Bye-bye recess week

T'is the last hours of the last day of my last recess week. Bye-bye recess week. Forever :((

Don't feel that I'm quite productive this week, but so far I think I've done enough to finish up stuff on time. :D Tidied up my clothes cupboard too which is quite a feat for someone like me.

Oh I found this BANG! blog: http://bangcardgame.blogspot.com/. Particularly like the character guide strategies.

Last Recess Week

Half of my recess week is officially gone; but it's my awesome-mest Recess Week ever! Most well-spent (albeit relatively academically unproductive, ops), in my opinion. The best-est part is there's no mid-terms looming at the end right after.

Random pic before moving to the Budget Terminal

We went to Genting from Saturday - Sunday, for our so-called Grad Trip. To save time we flew from Changi airport, so CY, Jon, Tirza, ZJ, and myself over-nighted there (thanks Simon for fetching the three of us). SY was sick so the remaining 4 (SY, WenQiao, Jerome, Shereen) cabbed over around 4 am to catch the 6 am flight. This was my first time taking a plane, and to me over-nighting at the airport was part of the excitement. After two games of Monopoly Deal (ZJun won the first game, and I won the next); Tirza and I decided to try to sleep but we ended up staying awake in most uncomfortable positions instead. In the end we had a few more simple card games. Couldn't sleep the rest of the flight-wait too. :(

We had breakfast in Old Town and took a van up to Genting. I finally managed to sleep somewhat in the van, though it was a very light sleep. Was forced to wake up during the winding uphill trudge in the van to stop myself from feeling nauseated (it's better if you look at the road while it's turning). When we reached Resort World the temperature was awesome. The Singapore heat was so bad that we were all gradually falling sick (in fact a few of us were still sick in Genting). We couldn't check in so we went for the rides first.

We were queuing for the Cyclone here.

I shall not narrate the rides one by one. We were surprisingly alert while taking all of them and there were a few rides which I tried for the first time. i.e. Cyclone, Pirate Ship, and Spinner. Everyone took Corkscrew except me though. And Jon, Tirza and Shereen braved Space Shot (Tirza actually went for a second round). I guess maybe I'll try Corkscrew the next time around. :p I do have a phobia for heights and weird feelings in my tummy and such. I did photo jump shots for the first time too... and kind of failed horribly with all weird jumps that resulted in my feet hardly lifted off from the ground. Of all the rides, I would say the Rolling Thunder Mine Train is still my favorite. It's tame enough yet not boring. Bumper boats was kind of fun when you get the hang of the boat, but it got me a sunburn.

Girls can be messy too. ZJ emphasizes that she slept on the couch, and that is neat.

The hotel room was nice :D This is our girls' side. There were 6 of us so three of us had to sleep on the floor (me, Zaza and Shereen). The guys had the next room where Jon & CY slept on the bed, and Jerome on the floor in a sleeping bag. We went around the arcade at night. Didn't get to win anything from the games, but later on they got Hazel (see 3 pics below) with the help of a random girl who didn't want her points. She is officially Zjun's.

The next day was rather free and easy. Played Monopoly Deal in the morning and took random pics here and there. The highlight of the day was probably meeting Almond. He's the cutest dog I've ever seen so far. He behaves exactly like a baby when carried, but a baby that is a cross between a teddy bear and a dog, with nice curly fur. I'm not a fan of dogs, but I think this one was very nice! It was obedient too! And the owners let him play with us.

Cute lor this dog.

So cute he deserves a group pic with us.

So after a very fun grad trip (descriptions from lazy bloggers like me do the trip no justice), and a bak kut teh lunch (for most of us), and some more lame games; we took a 8 hour bus trip back to Singapore (except Tirza and Shereen who went home first). The trip was that long because we were stuck at the customs. And by the time we reached hall it was past midnight. End of grad trip :((

Final hotel group pic on bed. Hazel is between SY and ZJ (the tiny yellow bunny).

Tuesday was fun too because Ah Gong & Po Po were in Singapore (for her checkup), so Jon & I had lunch with them. We had bak kut teh and Ah Gong ate his third round of 猪脚 much to Po Po's chagrin. We were all stuffed. Then Ah Gong joined me and Jon for a little Fairprice shopping trip in Clementi. Apparently condensed milk is no longer sold in Malaysia (???!!!), so he's stocking up for the whole of the year.

And just now (9 pm - 12.30 am, Wed), I played board games with Eehiang, Jerome, Jon & Tirza. (Need I emphasize again how much I love board games?) We played the only three games that were really fun among RH's board game's collection. The miners (everyone except Tirza) won the first game of Saboteurs; Jon & I won Bang! as Sheriff and Vice Sheriff; and EeHiang won the last game Ticket to Ride (my first time trying this game!), whereas Tirza had the longest road. Must play again :D

So as a result of all this fun, I am supposed to pull an all-nighter with HYSYS after completing this blog. Well, it was fun when it lasted. :D Thank God for the wonderful first half of the week.

It is a Trend

Why do I always make atrociously careless mistakes in questions that I know how to do. :(


And only realize that when the lecturer says 'stop writing'.

V-Day

Valentine's day brings connotations to roses, chocolates, candlelight dinner, romantic outings, sweet presents, declarations of love. Saw many girls holding bouquets and heart-shaped balloons in the faculty today. Even the aunties who do cleaning were holding some! I thought that was really sweet <3

I told Jon I don't want flowers :p In fact we're (sadly) postponing today's celebration to another unknown date because I have a test on Tuesday, a test on Wednesday, and a design project deadline to meet by Thursday. Jon has a Thursday test too. I'm really sleepy now and still have to stay up to mug for hours :(

So there. But at least it's a good reminder that we're coming to almost 2 years together by now (plus minus 48 hours). :D

And yayyy I'm getting nice omelette for supper tonight!

Faith

Found this very nice acronym on Faith: Forsaking All I Trust Him.

I realized that faith was most of what I could hold on to, after I entered into university life that was full of uncertainty. Whenever things go out of my control, and I can't get anything done on my own, the only reason I could go to sleep at night peacefully was in believing God will sort things out, and then I pray and let go, and fall asleep. It is just like this quote:

Fear knocked at the door. Faith answered. And lo, no one was there. ~Author Unknown

I am a very impatient person. I like to see things out and done. I don't like to wait and slowly toil to get results. I guess God is really putting me through a training these four years to wait in patience.

Somehow I don't believe in the saying: Have faith in yourself, and you will succeed. I guess it's true to some extent - where you have the capability, faith does boost determination and confidence. But sometimes you are not the only deciding factor of your 'success'; environmental circumstances have a large part to play too, and they are out of your control. You can trust in things, you can trust your life in people; but they may still fail you, intentionally or otherwise.

Rather I believe in having faith in a definite assurance, which the eyes of the flesh cannot see, but comes with reason. I believe in having faith in He who never fails me, and most of all, never fails Himself. I believe in having faith in facts, not (probable) empty hopes. Faith is not believing that God can, but knowing that He will.

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1)

I pray for a bigger faith for a higher purpose. I pray that I not only use faith to hold on to One I believe could solve my problems, but more than that; I will hold on to His promise that His will will be done (this is different from my will, which is always wanting my own problems solved and things to get fine and happy quickly).

And I thank God for in this year's walk in faith, I am not alone, but greatly encouraged by others :)

The Letter of the Law vs. The Spirit of the Law

Romans 7:6 But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.

Going through Romans in Bible Study has been a great experience. I found out much regarding the power of salvation over sin that I never really realized I could tap into.

But then I was reminded again today, by this verse, and by a sister that it is futile if we grasp all the principles of salvation and what God could do through us, if we fail to love.

I pray that my heart will always be tender for the lost and not have its senses hardened by the businesses and busyness of life. For the Spirit of the Law is love.

I pray that Bible Study would be life-transforming for me, and I pray that the Spirit open my eyes and see the need to love each day. And I pray that through the power of my salvation that has already won over sin, I have daily victory over my flesh and go out of my comfort zone to love, and to share His heartbeat for people.

And I thank God for Anna's little encouragement and reminder on Facebook to seek God even in absorbers and kinetic reactors :) For He is indeed everywhere.

Falling Leaves Return to Roots :)

Came across this song just now when randomly following a Wang Lee Hom playlist. It's quite an old song by now but it still sounds nice :) I like the nice autumn feeling it gives. I played it before last year for CME during Mid-Autumn festival and it was a nice song to play (although it was in A flat major which was the horrible part). I was lazy to listen to it too many times and did not follow the improvisation exactly though. Still I'm pretty sure the important parts were there. :p And ohhh I did powerpoint slides for the performance, which was the only time CME performed with powerpoint slides ^_^

Wabbit year was pretty peaceful with minimal outings and visits from a very antisocial me. :p But I got A LOT of piano time which was great as I have hardly touched the piano at RH at all, and this is going to be my final semester with a piano around :(.