in a while but I feel lazy today, so I'll do it tomorrow.

Yesterday I did one of my biggest bouts of callings. It was funny how those company representatives kept on reminding me that there's recession now. Well, it might be recession but some sponsorship needs do remain needs in the end. That makes me feel more and more thick-faced when I'm sourcing for materials somehow. Fortunately there's less work to do this semester compared to last year. I should be pleased but somehow I wish there was more to do. I loved working with the team last year, it was so bonding and fun.

There are just a few sites I frequent in the internet these days. Youtube. Restaurant city - I maxed all my recipies a few levels ago and it's pretty fun now just turning it on and letting things run. Just have to feed my employees once in a while (for those who know what I'm talking about). All the same it's rather boring too.

Central library is quite far off from hall now - with the infrequent busses (especially weekends), and the closing of of the front path of the hall. It means that if I'm to walk there I'll have to make one big circle around the hall to do it. Sigh. Yet it is my favorite place to visit these hols. It's weird - last time it was holidays and they had to make us take our temperature before going in. Now H1N1 has actually invaded NUS (8 cases), and no one's taking our temperature. In fact I couldn't even access the website that we were supposed to record our temperatures in.

Anyway I like Central library. I'm already borrowing all sorts of murder and detective stories plus Roald Dahl books. I know NUS is all academic and research, but I do wish they would have more nice fictional stories - like romance novels and the lot. Well, I guess I shouldn't be complaining - at least I have some short stories to read now.

I wanted to go and walk about quite a lot these hols, but looks like H1N1 is saving me all my transport fares. With it being around like this in NUS, I fear the best option is to stay in my room to study for next sem, play computer games or watch movies.

Serving in Worship

The days are passing quite monotonously. Well, almost but not quite. I almost don't feel like blogging, but it's a habit I'll like to keep up. So here goes :)

Yesterday we had worship practice - combined by youth, campus and acts. Actually the majority there were the youths. There were very few from campus too. in fact I was the only one from campus in the choir. There was one ex-Acts member there too, Alanie. Other than her, no one from Acts was in Choir. I guess it was a weekday and people were tired from work.

I'm a person of inertia, and it's hard for me to up and about unless I really want to. Even walking from Block 5 to Comm hall is some kind of chore if I have nothing to do there. So I wasn't like 100% raring to go for worship practice. But then I went, and it God was good to me. In fact I took the worship with me home and the songs were still ringing in my ears when I was in bed. Especially the song Offering. I realized that I had been giving God shallow offerings everyday, through devo and worship. And I think He's worth so much more than that.

I like worship. I remember just the day when I was going home I was helping Ms Chia with some songs, and they realized that I wasn't playing piano for church over here in Singapore. (But I have played for Campus though, twice I think). Last time I sang with the Choir once when I was in youth and campus.

Last time when I was still in secondary school, I was pianist for our youth choir. And I loved to play. I always think the best place to be in the choir was to be behind the piano when people are out there singing in front. And true, you're always not in the pictures when people take pictures of the Choir team, and no once can see your face, or even notice much of your music either. But back then every song was a challenge - they had to be unique, they had to be played differently, and I try to make repetitions sound different. The piano was the only source of music - no drums, no e-guitars, not even the e-piano to cover it. Those are nice additions, but not when people are not in sync. That's why usually I prefer playing on my own more.

I always think the best place for me is behind the piano, and now I'm singing in the Choir. And I realize that I love it too.

Back in Tampin I'm not exactly known for being able to sing :) There are always this batch of 'singers' who always backup those in front. I suppose my ability to sing is overshadowed by my ability to play. After all you can't always serve in two things at the same time. And it's fair because everyone gets to serve in one way or other. I never knew I had a good pitch, and a nice voice, till I came to NUS. (I hope this is not bragging.) I think Choir training in Raffles Hall brought it out. It made me like singing too. In a choir, not on my own.

I think God always equips me in the ways I need to serve him. I realize that my voice somehow sounds much better when I'm in Singapore and when I need to sing, as compared to the times when I come home. It always goes away when I'm at home - or let's say, becomes less inferior. And in contrast, I always play best when I'm playing in worship - not when I'm fooling around, or just practicing away in that old piano at home. Somehow it just comes. And I thank God for always supplying what I need at the right time. Just enough for Him to use, not too much that I brag, nor too little that I do have enough.

Thank God for letting us worship Him! I always like the way one pastor described worship. He said that many people come to worship desiring to be fulfilled or get something from worship. They say things like 'oh, I received so much from worship today!' But actually, worship is an act of giving! It's giving everything to God, our praises, our obedience, our commitments, surrendering. You got to worship to give, not receive. But we are made to worship, so that's why we love to worship God :) Many people come to worship to take away, not to give.

I wonder in the coming semester I would be able to give more in my worship. Will pray about it. :)

Back In Singapore

I'm back in Singapore and RH now. Got a room at Block 5, room 5-217. It's a double room but I'm currently the only occupant there. Wonder when my unknown roomie would suddenly pop in. Somehow I always get double rooms that act like single double rooms. LOL.

More than half my stuff is still unpacked and are in Jon's room. I've just got enough things around me to live by (except paper).

The train trip back was quite tiring. Couldn't really sleep well on the train, partially because I was feeling really homesick then. Was crying on and off in the first few hours of the trip. Must be partly the effect of the nice dinner Po Po cooked for me before I left.

RHOM hasn't started working yet. Lucky people who got the first half of the vacation! Some of them practically had nothing to do. And I can foresee that in the weeks to come, those of us who are here are going to have a really awful time sourcing for all those float materials. The list comes late, they rush us for materials, we rush the sourcing, they rush the work. Without freshies, together with the slow rate the materials come in, I wonder if they could even finish things on time. They are going to need a lot of hands indeed.

I went to the Central Library again, and did a bit of self-studying. Next semester's materials require a firm grounding of basic understanding, and hopefully I get to bursh up my basics before school starts! I was quite disappointed when I had my lunch at YIH. They took my favorite cheese/mushroom omelette off the menu (and it was only $1.50), and left other items with increased food prices :( Don't think I'll be eating much over there again.

RHOM will have our first meeting tomorrow. Hope all will turn out well. Meanwhile I shall enjoy the nice Agatha Christie murder mysterey I managed to borrow from the library. I'm jolly lucky to have in my hands one of the very few stories she wrote from the Central Library. I wonder why they don't keep the whole set! Furthermore, the cover looks really unimpressive, just a black hardcover book - in contrast to those nice glossy covers of the copies found in my secondary school library. Well, I guess in the end it's the contents that matters!

Helping others?

I'm in a very idle state these days, but surprisingly enough my mind is not. I guess playing computer games does in a way benefit me, as I usually go through issues with myself while playing. Issues I wouldn't have thought of, or specially allocated some me-time to think about.

Just wondering why I don't seem to be able to help people much these two years. In fact progress has been so backward, that I've given up caring to know how these persons are getting along.

Is it because people just don't want to be helped, or I don't care enough? Or do I care enough, but am just doing things my own way?

I'm not like this. And I wonder why I'm like this. Worse still, sometimes you put your hands behind your back, don't want to care, but there's this little voice nagging in your head saying, "What if?". What if I cared again, would it make a difference?

I know I can't keep going on like this, but part of me still wants to stop because I'm too afraid of the discouragements ahead. And people around aren't being too encouraging about it either.

Sigh. One day I'll really have to face myself about this. But when?

An Update for Tirza

Tirza said I don't blog much lately, so here's an update for her. Actually, I did update - once every two days! But then again she's right in a way - I do blog much lesser now, since last semester. Somehow the drive for blogging isn't quite there.

I deleted a whole long passage I was typing. I'm quite protective when it comes to blogging and I believe certain private issues should be left to the diary or private blogs (well locked up). Ranting can prove to be dangerous and might lead to explosive catastrophes, if not attended to properly.

Sigh. Dear diary. I miss you. Why is it that you're always in Singapore when I need you?

Anyway, on other news - I'm bringing back a new laptop this semester! It's newer, has a smaller screen and is lighter. I think it's quite cute. It has much more storage space too. My Dad helped me install MATLAB into it, and without thinking much, I asked him to put in the entire games of the GameHouse collection in my comp at home into it too. Now I kind of regret doing that. Might prove fatal during stress-periods.

Tsai Sheng is coming back to Tampin next week. He just has to come back from Russia at this time of the year, just in time for me to miss his coming back! This is so irritating.

I'm going back to Singapore next Monday for Orientation Marketing work - which, I don't have a clue of what I'm supposed to do after I'm back. I hope Float materials aren't too hard to source for. Last year, Zhi Jun spent so much time just looking for buttons, and those paper cups took practically forever. As for the blue sponge, which I was in charge of, it turned out to be shockingly expensive. And you would think sponge is something really cheap to acquire. But worst of the worst was the dry leaves. We gathered two big bags for them (mind you, it wasn't easy, bending down and collecting, and choosing nicely shaped leaves all around the hall compound), but in the end they didn't use it! On top of that, all our nights were spent looking for bottle caps.

UFO 4 is on 13 July, and to Malaysian NUS seniors to want to help out (from RH), please let me know, so that I can plan out something for hall helpers. There won't be freshies from RH this year, but then, we might need to help out freshies from other halls. I don't think they will need too much help this year though. It seems like hall seniors are getting more and more involved in MSL as the years go by, which is a good thing.

Guess I'll end my blog here today. Don't worry, Tirza, maybe I'll be so bored back in hall that I will blog as frequently as I did last year.

Sinking Sand

There's this song I learnt in GLCC that goes:

On Christ, the solid rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand.

Here's one observation I always see, especially within these few years - which is particularly what I hate to see: People, who want to leave first the church, then God when things go awry in life.

There are different factors. Once it was school work and fallen trust in friendship. Another time it was a job not acquired. Yet another time it was the people issue again.

There are many reasons given too:

The church isn't for me. I don't belong.

He/she won't be happy to see me there.

God doesn't want me to have this.

I can't get along with the people there.

Some Christians just put me off.

Maybe later/next time.

I met many Christians with different issues - doubt, depression, trials in life, indiscipline. But it is those who have weak foundations are the ones who first decide to leave church. That's why I was particularly disappointed when someone, whom I thought had grown a lot through the years, told me that.

Christ alone is the solid rock. All other ground is sinking sand.

If you're a Christian and things happen, and you want to leave God - maybe all through this time you never knew Him. Because if you did, you will know that you're leaving the only One that can get you out of the mess. And if you did, you'll know that even if all is lost, you still have your foundation of faith - with Christ as the rock.

Many times when I address those words I sit back and think if I didn't put myself in people's shoes. Here's this girl who's life is as smooth-sailing as a ship in the calmest seas, who is she to comment on thunderstorms?

Believe it or not, I had my own issues of faith, especially these few years. I struggle every time I read my blog archives, when I said I'll trust God I wondered if I'm still the same person I was. Although my experiences are different from yours, and yours, and yours... I knew God was going to get me through them in the end. And He did, and He will.

So every time before you want to let go, think: What are you letting go off? Do you jump off the rock just to dive into the sinking sand, thinking that through this everything will be solved? Or would you cling to the rock?

Youtube Delight

I don't know what came over me but I've been you-tubing quite excessively these few days. And found a few gems along the way, although they may be really outdated.

First, I was addicted to the Les Miserables musical. I know it's a little too late to be all over this now, when it's been out such a long time ago, but still, you can't help that 'wow!' feeling when you come across nice things in Youtube when you least expect it. The songs in there are superb. I love At The End of The Day for its strong musical background. The singing is grand too, hitting all the high notes and bringing out the atmosphere just as it should be.

The other songs were wonderfully nice too. I love them all! The one that really touched my heart was A Little Fall of Rain, where Eponine sang right before she died. You need to really know that part of the story to appreciate the song. In a nutshell, Eponine died trying to save Marius whom she loved - she blocked a gunshot for him and was fatally wounded. Marius loved Eponine as a best friend, and was in love with Cosette (who is the main character of the story, more or less). Anyway the song is song by Marius and Eponine as a duet where Eponine died in Marius' arms.

I do love Eponine in the musical! So do many others, in fact I think she's prettier and sings better than the actress who acted Cosette. And the whole thing about her makes the musical so much more saddening because she died in unrequited love - yet she was so contented.

I found other songs like Memory in Cats too - though I knew of that during Choir days thanks to Shu Shan (I never bother to find out these things on my own LOL). Les Miserables was 'discovered' due to Andrew's earlier recommendations in the semester.

Somehow or other I decided to watch a Disney Movie yesterday night and picked on Sleeping Beauty. There and then I had the shocking revelation that Mable had never watched Sleeping Beauty before - as far as she remembered! Poor girl - for once I feel that my childhood is way more complete than hers, haha. Anyway, it was a nice movie to watch - you only appreciate the humor of the fairy godmothers and other little quips like 'This is the 14th Century, Father!", after you've grown up. When I was a kid I only took things as they were. I just finished watching Hercules today too.

Ooo, and heres one thing I always want to mention but never do - I adore the Three Investigator series! They are simply lovely to read - even after so many years. Haha, that was random but I just wanted something to close off this blog entry.

The Procrastinated Post: PJ Trip Part II

OK, here's part II of the PJ trip, complete with pictures.

After shopping at Sungei Wang and Times Square for one whole day (refer to part I in the previous post), I had a good rest in the next day for the shopping spree began a little later than usual. Dawn had a late day in school and by the time she was back it was dinner time. I joined her Christian Fellowship in UTAR for dinner. After that we went to Midvalley to shop. By the time we reached Midvalley it was already past 8 p.m. So you could imagine how we rushed when we toured the place.

Some pictures in Midvalley:

Teh Tarik Man at the door entrance. Dawn dragged me to take a pic with him as soon as we got in. Charming, is he not?


Dolls in front of an already-closed shop. Could imagine how late we were then.


Fluffy toys being sold. We sneakily took pictures of them (hence my funny expression), since we reckoned the sellers won't really like it.

We had ice-cream at Baskin' Robbins too. Dawn had chocolate mint (as usual) and mine was apricot mixed with white chocolate or something. It had some complex name that I had already forgotten. Too bad we didn't think of taking pictures with those and messed around with soft toys instead.


Pictures of previous days: Nandos Dinner at Sungei Wang.


These two pics above are of us taking silly photos until the food came. We did a range of expressions. You could check out the whole selection in Dawn's facebook photos. My photos were decidedly worse because they were saved at the first take. Dawn deleted most of her previous photos and had around 3 takes before she proclaimed them decent.

This is another picture of the food we had. The drink is Coke (unlimited refill). The refill somehow became Ice-Lemon Tea though.:S

Emo Dawn tired after a walk in Times Square. This particular photo comes in a range of colors as well. To know what I mean, view her Facebook photos. The bag in front of her contains doughnuts. Again, I didn't think of actually taking a nice picture of those doughnuts. And the doughnuts accompanied us for 5-6 hours in the remainder of our shopping spree.


This picture was taken at 1Utama - the place called Bar B Q in my previous post.

Happy-me with funny expression. My pictures always turn out weird somehow.

Happy Dawn with normal expression. See, she always takes better pics then me. :(

Yes, yes, Hunny came too. Dawn has adopted her as a daughter. She told me she ate a little and drank some soup. :S

This is how you cook the food. Interesting, isn't it?

And here's what we ate between us. There was unlimited refill of green tea too.


This was my comfy mattress on the floor which I slept on throughout the stay. Biddy (the nice round pig there) is as good as a pillow herself. She's fallen from Dawn's graces somehow (by being too boring I suppose), and Hunny is now the new pet.

Yes this is Hunny. Cool Hunny, though she might have sore ears at the moment.

Another picture of cool Hunny, with Dawn's purchase of the day - her Strawberry bottle!

There - the job in done. The PJ Trip Narrative Series is over! :)

PJ Trip Part I

Went to PJ with Dawn (my sister) these few days. Took some silly pics with my phone but have to wait till I'm back for it to be uploaded (provided D doesn't delete too many of those unglam pics of herself). Hunny came too.

I slept on a mattress on the floor with a nice squishy pillow and Biddy, who is almost like a pillow herself. She's this nice round pig belonging to Dawn. I like Biddy, she's nice to hug, squeeze and irritate Dawn with. Dawn, on the other hand, is obsessed over Hunny, my Carebear.

We Dawn's place in the late evening on Sunday so didn't have time to go anywhere. Dinner was an event worth remembering though. I never waited over an our in a cafe just for a plate of fried rice (which we shared).

The next day, XJ treated us for lunch. After that we went shopping at 1Utama. Brought a blouse, jeans and shoes. Dinner was fun. It was at this place called Bar B Q and it was both steamboat and bbq in one. Dawn went home empty handed for once. She said it was alright as the next day she was sure to come back with lots of things. According to her, no girl comes back empty handed from Times Square and Sungei Wang Plaza. Those were the places we visited yesterday.

So yesterday we set off to Times Square and Sungei Wang, and shopped the whole day. I never shopped so much (as in brought so many things) before. And surprisingly Dawn came back empty handed too! Maybe I just wasn't her shopping buddy, she said. In the end she brought a few hair accessories to pacify herself.

Dawn is in class now and we're going to Midvalley later. :) Somehow I still prefer the public transport in Singapore by far. It's faster, cleaner, and most of all, you don't have to worry so much about your safety when you go around in unlighted areas at night. But oh well, this shopping experience has taught me one more thing. Clothes and food are SO MUCH cheaper in Malaysia! I have a good mind to convert all I spend in ringgit over there so that I can cut down my expenses a little bit more.