Its 8th January 2007..

I havent been updating my blog with my own stuff except for some quizes n my heritage.. Those r some of the stuff I found on my friends' n cousins' blogs.. found them amusing so tried them..hehe..

Since coming back from Chiangmai, I have been meeting people almost everyday.

To date I have met up with some of my secondary school friends n poly friends.. didnt really want to meet up with any of my college friends..

Actually some of my friends changed alot.. especially friends from secondary school.. Maybe this a materialistic world, a world where people look at how u dress.. a world where people look at brands.. makeup n everything.. Its superficial.. There are always some people whom I dun wan to meet.. we just dun click anymore.. frequency is just too different.. Also I hate to be fake.. I have always believed in spending within my means and to be presentable and accountable..

I dun wan to find myself hanging out in pubs.. drinking.. smoking.. these habits disgust me..

I was out with Grace on friday. We went to a "New York", a new restaurant along City Link. I had a good time catching up. Can u imagine us having dessert for lunch? Ice cream for lunch? Initially we wanted to have main meals but the menu was so Aussie that it didnt appeal to us. So in the end we decided for dessert.. That day, I managed to get new sandals as well as a new dress for a cool price..

Saturday, I met up with Winnie, Lingmoi and Yingxue at Jurong point. Havent been catching up with them for several years.. Its great spending time with them.. knowing how they are getting on.. Too bad huijun was working that day.. otherwise she can join us too.. There were quite some updates on our mutual friends..

Sunday, after church, I went to vivocity again. The last time I was there I was only there for a short while.. didnt even managed to browse through any of the shops.. Cos I was rushing off to pack stuff to go over to Leanne's place.. I was there early yesterday, went to Pacific coffee to use internet.. cos something was wrong with the plugs at home.. but thank God, just had the electrician over just now.. so now everything is fine.. otherwise cannot even blog.. haha.. I like that cafe there.. cos they have both the indoor n outdoor cafe.. which is cool cos the outdoor cafe is facing the sea.. imagine that.. u can see the sea view while drinking coffee or chatting.. isnt that amazing? When Yoshi comes to visit .. must bring her there.. nice nice cosy cosy place.. I was at the cafe for quite a while thinking through some stuff n drinking my hazelnut latte.. It was so so sweet.. but not bad still.. but not suitable for my not so sweet sweet-tooth..

Met up with Xuanhua, one of my good friends during my poly days.. She didnt change much, we click as well as before.. In fact, I think better than before.. The topics we chatted about were deeper than before.. I had fun seriously.. I am glad seeing her happy.. We had lunch at Sushi Tei. Its a nice restaurant facing sentosa.. they even had a balcony where u can take pictures.. something different.. The service was good.. n we order quite a lot cos the serves were small.. It has been a while since I had such good jap food.. After lunch, we went shopping around.. didnt buy much stuff.. in fact I only bought biscuits n candies.. Every year I have this habit of getting shortcake n almond cookies from Marks N Spencer... My family loves them..
I ran into a friend from Adelaide.. But he was so shocked to see me.. think shy or sth.. haha.. make me look like a fool.. Maybe I shouldnt have said hello or something.. ah.. nvm..

Last week was fruitful..
Apart from going out, meeting friends, I read a couple of books, caught up with news n shows..

I am beginning to enjoy this holidays

Oh ya, I got myself a new journal too.. I like journalling in my private time. I like myself to be organised..

The reason why I keep a blog is to be able to record what I have been doing, to record what has been happening in my life..To keep all these memories with me whether they are happy or sad.. to keep in contact with my friends all over the world.. from UK to Aus to most asian countries like Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, HK and everywhere else...

But more importantly to know that God has been faithful all along.. I believe all things r in the hands of God.. whether good or bad..

This yr there is so much ahead of me to achieve.. I want to look far..
I want to remember that in all things I do.. its only for the glory of God.. May it be studying, taking care of myself or serving..

You Are Right Brained In Love

Bit of a drama queenPeacemaker, first to end a fightGood at thinking up creative datesTend to fall in love and get hurt easilyGoing with your gut instead of your headEmphathetic and caring, sometimes to a faultGood at recognizing patterns in relationshipsBeen in love many times, perhaps too many to countWildly passionate and intense when falling in loveSpontaneous with relationships, going with the flowOverly visual - can play back past dates like movies in your mindRoses, love poems, and stuffed animals are a good start to winning your heart

Are You Right Brained or Left Brained in Love?

You Are 31% Scary

You scare men off ocassionaly, but only very weak men.You're a normal woman. You're not perfect, but you're pretty darn close.

Do You Scare Off Men?

You Are Pistachio Ice Cream

Funky. Surprising. Wild.

What Flavor Ice Cream Are You?

You Go For Brains!

You want a guy with a big... brain.And of course it would be nice if he were a total hottie, but you're not counting on it.What's on the inside is what counts for you. (Besides, you can always change the outside later!)

Do You Go For Brains or Body?

You are a City Girl!
Whether you live in the city or not, you've got the heart of a city girl.You're up on the latest trends - what's hot in music, food, and fashion.And you love to be on the go. Your perfect day is filled with tons of fun.Your perfect guy is a city guy, so head to LA, NYC, Sydney, or London to find him!

***You Are An Intro-Extrovert!***
Sometimes you're social - sometimes you're shyYou've got a bit of an Introvert / Extrovert split going onYou enjoy all sorts of situations. Parties, small groups, and alone time.Too much of one, and you'll long for the other. You need varity!Chances are, you've got both serious and fun friends - and they don't get along.
Are You An Extrovert or Introvert?http://ynr.blogthings.com/areyouanextrovertorintrovertquiz/

It a New Year again..
I hope I will not repeat any mistakes of the past, neither will I remember any unhappiness but to look ahead, to strive forward to attain the goal which I have set for myself. The past year is rough but there is no turning back now. Neither is it important anymore, those past hurts are over, with God ahead of me, I strive forward, towards him and all his plans for me. I want to keep trusting n loving him.

Last night, someone sent me an sms, I dunno who is it from but I know the sms is from Malaysia.

It reads:

2006 has finally come to an end! Will u greet the coming year with a happy heart and let us forget all the unhappy things that happened in this year! Happy New Year and my prayer for u is that u'll live a happy life in the coming year! May this year be a life changing one for u! God bless and continue to protect u!

I am sure its from a close friend cos of the content of the message but the person is still unknown.

But anyway thanks for all the well wishes. May the Lord lead n guide everyone this year!

This is a long overdue post. Initially I wanted to update everyone about the my chiangmai trip but procrastinate until now.. sorry about that..

Just some major highlights of the trip:

- We taught in primary schools for some of the days.
- Went around carolling in villages almost everyday
- Gave sermons.. not me but Jing but we wrote the sermon n edited it together.. ok my chinese
is bad..
- Performed songs n mimes in different villages and churches
- Baby sitting children over handy craft
- Great fellowship n sharing of testimonies especially over campfire on the last night
- Attended a funeral
- Aaron lost his passport but praise God it was recovered.
- A lot of interesting things happened.. especially inside jokes.. gosh they were funny man.. haha

Its a great trip.. One of the best times of my life in 2006..

There are many lessons which I learnt from the mission trip:

* The passions of our homegrown missionary, florence as well as a few Thai pastors ( Known
and Ken )

* There are many people who marry as young as 14 in Northern Thailand, swapping partners
among different marriages is also a common phenomenon. Its common for men to drink day
and night and their women to work very hard to support their families due to most men not
supporting their family in anyway.

* On the other hand, the pastors there are very godly, serving the Lord with all their hearts and
staying away from all vices despite their society being so degrading. All I can say is Praise the
Lord for keeping them close to Him. Thank God that his workers obey him. Thank God that
his workers honour him.

tbc

Tonight I suddenly start to miss my comm ( Jing Jing, Aaron, Leanne n Vivian). I guess part of the reason is because I didnt go out much today.My mind isnt occupied with anything. All my memories in Chiangmai came back to me. From 18th dec flying off in the early morning with Leanne to touching down on 26th dec in Singapore with the whole team. Those days were the most meaningful in my life. Initially I couldnt adapt cos I simply dunno at thing at all, I didnt know the songs, the skit, the dance. I simply know nothing. I went to Chiangmai by faith. Throughout the few days, everyday everyone of us are travelling with faith, there was language barrier, very cold weather. Its just quite a bit to adapt to at once. But its a good experience. I saw the love of Florence for the Shan people. I saw the love of the pastors there. To be frank, I am impressed. In spite of poverty, they love God with all their hearts and they always seek God's leading. I have so much to learn from them. We r so blessed to live in a place where we can have everything we wan though its a bit stressful. I have learnt to treasure everything that I have. Nothing should be taken for granted.

Just want to do a quick recap of the things we did during the trip to chiangmai.

18th dec

- Touched down in Chiangmai after a 3 hr flight.
- Met up with Florence and Ken for the first time. ( Florence is a missionary there, very nice n
delicated to her beloved Shan people. Ken is a training pastor, passionate about God,
musically talented)
- Travelled in Chiangmai in a "Song tiao" to meet up with Aaron and the rest at Mekong Centre
before we went to an art and craft shop to for kids before heading for lunch.
- Travelled up to the village, managed to reach before night falls. But due to a bumpy journey, a
few of us had travel sickness and I ended up with a bad headache. But thank God, we had our
own first aid supplies.
- Had dinner at a church leaders' place. My first contact with traditional Thai food. That was an
experience man. I couldnt really adapt to the food but still ate la.. obviously expecially cos its
the first family meal and its freezing cold out there. Have to eat to keep warm.
- Went Carolling after dinner

tbc

I just got back from chiangmai 2 days ago. The past few days I have been busy hanging out with OCFers thats y there was no entry. Very much this trip to chiangmai is very fruitful, I will explain more later. I came back on 26th Dec, the same day when Samuel arrived in Singapore. We met up for dinner along with Justin, phyllicia, Moses n Paul, had a good time, went to pepper lunch at taka. Its really a joy meeting up with them after so long, felt so comfortable, didnt really do much that day cos it was rainning everywhere but we still hang out till pretty late.

Then yesterday met up with them again at bugis but this time its just alfred, me, Mo n Sam cause not all of us can make it. We were like bumping around bugis market. This time round dunno y all my friends kept suggesting to go bugis market. Its so humid and too many people around but they were selling quite some good stuff so its still quite worthwhile. I m thinking to go back with some gal friends to buy my stuff cos the last few times I went was with guys so only went to see guys stuff.. its like the maid accompanying the prince to shop..haha.. but it was fun though..I realised that when we shop we tend to have quite some comments n we were laughing alot n in the end the salesgals were kind of like staring at us but that didnt bother us..haha...

I miss OCF alot since I came home, miss the fellowship, the blessings...

Hey guess wat! Last night Ian suddenly told me that he is coming to SINGAPORE tmr! Yupz tmr, but yesterday's tmr is today isnt it? It was so funny when Ian told me he is coming last night. First of all so last min, second of all, usual la.. Ian makes demands here n there as we all know.. oh no.. he is going to kill me for all these..

Demand number 1: I want to eat spicy food!
Demand number 2: U and Moses MUST bring me around sg. ( Note the word must!!! Direct quote from our dearest IAN HONG ).

I was up till late last night cos of this dear brother. Alamak man! I was thanking God the whole night.. u know why?

Reason 1: If Ian is coming the next weekend, sorry man I am away he settle himself..
Reason 2: Thank God Moses is back, otherwise Ian tell me so last min, die man.. what m I going to do. If I cannot get Mo, I have to settle myself. So thank God for Moses. Haha.. Good thing we all stay so near otherwise even worse...Ian better thank him also, without him, he is gonna be to be homeless tonight..haha.. not really la.. can still stay my place..
Reason 3: Praise God for Sean, otherwise I cannot get Mossie also.. long story, for more details, ask me personally..hehe
Reason 4: Thank God that Ian can bunk with Mo not me.. sorry Mo, u take him.. brothers mah..haha.. like wat addielle says brotherhood..
Reason 5: Thank God we can all meet up with Eng Poh before he goes back to Penang tonight. Praise the Lord for that!

I am anticipating 3pm today when Ian arrives at Mossie's place, I will be going over later as well. We will have fun!

But I got a msg today from Ian Hong 7.30am before he went to take bus down to Singapore.

Its a typical msg from Ian.

It reads:

Prepare Towel for me.

Didnt bring.

See u there!

Guys post comments if u have any. I had a good laugh last night n this morning.

I need to call Richard before Ian comes. Not to complain ok but because Ian missed him.

Yesterday I had a great day except for some minor hiccups like forgot to take straw when I bought bubble tea, so dumb rite but it happened. So silly of me. Yesterday, I went to buy some packs of macaroni before I headed over to Leanne's place. Very much I spend most of yesterday at her place, trying to fix macaroni jewellery.

There r some steps to it:

1. Paint the macaroni. We have only got 3 colors cos I only bought 3 bottles of water color to cut
cost. So Leanne and I painted the macaroni red, green and blue.

It was quite funny, we were like amusing ourselves for the whole session. Imagine that!

2. Wait for the macaroni to dry.

3. String the macaroni using elastic string.

4. Bracelets, necklaces and anklets are done.

I should have taken pictures for momentos and also to showcase our master pieces. But we were having to much fun and I forgot. I can take the pictures on Sunday before we fly off on Monday. Those jewellery are cool man, I am sure the kids in chiangmai would love them but I guess we probably need to get more colors. That would be more fun and it would give more variety.

We experimented on paper dolls as well. Its really fun, cutting the dolls clothes, hair and stuff and decorating them. It was a session that Leanne n I discovered that we r seriously not cut to be artist or designer, its just so out for us. The designs that we made on the clothes r ok la.. but then as I told her, we wont be buying such clothes if we see them on sale in the malls, so u guys can imagine those latest designers we created..haha..

Opps, forgot to mention! I mistook the hair for the dolls for hats n sorry, I coloured them blue n green. But oh well, as wat Leanne said.. thats the latest trend..ahha.. so sotong of me!

It was fun, its like going back to being a kid doing handy craft.. I guess I can only upload the pics when I come back from Chiangmai. Be patient!!!

In all things that we do, we remember the Lord and everything is for him alone! Praise the Lord! Finally, I got my insurance almost done cos Mary responded to my email last night. Gonna get it done today..

Today is my second day in Singapore after so long. Came home quite late last night cos by the time my plane touched down it was already close to midnight. This time it was pretty much a long flight back cos I took Mas airlines, but the flight was ok la.. just tired.. but Sally, Lydia, Victor n Joel was on the same plane so it was ok. But when the plane touched down at Kuala Lumpur we had to go separate ways. Sally took another flight back to Kuching, Lydia had a flight back to KK, Victor well, he got home the fastest among us, Joel took another plane back to India while for me, I took a connecting flight back to Singapore.

The connecting flight was quite unpleasant but thank God it was only for 55 mins. It was quite stuffy n there were some passengers complaining.. argh.. Dunno for what reason n I had to listen to Malay for like 10 hrs in total.. ah.. dunno what they were saying.. doesnt matter anymore thou..hehe..

Had a chat with Leanne this morning for updates on our mission team. Gonna do handicraft with her n Desiree tmr at her place. But when I went out to purchase the materials today, I was caught in the heavy rain, so terrible, even until now my head still spins though I showered almost immediately after I got home.

I am trying to adapt myself to everything now, lifestyle so different..

Oh! Help me Please!!!

If you’re walking through the valleys

And there are shadows all around

Do not fear, He will guide you

He will keep you safe and sound

He has promised to never leave you

Nor forsake you

Though I may not understand

All the plans You have for me

My life is in Your hand

Through the eyes of faith

I can clearly see

There is mixed feelings within me.. I really dunno if I wan to go home or not.. I will still go home regardless of what I really feel.. I guess one of my main motivation of going home is because I m going chiangmai with leanne.. that really make me want to go home faster.. In another 2 days time, I will be home, I will be touching down Sunny Singapore.. This time, I am taking Malaysian Airlines... couldnt get a flight for Singapore Airlines n Quantas.. But good thing this time, I am flying back with Sally.. that would make my flight more enjoyable n something more acceptable..

I am looking forward to seeing leanne. Havent seen her since Sept. I havent really known her for long but we connect well. I guess the link between us is God and the mission trip we are going for. She has been handling the stuff for me back home.. my travel insurance, my airticket, my backpack, my medical forms, my OMF fees.. Thank You so much.. Seriously I dunno who can do all those for me if not for u.. Nothing can really express my thankfulness.. Really want to meet up with her quickly when I come home..

I am looking forward to seeing Tracy too. I met her during OCF Sydney Annual Retreat at Blue Mountains. She has become a close friend whom I share my stuff with. Gonna see her soon, the coming friday for dinner..

The past day, I have been packing my stuff to get ready to go home but somehow, my heart is unsettled. I thought of different people, from OCF to Uni coursemates, its like a powerpoint slide show. All the flashbacks.. then it dawned on me.. what can I really do for 2 months in Singapore? How should I really spend my time? What does God want me to do for next year? How can I juggle everything? Where actually m I? I am lost, yeah, I am.

For now, praying that God will continue to guide me n guard me in all things I do.
Praying for my mission comm - for God to consistently keep them from all danger and God's protection to cover them through n through.
Praying for God's annointing as I prepare the worship n devotion materials on the coming Monday and Tuesday.
Praying as I prepare my heart to go home.

A while ago, I told Paul that I may not colead with him for Romans Book Study next yr. Just last week, I told him that. I was feeling very down at that time thats y I said that. I know God is calling me ( Refer Nov 19 Blog Entry ) but I feel weak at the same time. I dunno how to handle bs along with all my other committments. Praying that God will guide me in my decisions.

He is the only one that can keep me secured.