Wine Company

we celebrated post christmas together at wine company, evans road. celebrated dewen's birthday as well. after which, we made our way to raph's house to overnight. it was really fun and i thank God my holiday is well-spent with people whom i dearly treasured. through these years of ministry, wherever we are, its the friendships that we made along the way counts. strong friendships serve as encouragement and inspiration towards the future.


nakamas

recovering jerk

(continued with my reading)
one day andy took me for a walk. he put his arm around my shoulders and said, "randy, its such a shame that people perceive you as arrogant, because its going to limit what you're about to be able to accomplish in life."

do you have someone who love you enough to give you honest feedback...
who cared enough to tell you the tough-love things that you needed to hear...

santiago

after the christmas buzz, Eugene joined us to go to our bridal place, Santiago for our second gown & suit fitting. we enjoyed a nice dinner @ Ding Tai Feng after that. blessed to have him as our close friend around. its really happy to know him settling good in his new job.
interesting fact 1: gowns really weigh a ton. *huff*
after the gown fitting, i also did a trial makeup.
interesting fact 2: i am so fascinated how mascara can "enlarge" the eyes!
today marks another milestone in our wedding planning. we had our wedding photoshoot. we went to haji lane and sentosa for our outdoor shoot.
interesting fact 3: smiling throughout the entire day can make the mouth numb
interesting fact 4: fake eyelashes further "enlarge" the eyes! *like seriously...wow*
interesting fact 5: after his hairdo, Roy looks like Ryu from dragonball.
interesting fact 6: my wedding designer, Amanda told me that my AD gown weighs the heaviest in the store! (my sweet jie meis, pls help lift, kick and pull my gown on the day yea ><)
interesting fact 7: during phototaking at haji lane, a caucasian couple took a picture of us too~
interesting fact 8: the scene that we both felt most comfortable is the nose-to-nose! haha!
blessing 9: God gave us a good weather! it rained the night before, thus, morning was nice and breezy. by the time we were outdoor for photography, it was windy and cloudy. after we finished our sentosa shoot, the minute we got into the car, it starts to drizzle.
blessing 10: after a long day (i'm on high heels), God gave us 2 seats on our next train stop at raffles place.

throughout the whole day, also got to know our studio photographer, Ah Teck more. he is the same age as Roy, and his baby girl is 2 months old. he has 2 dogs back home in JB- a golden retriever and a shin tzu.

i have just came out from shower, shampooed and conditioned my hair. washed my face twice, slapped some toner and moisturer. gonna put a mask later. i felt like a wayang singer today. hehe

Happy Boxing Day

21 Dec. went for beach road prawn mee together with our ablaze friends, dennis, gwen & philo for lunch. it was really a good time of sharing and fellowshipping. i also gotta know that both nick and lucy are teachers back in Brisbane. cool! :)
what followed after the lunch was a very refreshing ulm with them too. i was deeply moved by a word given by torchie. its both a confirmation to my recent praying and an assurance of what i've been doing. thanks torchie for praying for me.

do not fear... grow taller... the very same spirit will flow into others... i am a big tree!

24 Dec. The Gift @ the rock auditorium for our annual Christmas celebration services. managed to take a few pictures in the midst of the busy day. this is ray, part of the drama team. also a friend i have known for long... around 12 years? bro, keep going strong and joyful :)
happy birthday, asher! aka dewen. he was the one with the pen knife and bottle of pills in the drama. thanks for being a faithful friend these years.
posing with jiayi during our dinner break, shortly before the 3rd service starts. i received eve's christmas prezzie and gift. its a very unique gift where "big sis" & "lil sis" are on the pendant. i can give the other half to mei mei :) thanks eve! *hugs*25 Dec. roy and i went shopping for our wedding bands in town. town was so crowded. esmond and mei came together with us too. ended the night with a nice dinner at wine company.

Happy Christmas to....

Pei Key! thanks for serving together in the Christmas services. am thankful for a chance to know you more too, esp our chat over the dinner break :) Bless ya, sis!

Germaine! i'm totally so blessed by your spirit of willingness and joy! i saw that you and your people were busy from morning till night, to help the stage ministers make-up and touch-up. what you and your team are doing, is very important to the church. have a great 09~

Steven! event after event, i'm always so amazed at your gentle and joyful spirit in serving. over the intercom, i really think that you tech- directed very well, our live recording has improved so so much! praying for you and your family, great blessings and anointing in 09.

Ah Long! a scene that touched me alot was looking at how you stretched out your hand and eagerly prayed for the non-believing friends to receive Jesus into their lives. i'm blessed by your pastoral heart.

Huimin! thanks for praying for me before the 3 services start. we barely know each other, but i saw from time to time, you prayed quietly during the rehearsal. i'm very inspired by your prayerful heart. thanks for being there early in the morning and helped around in ways you could.

Jiayi! first time being in stage managing team with you! really enjoyed on-the-job with you! thanks for serving and seeking ways you can help me out too.

Jasmine! thanks for leading the entire production team! i saw and learnt from how you handled certain situations with wisdom and tact, and the encouraging words you gave aptly to the team.

Roy! heys dear! thank God for a chance to serve with you again. this time has been fruitful as we get to "rub shoulders" with each other in communication throughout the entire day. thanks for being an encourager in my life :) romans 8: 32.

EVERYONE in the production team! Thanks to all of you who worked hard, night and day, rehearsals after rehearsals, serving happily and diligently. i am encouraged by each and everyone of your spirit and attitude.

from glory to glory

card-writing marathon

its really quite an amazing event that all of us were able to gather for an overnight in our team. we stayed over at dennis' lovely girlfriend, gwen's house for the christmas cards writing marathon. believe it, some of them has records of 100 over cards to write. *faints* Of course, the night was long and some of them fell asleep while writing. hehe.



towards 6am, we dialed for macs breakfast and had rounds of mahjong too. i really enjoyed the overnight as we seldom (really seldom) get to do this. for me, it kicked start a warm fellowship and rest for my block leave too.

happy christmas!

roots

on the first day of practice, we were all scared to death. plus he hadn't brought along any footballs. one kid finally spoke up for all of us. "Excuse me, coach. there are no footballs."
And coach Graham responded, "we don't need any footballs."
There was a silence as we thought about that...
"How many men are on the football field at a time?" he asked us.
eleven on a team, we answered. so that makes twenty- two.
"and how many people are touching the football at any given time?"
One of them.
"Right!" he said. "so we're gonna work on what those other twenty-one guys are doing."

Fundamentals.

You've got to get the fundamentals down, because otherwise the fancy stuff is not going to work.

living

began a new book yesterday evening. continued on my morning train ride today.

"...kids, more than anything else, need to know their parents love them. their parents dont have to be alive for that to happen..."

engineering isnt about perfect solutions; its about doing the best you can with limited resources.

Heroes Camp

Yesterday was a cool morning to begin with. woke up to light drizzles outside my window and quickly get changed to go to SSS for our bi-annually youth camp. i was excited to start my day at camp because i aimed to enjoy every single moment of the entire day.

i reached the hall and found philo distributing breakfast packs to the cg. i was blessed by her hospitality as well. its really nice to see my people at the start of the morning. went through the loyalty lesson on David by DanielC and Dennis. what led me to think further about the lesson:

what makes David so powerful that his mighty men follow him so wholeheartedly? whats so special about him?David expressed his loyalty to his mighty men too.

your friend's spirituality is your responsibility.

forgive easily. sometimes, i find that i am quick to correct the wrongs. in midst, i maybe too rigid and not done it in loving ways.

Gideon and i delivered the workshop on spiritual gifts. one of my camp objectives is to reclaim my gift of teaching. i have not taught for quite sometime and i really want to teach again and teach the Word more. thank God, the workshop turned out good & God blew my nervousness away! haha!

we had so much fun clowning around during Minilution rehearsal. it was so much fun doing something together with shirls' cg and the uls! :) did a tee for our beloved pastor that says: "i heart shirls!" *jumps* it was nice and encouraged to receive cards and notes from some of my people. i really really appreciate the words written on the cards. they meant so much to me and it always reminds me of why i am doing what i am doing :)

Pastor Jeff came and shared a lesson on the life of Abraham. some points he mentioned really struck a chord in my heart, kept me up to keep thinking about it.

moving from comfort zone to combat zone.

spiritual growth is being on new & unfamiliar grounds and thus need to learn new skills and abilities

daddy, mei and i

we went for our cousin wedding dinner just now. it was an outdoor dinner, very windy, thank God for the weather. some pictures we took with my samsung phone.

One Fine Day's Disney & Japan Launch

Heys friends! :) Check out my friend, Nicole's online shop:
http://www.one-fine--day.blogspot.com

Her latest Disney & Japan Collection has been launched! :)
pay a visit for your year- end Christmas shopping!
God Bless~

Giogio!

Last sunday, a few of us brought giogio out to bishan park for some fresh air. giogio is soooo cutteeee! there was an incident where a husky came near giogio and smelled him, giogio was so still and he didnt move an inch! he was trembling. hehehe. anyway, if you are wondering what was he wearing that day, it was an england jersey. heheh. so cute!

29 Nov 08

Here are some late photos from the hangout on 29 Nov. went for a jog at bedok connector park and off we went to have our late dinner plus a nice ice-cream treat *yums*

roy lovesss ice cream alott.

Are you coming? :)

24 Dec 2008 @ The Nexus Auditorium
Mandarin Service
07:30PM - 09:30PM

24 Dec @ The Rock Auditorium
Service 1: 2pm-4pm
Service 2: 5pm-7pm (with children programme)
Service 3: 8pm-10pm

25 Dec 2008 @ The Nexus Auditorium
"The Gift"
Family & Children Service
10:00PM - 12:00PM

Its my life musical

this picture is rather dark... a few of us went for Its my life musical directed by Lim Yu Beng. we sat at the first row and had some neckaches after it. hehe. nonetheless it was fun going for a play together. while watching the musical, couldnt help but memories of Teenage Textbook during my youthdays kept coming back... student days were fun!

mookie

i miss mookie. little miss mookie texted me a few days ago...
"...suddenly missed u greatly... ystday saw facebook updates... i wanna meet u up b4 ur big day. let me noe ok..."
she is none other than joey aka zihui. my ex-sheep who is with me during my central and west days. thinking back on our pioneering days, she is a faithful and consistent support in the team. currently, she is in the Hopekids ministry, influencing and impacting many many young lives for our future.

Yesterday had an enjoyable spt with my team. we met for some japanese food at cathay basement and it was really lively and active interaction that i had to repeatedly mentioned some same things over and over again. haha. at one point, yao turned to me and repeated what he has understood. funny mans. i feel like a naggy granny. *faints* After the meeting, we did our unknowingly usual practice- we stood around in circle and went on talking and talking. it was then someone would "heys, lets move people...", then we would inched forward bit by bit. it was not long before we paused in our steps and stood in circle to continue our conversations. well, it goes to show that we just had so much to talk and share when we see each other, i enjoy the fellowship times.

a long weekend, yay.

so touched

yesterday i went for an interview at one of Touch community centers at Ubi. seriously, i felt that God has orchestrated the interview for me, to encourage me and advice me through the center director. i was very totally blessed by her spirit and warmth towards me. i was very excited about the interview, not because i die die need to secure a second job. rather i am very keen to find out more details about social service industry and serving the needs of the needy. indeed, the whole trip was not in waste. i know that i need more time in prayer and getting my focus clearer on what He wants me to do and what i am passionate about. this interview serves as a step to make my focus clearer. i am very encouraged by Julia, the center director and Danny, the HR personnel. towards the end of the session, she even offered to pray for me! i was very touched. i was very touched because through that act of kindness, i felt God's love and hand directing my life. though it seems like a tiny incident in my life, but i am convinced that it totally mature my perspective towards work and my career direction.
something Julia shared that caused me to ponder further.
Faithfulness is satisfaction.
i began to slowly understand this statement bit by bit. its when i am faithful with any tasks given to me, it is having job satisfaction from it. job satisfaction doesnt come from solely the job title or job scope or job description! rather, it is from the person's faithfulness.

thank you, Mr J

quality

it was a casual, routine train ride with roy back to his house after our work for dinner yesterday. we chatted about our day at work, continued abit on our wedding planning as well. but it was only a short while before we decided to leave the wedding discussion to friday, we do not want to always talk about it, can be quite boring... haha. slowly, our conversation led to ministry and people. we talked about christmas services, caregroup, etc. he mentioned something along the line of building quality into people's lives. it really got me thinking hard. ministry is all about people. ministry is all about building quality into people's lives. i've been thinking throughout today about how i can build quality into people's lives. its not just about having fun activities alone or wonderful plans, rather, at every moment, every week, every day, i want to build depth in the relationships i have with people around me.
to sum it up, something i found at Hong Teck's blog encourages me alot:
Care group never fails to encourage me. Never once.I find that through the years of care group going, the extend of encouragement you get is directly proportional to the level of giving you did in care group.

anyway, i enjoyed today's lunch with angela. we've been trying to arrange a meet-up since last week. finally, today we lunched :) more to come.

He blows my blues away

Last week was down with fever and cough, so, not much happenings except a few good ones :)
Last Wednesday a few of us celebrated Jiali's 21st birthday @ a pizza place inside Raffles City.
Last Saturday Roy and i went down to Santiago for our gown/suit selection. it was quite a fun experience. i have never know that wedding gowns really weigh a ton! my designer who helped me was Amanda. we have also settled our studio shoot
to be around late december and we get to choose up to 3 outdoor locations too.

since i wasnt around at Sat service, i went for sunday morning service. Ps Johanes' sermon refreshed me alot. i realised since young, i worries alot. i have absurd fears for natural disasters while living in singapore and other fears. yet, i learnt that fears can rob us of many good things! it robs us of our joy, our relationships with people, our confidence to do things and even our potential of what we can be in God! i prayed in my heart that i will not fear, i want to have faith in all i do. i am glad that i can put into practice because on that same sunday evening, both roy's and my parents are meeting for a dinner at raffles town club. i was quite nervous about the meet-up. roy and i reached the place earlier and we prayed together to ask God to bless us a fruitful dinner time. during the prayer, i set my heart to abandon any fears or anxiety i have. God is good! :) He gave us a wonderful time together and both our dads were pretty chatty throughout the night. yesterday, another blessing came where roy was granted to take leave for the day of our studio shoot too.

160509

"keen"

my 1 year contract is ending soon. it has been quite busy at work recently as the HR dept went through some restructuring in the org chart. my first supervisor, also the one who hired me into HP left last wednesday. she was with HP for 13 years. my first few months at work was tough, she is a strict boss and has high standard of quality for work. yet, upon the news of her leaving, i pondered on the things she taught me, i was thankful that i went through it to learn. it is good for my character growth. i appreciate her patience towards me. moving forward, i just had a one-to-one meeting with my 3rd supervisor last friday after being restructured from my current 2nd supervisor to her. she asked me if i will continue in HP after my 1 year contract ends in Jan. i seriously need to seek in prayers. as much as being an adult is exciting, i still long to be a student, where things are simple, just study, no need to think so much. being an adult need to make decisions, decisions, decisions. thank God i have God. thank God mans.
yesterday's Rdmm was very fruitful, we talked about 2009 calendar and camp matters and 4 hours just flew past so fast! it was fun la, cuz we had our fun laughing and talking too.
i went to meet up with roy to look at levis jeans and a late dinner after the meeting. we have been so busy for the past few weeks that we couldnt meet and some wedding discussions and decision-making were abit lagged too. if not, we have to talk at wee hours of the nights to get things moving.
things been well at home too. i enjoy talking to daddy more and more, maybe because i know the date is nearing also. my dad's been a very understanding person and he always wish for the best for both my sister and i. i do hope to spend more time with him since our work schedules oftenly clash too. now i learnt to note down his entire month's work schedule and i planned my home dinners to be on his off days. so sometimes, i do go home for dinners to spend time with him :) its important to me.


24/7

a text from india

to sum up the whole of today, an sms from India brought about a smile.


it is always timely.

gwen, you did it! yahoo!

this post is specially for little gwen! :) a few hours ago, an sms came in from her saying she cleared her modules and even passed her final theory too! i was truly very happy for her!! i know how much she wanted it. she replied my congrats sms saying this: "its God man. wouldnt have done it without Him."
i look forward to celebrate her joy soon :) *jumps*

Biennale 08

went to Biennale yesterday. been wanting to go for it before it closes on 16 Nov. it was quite a relaxing weekend for me as i roamed the bookstore before meeting shirls for some yakun too.

we were trying to pose. hehe. shirls looks studious ar, ma chiam on a student exchange program arts tour.

ooo.... i particularly like this photo! its so oriental feel.

the big screen

as the christmas lights are up on the street, we will soon enter the last month of the year. to celebrate it, there are some movies i hope to catch them :)

Sky Crawlers. This award-winning anime is set in the near future where there is a group of humanoids called Kildren who are bred and designed to live as adolescents for the rest of their lives. For the Kildren, they realise that every day could be their last because they are engaged in a battle game operated by the adults, where it is seen as pure entertainment. Even though faced with this harsh reality, they decide to go about their daily lives by living it to the fullest.

Twilight. When Bella's mother remarries and sends her to live with her father in the little town of Forks, Washington, she meets the mysterious and dazzlingly beautiful Edward Cullen - a boy unlike any she's ever met. Intelligent and witty, he sees straight into her soul. Soon, Bella and Edward are swept up in a passionate and decidedly unorthodox romance, for Edward is a vampire. But he doesn't have fangs, and he doesn't drink human blood, as Edward and his family are unique among vampires in their lifestyle choice. To Edward, Bella is that thing he has waited 90 years for - a soul mate. But the closer they get, the more Edward must struggle to resist the primal pull of her scent, which could send him into an uncontrollable frenzy.
"I was born under unusual circumstances." And so begins "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," adapted from the 1920s story by F. Scott Fitzgerald about a man who is born in his eighties and ages backwards. A man, like any of us, who is unable to stop time. We follow his story set in New Orleans from the end of World War I in 1918, into the 21st century, following his journey that is as unusual as any man's life can be - a grand tale of a not-so-ordinary man and the people and places he discovers along the way, the loves he finds, the joys of life and the sadness of death, and what lasts beyond time.

With a budget of US$80million, "Red Cliff" is the most expensive Asian-financed film to date. The movie is based on historical records of "The Chronicles of the Three Kingdom" rather than the novel, "Romance of the Three Kingdom". In the early third century, the land of Wu is invaded by the warlord Cao Cao and his soldiers. The ruler of Wu, Sun Quan (Chang Chen), calls on the rival warlord Liu Bei (You Yong) for help, but their two armies are still badly outnumbered. However, the strategists Zhou Yu (Tony Leung) and Zhuge Liang (Takeshi Kaneshiro) see that Cao Cao's army is unused to battling on the sea. With 200,000 men, Zhou Yu and Zhuge Liang defeat Cao Cao's army at the Yangtze River.