Verjüngung

its great to just sit outdoors on a nice 23deg-temperature weather


especially when you have a great candle-lit feast right in front of you (:


a nice dinner at sunset satisfied my immense craving for chilli crab
i still have about 1.5 crabs worth of crabs in my refrigerator now (:
and then it was back home for our 5-hour long movie marathon hahaha wooots

that was my day off.. with you (:

Here i am, giving every heartbeat
For your glory take me

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
In all your ways acknowledge Him
and He shall direct your paths.." -Proverbs 3:5-6

knotting the knots

i went for a massage with joshua a few days ago before reso rehearsals
i've been eyeing that teeny massage room that used to be YIH's tv room before it was converted to a massage centre
for $7.20, our backs were battered and rubbed and elbowed and pinched at where it was most painful
delighting the uncle & the auntie massuer and massuese with our cries of pain (and ticklish moments for me)
it was a rather painful experience for me, cuz whenever i commented that a spot was painful, the auntie went harder on it
acc to her, "the more painful the pressure, the more shiok later"

the massage got rid of quite some of the knots in my shoulders, but there remained the rest of the knots - in my mind.
sometimes i wished there was a massuese who would pinch away these mental knots that seemed to tighten every now and then
it got me wondering, does it take painful pressure to erase these knots as well?
when a person undergoes alot of stress, does it build him up or take him down?
when theres alot of pressure around me (self-imposed or otherwise), will i go through it and feel shiok after as well?

PMS has been my easy scapegoat, and i've been blaming that poor syndrome for all my unhappy knots
im still trying to ease these knots apart, bit by bit, slowly but steady.
and just hope for the best while im at it

on a side note, i watched the movie "superbad" with lide today, and it was just as its title suggested
or maybe its just a guy show, that contained more than 100 F-words by half time
nevertheless a nice movie because.. it was FREE! (: hahaha thanks lide
the other movie i've watched was "the brave one" with mac.
which has mentally unsound characters living out mentally unsound values
boy im glad im not living in the US.

now back to the essay i've been avoiding by blogging.
back to.. reality.

music makes the world go round

"music washes away from the soul, the dust of everyday life" -Berthold Auerbach

so.. despite having a very torturous academic schedule and an incredulous scale of workload,
these few weeks carried its own joy and treasured moments to be cherished (:

i guess its times like these that make you really treasure whatever free time you've got on your hands
and its just so much sweeter just to be able to do things that you usually take for granted

but before i forget,
HAPPY BIRTHDAY ELAINE TAN!!! (:(:


yes, i know its wayyyy overdue but i really didnt have any time to blog before this
but really hope you had a nice birthday @ essential brews that day :D it was actually my first time there haha
anw you're finally as old as meeee! heehee join the club of aging women :(

hmm okay other than elaine's 20th, the past week has been about really fun singing practices with reso (i really love our group!), string practices @ zhic's house for the coming wedding, a few bishibashi battles (muahaha), a few movies here and there, loads of studying, finally having a proper DG and a nice bible study with the group, meeting up the 2 mels for lunch, and finally being able to conquer the piano battle songs from the movie secret! (:

(not to mention, hell alot of studying and flunking of tests sighh)

but i dare say, the worst has yet to come.
and i have this ominous feeling that this is gonna be how its like till finals.

goodbye social life :(

midsems

4 down, 1 to go.
in the past 2 days i've had prolly the worst combination of midsems ever to occur
but even as i heave a huge sigh of relief, and pat myself on the back telling myself the worst is over,
i also cant help worrying about what the outcome of all will be.
and how i will react to it.

no amount of herculean preparation or late night studying would have prepared me for the big failure on monday
never in my life have i fared that badly in any exam - i think i have a high chance of getting ZERO
at the start of the paper i was giving myself a mental pep talk about buying more textbooks to read up,
but by the end of the paper i felt like running to the tallest building to jump off, and then get up, run up, and jump again.

but whats done is done. thankfully i have today's paper to balance out the mood-o-meter (and perhaps the last paper ytd)
now all i have to do, is to score FULL MARKS for the final paper to ensure salvation of my microeconomics II.

no shit, thats -insert expletive- insane.

but, as the saying goes: "the best is yet to be".
so, just do it.

midsem break

its saturday midnight, but also when i get my last sniff of my midsem break
its been all too short, this one week.
too many things to do, with just too little time.
but before i forget, here're some pics in remembrance of the shortshort break.

botanical gardens with the dogs
i went to the gardens with the bf + the sister + the dogs! (:
and i know im a lil late for spring, but the flowers and greens there were really blooming
i could have taken pictures in there all day long, except my camera was alil crappy
so here're some pics from my sister's phone!
not too bad a place to catch a nice warm sunset (:











my dogs were soo tired after the trip they collapsed once we returned. and SNORED.

air weapons basic course + mid autumn festival @ lide's

ok yes, surprisesurprise, i went for an air weapons course @ HometeamNS! hahaha
it was pretty exciting cuz it was my first time holding any weapon at all (other than my bolster)
we learnt how to engage an airpistol and how to fire it, and how to aim at the targets
its really not very easy although it did look pretty simple
for starters, the damn pistol weighs like a ton in your outstretched hand, so it makes it hard to aim
but theres a first for everything, and im glad i can say i know how to fire a pistol now muahaha
(although it only shoots teeny pellets)

some shots of mac doing his thing


we made our way to lide's place for our midautumn's festival (without lanterns heee sorry!)
so, in the end, we just ate mooncakes and played with fire.




the fire-in-the-cup thing is pretty cool. i think lide did it and we tried to photograph it like a billion times (:

as for the rest of the hols, mac and i double-dated victor&sooyein ytd for a midnight movie balls of fury! (:
its a pretty crappy but funny show, all redeemed by the superhot maggieq.
we sent victor&sooyein back to victor's, then went for a night drive screaming good music in the car hahaha
91.3 is my new best friend (:



before the movie we had a raiko outing @ ritchell's as well! (:
we had a nice steamboat dinner, and watched LOADS of teevee together.
too bad i had to leave early. i wanted to play mahjonggg :(
next time ok!! haha

ok i need to studyy. like, NOW.

mmhmm

"longer than there've been fishes in the ocean
higher than any bird ever flew
longer than there've been stars up in the heaven
i've been in love.. with you"


i just came back from almost 6 hours of singing @ resonance practice today
and i cant shake my head off the song "longer", esp since we sang it at least 20 times
we learned how to mike up today, and got a short try at performing with mikes
i thought my performances with life singers would have cured at least a slice of stagefright i would get
but unfortunately, it did nothing to help with stage presence at all
and it really did not help that i was singing the solo line argh.
its kinda funny really, that, even with soo many years of performing stacked up behind me
singing solo kinda just knocks the wind out of me (or my voice)
and im reduced to a lump of shaky mass trying to remember lyrics and pretend to be confident at the same time.

nope, not easy at all.

hence, i've devised a way to cure me of my stage fright.
say hello to my honorary panel whom i've elected to act as my audience
.
.
.
.

(they were chosen cuz they had the biggest eyes out of my collection)
hopefully this helps.

but for all the stage fright and lack of stage presence..
i had a GREAT time today (: its just really nice to sing with people who share the same passion for music (and are really gd at it @ the same time)
although it did take up almost my entire day today, dinner + supper with the reso people really made up for it (:

the rest of my midsem break have been rather busy tho :(
aside from the studying, and supper-ing, we played bowling with melvin on sunday!!
i think i hit my highest scores EVER that day muahaha. (tho its still damn low but still)
but because of those games, im still aching TODAY.

we had combined cellgroup on sunday + september babies birthday celebrations(:


and i thot this picture was rather funny, although i was the victim of ridicule after cuz i didnt know i was blocked. intentionally.


sem breaks are also a nice time for laze-in-bed days with nothing on the agenda
just catching up on disney shows (little mermaid!!) and many other movies
or playing "metal slug" on the PS although its so freaking old school.


come to think of it, sem break's wayy too short. too short!

take my all

"take my five loaves and two fishes
do with it as you will - i surrender.
take my fears and my inhibitions
all my burdens, my ambitions - you can use it all
i hope its not too small.."

this week (and prolly the last) has been a learning journey for me in many ways
also, perhaps, one thats rather miraculous and god-blessed. one thats very special.
but in short, just learning to let go so that He can reign over completely
and then enjoying the fruits of leaning and trusting unto Him (:

so, the past week has consisted of a variety of things, ranging from studying (of course)
to... having fun resonance practices and learning alot more about acapella and singing
to meeting up with different people for lunch breaks and dinners
to watching "no reservations" today (muahaha and its frigging damn good)
to chilling @ matthew's room trying to play guitar (or rather, listening to him play guitar)
to coming back to school to study in the central library with muggers
to being finally able to do serene tan's tutorial with minimal help! (although only question1, but STILL!)

the next week looks promising, esp since my midsem break has officially begun today! (:

.
.
.
.

in the twinkling stars that dance like fireflies,
in the blushing fruit that hangs upon the vine
in the face of a baby as he forms his first smile,
i see you.. (:

forgotten trust

"Trust in Him at all times, you people;
Pour out your heart before Him
for God is our refuge"

during DG this week, i was so confident that i trusted God with all my heart.
but i relearnt the definition and depth of trust today during my QT.
and i realised, i've "forgotten" to trust.

:D

i finally got the national day star torchlight! (: plus the butterfly twinkling hat.
ever since bryan started showing off his yellow one i'd been dying to get one
(thats the whole point of going to national day parades isnt it?)
and today, melvin finally passed me his frm his goodie bag muahaha.
and, its RED. HAH, so there bryan. we can finally go out dressed up as fairies muahaha

anyway, this week was pretty hectic. one of the busiest i've had so far actually.
been camping around, meeting up with friends, suppers, midnight drives, and just having fun.
we had a proper german-singaporean gathering @ the deck on wed for lunch! :D
so nice to meet up with the jiemeis hahaha ok, plus the guy. just catching up and laughing over everything
after i sent janice home, i went to meet the strings guys for dinner @ crytal jade! (:
been a long time since i've seen kenneth in the first place hahaha so it was nice listening to his stories in US haha
anyway, this was dessert for me&mac:


CHOCOLATE FONDUE with all my favorite fruits. it couldnt have gotten any better.

thursday is what i would call the "nua" day (a new word i've learnt)
cuz mac took leave and we pretty much just did NOTHING at home, watching tv and pretending to study
it was so nua that, at the end of it, we drove to mac's house with my pillow, and i fell asleep there (:
just a meaningless, aimless, agendaless day hahaha.

friday was the prague sinfonia concert for the straits time pocket fund charity (:
we got free seats right at the front thanks to mac's sister's friend who donated a whole load


and, the music was ORGASMIC.
im sorry to admit, but prague sinfonia is like 100 times better than SSO, and the conductor was soo precise
it was just a small orchestra, with merely 6 1st violins, and 4 2nds.
but the music that came out of that small number was crisp and round at the same time
i was soooo impressed, i decided im gonna relearn that mould thats become of my violin

after the concert we went for cold rock icecream!! (:
cuz janice was working, so she gave us double of everything muahaha thanks sooo much dearie
she even upped the size of our icecream frm a kiddie size to a regular? i think. HEE





today, i went for shai's commissioning parade! (:
thank god for the weather. it was threatening to rain, but didnt, so the result was nice cool windy atmosphere
here's all of them looking so smart in number 1s


and us with the star & his lovely (sweaty) hat


i went to commissioning parade with the full intention of capturing a gd shot of the officers throwing their hats into the air
i even had my camera posed ready while they were taking their pledge, after the failed attemps the last few times
jon cheong even REMINDED us to get ready for it
but i only managed to capture TWO hats in the air


gahh thanks to that guy who threw his cap way early i started snapping only to realise it was false alarm :(
ohwell. but the three of us did have a really nice time


we even drove all the way from safti to PS to have Cafe Cartel dinner muahaha.
and then i met mac with victor & melvin (:

ohyes, and, im addicted to kbox (: hahaha

kampong glam + upper pierce reservoir + kbox + bowling

the above equation pretty sums up the weekend that just flew past, conveniently equating it to a total of - FUN (:
its really nice to have weekends that earth-rocking, planet-shaking, but the monday-contrast just intensifies the monday blues
im suffering from a lil case of monday blues, so thank god monday's ending in 40 min time.

anw one of the few highlights for the weekend was our field trip to kampong glam
although we were an hour late cuz we wanted to park at SMU to save parking fees haha
anyway, kampong glam was okay. the architecture there was quite beautiful and traditional
but other than that, there wasnt anything much
(esp since i drove around the area about 20 times trying to find parking lot the last time for dinner @ baghdad st)

we pretty much just went there to practice our photography skills! (: hahaha
huikai even brought his SLR lol.


that place was so photogenic we got alot of pretty pictures hahaha.

during our free&easy time we wandered around with nothing in mind, and we found this costume shop with a cool batman car!

unfortunately it was closed -refer to above clown picture-

thats that for the field trip. i also met the 87ers for dinner after! (:
picked all of them up @ SMU and we went to botak jones for dinner.
the food there's really good! price's not too expensive too, since it was a super huge portion
mac&i went to safra yishun to bowl after that hahaha. and we played a grand total of ONE game cuz i was tired after that.
we drove to upper pierce reservoir, which was ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL at night.




it was just this looonnnggg stretch of straight road that ran across the reservoir
and there was slopes of rocks that you could sit on and just enjoy the night scene (:
lots and lots of cars just parked by the side, and people of all ages just hanging around enjoying the breeze
there was even a couple of icecream peddlars sellings drinks & icecream!
it was soo nice just sitting there. it actually felt like i was back in germany by the aasee
(esp since i cant see whats in the water at night)

on a last note, on sunday mac&i went kbox-ing with victor&sooyein!! (:
yes, im getting a lil hooked onto kbox. and yes, i know i'm sloww.
but i guess i finally see the fun in screaming & massacre-ing songs, and just having fun laughing at the orhbiang MTVs
we did see LOADS of cheesy MTVs that actually gave me goose pimples, because we sang a LOT of english songs
I LIKE =D

thats it for my weekends. i went for resonance welcome tea today (:
it was pretty fun getting to know everybody, and im so glad all my good friends got in too!
there was plenty of good food provided as well after the games hahaha and food makes joy a happy girl

however, work's piling up like nobody's business, and im getting a lil stressed :(
and i know its bad when im already counting the days to weekends on the first day of sch in the week.
ohwell. God provides. time for me to let go, and let God take over (: