when you find yourself

When we go through life
So sure of where we're headin'
And we wind up lost and it's
The best thing that could have happened
‘Cause sometimes when you lose your way
it's really just as well
Because that's when you find yourself

-

im making a conscious effort to blog more so i'd have more to look back unto
im also making effort to meet up with friends, because old friends are like old wine (right?)

i feel really sorry for NSguys especially during this manhunt hoohaa period (and also glad tt im not an NSgirl)
its been raining cats and dogs these few days, and i've been seeing many perimeters of armyguys guarding forests, reservoirs, and whatevers looking like poor drenched pigeons perched on their respective guarding spot, about 100m apart from each other such that they (conveniently) cannot talk with each another

today was another one of those days, where it thunderstormed and the weather was as cold as hell (or antarctica)
i was driving along mandai stretch when i saw yet another SAF perimeter, with their weapons and bagpacks and whatnot stationed throughout the entire stretch, from BKE exit to end of mandai
then, at one of the stoplights, i turned to look at the poor soldier (with water dripping off his hair), only to realise it was a friend of mine, whose name i instantly forgot

it almost made me feel guilty because i was headed for a nice comfy airconditioned room with loads of DVD entertainment with my boyfriend.
just almost.

food haven

i've been having alot of (good) food these two days
sunday
lunch was my first time at manhatten fish market, where 8 of us squeezed into zhenjie's car, and another 4 in grace's car to go to PS for lunch after church
maybe it was because i was rly hungry, or maybe the food there was rly good, cuz i felt i enjoyed my money's worth
i had pacific dory fish&chips, while mac had some herbal garlic fish something. we all shared isaac's garlic mussels with bread
shiok.

dinner was also my first time at longhouse dempsey, for chilli crab session with my family
i finally didnt have to drive, so i could ride in the merc on our way there
throughout the whole trip my sister and i amused ourselves with the multiple cool gadgets that the car was endowed with
including automatic sunshades, cool dual sunroof, adjustable backseats, a very polite GPS system.. etc
this is what happens when you put two mountain tortoise into a cool car :p
food was rly good, and the environment cozy and cool at the same time
however, it wasnt all cut out like i thought it was gonna be, just a nice ordinary place to chill out
it did come with its own sets of long queues, so luckily we made reservations beforehand or we'd not only have left without our crabs but with an empty stomach and strings of curses

monday
i met up with joshua and enru for hotpot dinner @ the deck before our pilates session
we've wanted to have our hotpot dinner since the start of pilates, but every week someone wouldnt be able to make it for dinner, until this week
apparently the price of the hotpot would be 50% off (right?) after 6pm, so it was quite affordable
it had a nice array of meat and vegetables included, but nothing too fancy
it looked rather tiny and small and unfilling, but i realised it can get you quite filled, cuz of the breaks in between where you stop eating to cook your stuff.
joshua couldnt even finish his own hotpot :p haha

tmr's a long and early day :( not looking forward to it at all.

touch of nature

"Climb the mountains and get their good tidings.
Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees.
The winds will blow their own freshness into you...
while cares will drop off like autumn leaves" - John Muir

amidst heavy schedules, tight deadlines, and torrential and incessant flows of workload, i found time for a revisit back to the greens with the sister, the boyfriend and the doggies today evening
i guess it goes without saying that botanical gardens is a very relaxing place to be at, with its little huts with quaint thatched roofs, the scenic nature, and the frequent blows of light breeze

and, for the first time, i actualised the full capacities of having an SUV - to ferry my not-so-nice-smelling but very-active furry pals
and still have alot of space for ourselves


because we went there about evening, the gentle sunlight was perfect for taking pictures




when we got there however, all hell broke loose as we saw the transformation of docile oh-so-cute dogs, to hyper maniacs ready to rule the world
in between the intermissions from these bouts of insanity and hyperactivity, we snapped a few shots that were coo-worthy
like this: emo contemplative shot of ginger fit for a story book cover (:


or this: fit for a bookmark (somehow the camera compresed the image into a bookmark sized one)


and then of ourselves when our dogs worn themselves out enough for us to take a break



after all the swan-chasing, pond-waddling, we went for our customary session to ogle at the turtles


to prevent bubble from straining on her injured leg too much, we brought along this box trolley for her to be pulled around in
mac had to spend some time coaxing her to get into it tho


additionally, he also had to carry her around when we were on non-rollable surfaces

just like in kampong days :p

i particularly love this shot - on our way back to my car


it's a really tiring experience bringing the dogs for a dayout session
on our way back home, i turned around to check on the sister and dogs while waiting for mac to buy dinner for all of us, only to find the three of them concussed in various positions, with unidentified snoring
that's evidence enough haha

115 words

Speed test

happy birthday abel! (:

exactly last tuesday after resonance rehearsals was..


abel's 21st birthday surprise thingy(:

i wanted to dedicate a post to you abel.. BUT, i had no time.
so here's a veryvery delayed post on what happened last tues (:

melo planned the entire thing at the park near abel's house, and the guys helped to blow up balloons
however, due to the latenight-effect and their innate horniness, the balloons ended up either as

1) BOOB


2) BOOB with BALLS


melody blindfolded abel with his tie

and then drove him around the estate in multiple 3-pt-turns so he wouldnt know where he was being brought to
the rest of the surprise was captured in video, so thats it for pictures! hahaha
now, im just waiting for the birthday japanese buffet.. (:(: (still waiting..)

anyhow, the rest of the year looks real good (:
after all that trouble and scares, we're finally good to go for our australia winter road trip!! :D
we've booked our tickets ytd, and so far all's good!
to say im excited about it is prolly a major understatement - it'll be my first time traveling with so many gd friends (:
also, enru and i have also been planning on roadtrips in the USA during our exchange term
and also chicago and maybe newyork after the semester (:

on a super random note, i think i've been having too many suppers
today was supper at fongseng with the reso guys, ytd was supper at subway with enru & joshua.
the last weeks was countless suppers at railway mall with mac
its time to put an end to these fat-inducing activities
i'll have lots of chance to grow fat when im in the States..

happy birthday

to us...



we're TWO years old now (:

we had plans for dinner at Hangout@MtEmily at first. but in view of our upcoming roadtrip to Melbourne, we had to save money
so.. we decided to make dinner together instead! :D

we went grocery shopping for the ingredients for carbonara dinner (:


and mac slicing up the bacon (:


the final product (: im quite proud of it, other than the fact that the sauce was a tad too cheesy for my liking
the rest of the evening was spent making friends with grey's anatomy (:

and if you asked me, this beats a fancy restaurant anytime (:

vday

mac came over to my place the night before vday, to surprise me with Teuscher chocolates (:





from the website:


sooo beautiful and sweet (:
however, after i successfully guessed the price of the chocolates, it was sooo "heartpain"!
i couldnt bear to open up the chocolates until today, when i couldnt resist anymore
i took the liberty to have one as well, and the chocolate was so pure and fine it literally melts in your mouth, as cliche as it sounds

on vday itself, mac took leave and came to NUS to join me at school! (:
we drove to clementi for lunch + bubble tea to satisfy my cravings and then back to school for classes
after that, we went to the cathay for a movie before joining the rest of the youth group for steamboat dinner at yusong's house, in our valiant efforts to resist being sucked into the commercialization of valentine's day
the steamboat session was REALLY good, much to my surprise
although our pastors did make really lame efforts at playing vday table games, or put up love-song dedications, and what nots :p

the 87ers came to my house for wii after dinner, before driving out to labrador park for a midnight picnic (: hahaha!
there were like loads of couples there as well, including MOUTers who parked their cars there and shielded their windows
*scratches head and wonders what they were up to*

ANYWAY.
my sister and i went to sentosa last wednesday before reunion dinner (:


with our dogs (:
we inflated our little green turtle float, and (unsuccessfully) taught them how to swim
and they call jack russel terriers "water dogs" sighh

chinese new year 2008

happy CNY to everybody! (:


chinese new years are always awesome because they're a good excuse to indulge in good food, play cheena games (MAHJONG!), get loads of free money with no guilt attached, and best of all, meet up with everybody to have a great time of fellowship amidst kinship and friendship

this CNY, fortunately or unfortunately, has been wayyy too much fun, effectively ruining all my efficient study plans that i've ambitiously allocated beforehand
sadly, i only realized that when i opened my much-too-filled schedulebook today to realize i've done almost nothing of what i had planned originally
and almost everything that i havent planned

this chinese new year saw...

1) STOMP! (again)

enmei and i right before we transported our instruments down to the main hall

didnt have any more pictures of stomp because the cameraman was one of our crew :p
the performance itself however was... a total disaster - our beats were off, we danced off-beat, we couldnt hear a thing
and prolly worst of it all, i was downright center, and in the brunt of the limelight of disaster
however, it was FREAKING FUN (: we were just having so much fun up on stage making all our mistakes, laughing at ourselves, that it didnt really matter that we were screwing up the entire thing completely hahaha
all of the girls got so high before the performance itself that we were practically laughing at everything and nothing, doing all sorts of stupid things that bordered on insanity, that everything else didnt really quite make the cut for silliness (:

2) Mass photo-taking session!


with the people i grew up with and love the most (:


with the families who watched me grow up, and grew along with me


with the people whose best memories are shared with (: minus mac who wasnt there!


and with the best girlfriend i'll ever have

(lide i'll put yours up tmr! hahaha)

3) KBOX!
pictures are still with my cousin, but yes, we went to kbox on day 1 of CNY (:
it was a maddeningly expensive charge of 28+++ per person, but it was the first time every single person in my paternal family went for a karaoke session together, young and old alike
therefore, we did "baabaa blacksheep" to "stayin' alive", from beegees to backstreetboys all the way till the wee hours of the night

4) Cell group visitations
we went visiting with our new cell group this year - J(jesus) walkers (:
we went to junyan's place, and then my place


heres us at junyan's really big and nice house with his family
we played mahjong the entire time we were there and i won the last 2 rounds! (muahaha)

and then at my place, we played Wiii!!
ginger kept everybody well entertained as well.

after that it was worship, sharing, more wii, and pizza + dvds (:
more pictures maybe another day! (:

those high points make school starting tmr really dreary :(
to make things worse, i havent touched ANY work at all since forever
and on a last note, celine's going back in a week's time! SIGHHHHHHHH

bikequest 08

thats the reason i have a real sore butt, painful arms, and feel like i've swam 20,000 laps
i think we cycled around 110-120km (by dan's calculations), including the mistaken routes we took
it actually felt like germany all over again - with all that mass cycling, traveling on roads, reading maps to get around, and cool (bordering on cold) weather thanks to the rain before we started
we started off at east coast park, where we were bestowed our bikes for the night, and then set off to different pitstops, ours being zouk as the first
i didnt bring a camera, so photos are courtesy of sharon (:


decked out in our cycling attire. cotton shirts from giordano that were ohh-so-soft (:


heres the 4 of us on nicoll highway (:


it was a pretty long journey before we reached central literally hahaha

we played a few games at the zouk bridge, which was near the valet parking lot, which conveniently meant that we had to cycle past dozens of staring puzzled people decked out in their best glam attire looking at dozens of us helmet-heads zooming past
not very glam.


after botanical gardens and ACbarker/balmoral plaza pitstops, we had supper at newton circus

me and my butterfly tattoo. because our team name was - BUTTERFLY RIDERS! (:

(much to the guys' dismay)

the rest of the journey slowly droned into a test of determination when the butt aches set in
we cycled to orchard tho! it was one of the places i reallyreally wanted to cycle to
we went past fareast, and the entire stretch of orchard.
the feeling's really awesome, going past paragon and its marble floors, plaza sing and its quiet stoicism, and cathay with its bright lights with not a single soul around
i must say, i like it alot better at night (:

we reached back at eastcoastpark at about 630am, but by the time we packed up and debriefed it was nearing 8am
the drive back to mac's was rather torturous. i was so tired i fell into a deepdeep sleep at every single stoplight that mac had to take over the wheel
we had stomp practice after that at church till 6pm hahaha
and with that it concluded the longest amt of time i didnt sleep in a day(s)

words

"One of the hardest things in life is having words in your heart that you can't utter.”

---

i made my way all the way to town, queued damn frickin long for parking lot, and went thru 2 ERP gantries for dresses today
1) to buy the dress from yin&yang (which prolly costs too much than it should but heck its beautiful)
2) to watch 27 dresses (which, was fabulous if i may say so)
humor: check. hotgirls&guys: check. typical predictable love story: check. beautiful clothes: check.
whats there not to like? :p