HAPPY HAPPY!

I have a few times contemplated upon the should-i-go-on-a-grad-trip-or-should-i-not. Well today, i went along with aunt theresa and jacob plus es to a trade fair. My aunt is with Sph and from what i understand, she handles the accounts of the travel agencies in S'pore, for the field of advertising sales. So we were there for a look see. J and i were counting and thinking well how many many leaves can he possibly get under the NS leave scheme. To the uninitiated females, there is actually leaves and offs in NS, where for Leaves you can go overseas and not be on call back, but Offs you cant go overseas and you can be called back. Am i right here? Ah..i didnt know that there were hierachies to off days.


Hoots. Anyways, it made me really psyched. Thanks to aunt, we got to say hi to a guy called Nicholas who asked us to give him a ring should we decide when and where to go. The prices are really quite cheap. It is 1299usd, for the 21days trip. Accomodation is covered, so is airtix, so is 60% food. So its something like half free and easy and half guided in the sense that your travel expenses are looked into. Its by Contiki travels. Contiki sounds cute. Must be the tiki in the con-tiki. AaanyWays, the reason why they could offer such preferential rates is because they own many resorts across the globe. Economies of scale. :)


I scanned through the itinerary. And they have something like Paris, camping under the stars. Wow, that is so good. Nicholas says that he will give us a trade discount thanks to aunt. :) Its sounds reaally good if you ask me. Well, of course you didnt ask. But i just threw it in-your-face. HAH! Apparently you get to meet people from different countries and some others will join in the middle. Bottomline is that we will get to meet loads of people. gee, i feel like going there right now. haha.


All in all, my week had been great. Had a chalet, a few dinners, and my other aunt has a new dog. Hoots. Dog's name is lexus. Thats so toyota! naah.. Its a frisky Shih Tzu who is not only potty trained, good to play with, but can you believe? Doggie is vegetarian! OMG. Seriously. Eats potatoes and watermelon and tomatoes for nuts' sake. Good thing is that Lexus doesnt have that typical dog stench and doesnt litter its fur everywhere. So its good! BUT. A Maltese i still prefer more. Gee, im still thinking about Lexus now. The week following should be good too, at least it does on my calendar, but you never know.


With this peculiar thought, i am thinking actually i like meeting new people. It psyches me up, bigtime. So with that i am looking forward to the IMF convention which will have us sitting at the hotel lobby for good ol' customer service sake. No really from our perspective, its really menial tasks that we do. I just love how funnily things get Grandoise transformation when they go from actuality to paper.


Like for example. Truth is that we are Supposed to sit at a spot at the hotel lobby to answer random questions like, "Hmmm, where is the restroom?" (and im imagining a British guy asking that in a low British bourgeoise accent), and "How do get to Sentosa?" or "What is Crazy Horse?" ( no seriously, we are Educated on how-to-describe crazy horse cabaret). So what i'm thinking when i knew it was, ooh ok i thought we were having some small chance to interact with the delegates, if not maybe the journos from Reuters? Pray, hope, cross my fingers? Ah, but its alright. I'm a small ikan, i should be happy and contented with the status quo. Am going to make the BEST out of it. And i guess right, that this IMF involvement will look really hoity-toity on paper. Like.."Involvement in World Bank Meeting...interacting with the top delegates from overseas..foreign ministers...", what it wouldnt say would be.."sitting behind a table." :)


Actually, i'm feeling really quite happy now. Can you tell? haha..The sermon today was good. Pastor John Massey invited by Paster Gerald who is from our congregation. He says of
1) ask not what God can give you, but what you can give him.
2) God knows your needs, and he will provide for them. The problem is what we ask for sometimes could be our Wants. And what we want vs what we need could be two worlds apart.
3) Knowing that our God is the almighty soveriegn and He is also our Father. And how do we bring this two together, to come to him both in respect and like that of a child.
4) Be willing to take up the burden
5) And why we shouldnt bear a grudge against anyone when we come before Him, because He had forgiven us on so many sins.



and etc. These were the points that really speaks to me. With emphasis on 2) and 5). I am making a conscious effort to internalise it. I dont have any grudge against anyone, right now, not at this point. But i am thinking more like daily living, how not to think of another person negatively. I suppose that entails Loving another person, with the love you would extend to a friend. And i think, that is not easy. Considering you have to open yourself up to the person. It makes me feel vulnerable to let someone else into my thoughts, its abit invasive. Hmmm, i'm thinking how else to??


Give thanks man! The mood is up, and when the mood is up, the psych is on the crest, and when the psych is on the crest, things are good to go, and when things are good to go, my cynical alter ego stops talking to me, and when that happens, I'm not as grouchy, and therefore, am more able to Love Thy Neighbour as I would to Myself. Please chid me if my prayer path is trodden with weeds. I will improve on that. :) Consciously improve on that.


Good nights, please be happy for Pete's sake. Pete is the name of my pet terrapin who died about 5 weeks ago. Nah, im just talking nonsense. But, there was really a pet death. Haha..never mind i know YOU are smiling to the screen like a bloody idiot now. Right? :)Thats Black humour ok, so dont laugh. Ah, and i thought my pet turtle will outlive me, and we will have to plan for token amounts to support for turtle chow for the rest-of-its-life. But i guess wrong!


I digressed. Was thinking of uploading some pics from chalet and dinners. BUT! Our photog for the day, Mister K has not passed us the pics. So next time, next time, till i get a new digicam and am less lazy to upload. Meanwhile, deal with the crazy rants, well if whole chunky paras do not piss your bullocks.

Sigh!

A sudden rush of liberated thoughts had the fingers flying across the keyboard. Some in enthused staccatos. Some in contemplative largo. Some with your regular ho-hum rap. But! It is not at all important when i hit publish post, it did a poof and so the entire entry was gone. Talk about things that go awry without your control.


And all i wanted to do was give thanks for the nice things that happened today! It was really good. New people in a new setting always make for a new perspective. :)


Nonetheless, Blogspot is like Brutus to my Caesar! aaargh!



Something by Corrine Bailey Rae..Put Your Record On

"Girl, put your records on, tell me your favourite song
You go ahead, let your hair down Sapphire and faded jeans, I hope you get your dreams,
Just go ahead, let your hair down.

You're gonna find yourself somewhere, somehow."

Really? Hmmm!

Caesar salad.

I absolutely think today is a fantastical day. Though i started my day off on the wrong foot, but! It turned out quite ok.


Met a bunch of friends-of-friends at a chalet at costa sands. A couple called Kamel and Karen. The alliteration? Pure coincidental.And its Kamel as in Kah-Mel, not Ca-Mel, as in the desert animal. I thought it was...well, the desert one. We had quite a couple of pics, but its with Kamel. Other interesting pple, a bit of an influx of new faces, i really cannot register. Only by links, like Daphne, Karen's sis, Peter, who looks like Kamel, Jonus, the 1997-vintage-wine, Yellowfish, Michael, Sinclair's dad, Jas' husband, and many people who were in like flashes in pans, couldnt catch their names, nor their faces. It was actually exciting meeting people whom i know i will never meet along my usual route.



Well, today on the bus i was really not expecting such a plain coincidence. Boarded the bus and oops came a person on the bus, this person whose very presence makes me really really nervous. So basically i sms Sb, which says.."hey sb, how ah. I saw Xxxx on the bus, and i'm scared i'll bumm into Xxxx if i were to get off the bus. And now, i have missed my stop." And she replies, " You silly woman. Just get off the bus. If Xxxx looks at you, say hi and smile." Right. Like i could do that. And it was like...Brutus to my Caesar. Did Caesar do a 180 deg vegan and spawn a certain salad of its kind? Hur hur. Ok, bad joke.



I was contented to miss all the bus stops and happily reach the interchange to totally diminish the odds. But! A bus conducter had to get on the bus, and ask to check for tickets. I went by coins today, as my ezlink was running low.Hastily handed him a random ticket from my bag, and really, too distracted to take notice of the ticket. He came back. to tell me that my ticket was the wrong one. I was quite embarrassed by this already. So hastily i dug my bag for another, saw the bus number, the fare and just passed to him.I don't know if the one that i passed to him was the right one. I suppose so cause it had $1.50 printed on it, the bys number, but gee, i didnt check the date. By then the bus had reached a mrt station. And as hastily as i dug my bag, hastily i got off the bus. I mean how many mrt stations can this bus possibly pass? It is so frustrating to be caught in this kind of situation when u are most distracted. And i think he was on the bus. But i have no idea if it was a image conjured up from imagination. Gah!


To top up the days odd ball factor, i got a phone call asking me the strangest of questions. Which is really odd. Like for example, at midnight calls to ask you if you are a member of the NTUC union, and says if you need union help, he can help you get the union help. AT MIDnight, i really wonder it is who, who needs the help.

Sigh

It set me down a bit when i got a sms from my friend who said.."waiting for you to ask me out mah.." It just sounds really lonely to me? Open invitation for someone to invite him out? Sigh. There is little i can do to make him feel less lonely even if i were to ask him out. It is just extrinsic help which at the end of the day doesnt soothe the inside. But may in fact feel even worse. Because to me, i would want to deal with it alone.


I mean somethings are meant to be dealt with alone. Bite ur tongue if you would. It will just get better, its just a phase, its just THAT particular moment.


Then i was at chijmes, at the alfresco dining area. I wasnt alone but there were some gap times of silence. Not in the literal sense, but basically we werent talking, just looking around. Pretty zen i must say. Maybe its because its Thurs, there arent many people. Occasionally just the waiter who comes by to ask if you want more drinks. I like it there. Reminds me of coffee bean outside west mall, sans the smoking ah bengs. Its quite a nice feeling. Then on the way back, it was still class95 on. This sweet song came on, and finally i could attach a title to that. It was Rush Rush by Paula Abdul. There was a jam along the CTE, usually it would get on my nerves, but i was hoping the jam would last looonger. Silent company is nice. But it gets you to this particular paralysing mood.



In the end, i replied to friend that "ok, ya i think we shld meet too since we haven't met for so long. so where do you want to go?" It must be just tonight.

too much

In a fit of thought-abundance, i just realised that i spoke toooo much. Should have had some iota of discipline to clamp up, but i just when on and on and on and on. Now it feels really naked. Urgh.


Should have just shut up.I'll remember how lousy this feeling is, so next time it serves as good reference when things are on the verge of spewing. Come on just snip off those strings. you dont need those entanglement.

PY's 21st!

Happy 21st to PY. The friend whom i have known for the looongest, a grand 13 yrs! :) She was really happy that day lotsa love going around from friends. heh! No love from spongebob though. And where is the agreed birthday runaway??


Many many more Birthdays to come, playful jibes, comeback oneliners, and aaah, the love for SARcastic jibes, the way we squibble like little pre-puberscent boys, on going rants about how (freaking) warped this world is, laughing over the Uber elitist social structures, mochafrap-nosugar-nowhip-lesscalories, and Random guy from Kyrgyzstan, country with 25% Russian Orthodox-75% Muslim, where in the world is it?


PY, Wake up. :)
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

Faith

I had this mental illustration of Faith. Little person stands on the top of a building and staring down ready to do a jump. In the little person's perspective, his own problems are as hard to overcome as the height of the building. Well, it really did seem beyond his little efforts. Rescue is all ready below, with a safety net. Little person cannot see how in the world he will land on the red spot, the blanket is so small, he almost couldnt see it. But Rescue beckons from below, very certain to catch the little person when he falls. But little person refuses to jump, because he cannot see the spot, and doesnt trust for real that he will be caught if he were to give it up.


Well, the lack of, i mean. Feels like a miserable cow, now. How??

dont forget to remember

Its amazing, how a mum can love her kids more than her kids love themself.

Anyways, Its sad to know that people do drift, at times. And sometimes they drift so far that you have no inkling which direction they drifted. Again, this is subjective, because nobody can see themselves drifting aways. Its ALWAYS somebody else drifting and not YOURSELF per se. So, take stock, and see who drifted. End of the day, we all drift towards our priorities. So it can only mean one thing. :(


sigh, boring day it has been.

To David: On tangent this?

Are you thinking what I am thinking?
.
.
.
.
I'm thinking, "Why is the toothpaste talking and the toilet paper is thought bubbled???"
.
.
.
.
.was that what You were thinking aswell??
.
.
.
.Is this a toilet hierachy??
.
.
.
or a caste system?
.
.
.
What has the world come to?
.
.
.
I'm going to sit under a tree and ponder hard on this.
.
.
.
.

.And i'll come back with a thesis on toilet politiking.

.

.

.will be back! :)

Whilst taking a 5 minute dreamer from writing the dreaded report, i had this really calm/blissfully /well-acquainted peace from inside. Not trying to risk sounding like a levitating yogi, got to stress that it really feels like a synced harmony between the psych and everything. I felt The Inner Peace. *cue two random cupids on Harps* Hahahaha, deep inside i'm going oh PUHlease, you cheesy fartheaded cliche sprouting moodle. Cliche aside, I've got Peace Like A River! lalalalalaaa(set the doves free)


It just feels damn good. Was pondering hard on Psalms 23.1,"The Lord is my shephard, i shall not be in want." This must be the duracell bunny i never did own! and well, since this verse is one of the few verses i memorized. It gives this sense of ease that makes me think, ya..ok so what if it goes wrong? So what if i'm disapproved? I shouldnt be doused like a wet duck. Even if the thing that i'm determined to do is dragged into a stinky cold bath. I fully trust that the Lord is faithful and will see us through, all that needs to be done, is to keep our eyes on Him.


It is a daily struggle, come to think of it, to stand out and be proud to say, Yep I'm a Chrisitian. I don't feel easy doing that, because i'm not there yet, and still finding the way through. Cause somewhere in the middle, we tend to fall off the bandwagon, loiter in the wilderness, find a bush, take a poop, before we get back to the tracks to hop Back on the band. I think this is not easy at all.


Is it possible to dissect the want for worldly gains to the desire for a Christian walk and be certain to say that, "Yes, i want to be walk close to Him."?? I'm leaning more towards the rhectorical No. Perhaps it is actually, But that is if all of the people where angels, and could fly. Truth is that the measure of success is often calculated in achievements either in the form of power or prestige and in other cases, paychecks. It just seem super hypocritical to me when i hear people speak as though there were ponies on the meadows and all talk about Worldly achievements like they were something from a planet on the Undiscovered Universe. erhemm.. People, do not behave like lab mouses, or mice, whatever, ceteris paribus. People are random, haphazard, sometimes in periods of emergency, run like headless chickens in feather-ed madness, i-am-speaking-for-myself, so therefore, CANNOT be trusted on the full impact of their words. *Breathe* Now that was long. :)


I suppose Mere Awareness of this weird disparity is enough to spur us to re-evaluate what is really important. How to sync worldly goals whilst keeping a firm eye on Christ. YES. I finally got the hey-i-hit-it-spot-on-YAY! question. Have been thinking so long about this. Because to me it seems like the more ambitions i have, the more i feel a distance between. Which is bad.


Anyways, my head is like cornetto ice-cream whirl now. And the ideas are getting soft and melting. I guess let me just let the poverbial wild goose run around the mulberry bush some other day. Meanwhile, i HAVE to go back to writing the report, which i please-d for an extension, the extension which is ending in 31.5 hrs from now. :)

Fertilised plant

The night light was good, so i decided to walk to meet my friend instead of friend picking me up. So i walked past this childcare centre that i went when i was 5. The same little garden was there. We used to have a plant each, to flower and rake the soil three times a week. Mine was a banana plant. It couldnt reproduce up to standard so chop!, it had to go. And many planturies later, today a voluptuous lime plant stands proud in its place; balls all over the place. I wonder which little kid owns this tree.

Road map of this quaint mountain road

Gosh, this internship is getting waaay insane this week, except that it is ALL play. I seriously cant believe my luck! The first two days we went high up to the nines. Well, literally. It feels really good to be treated that nicely since i mean, nobody owes it to anyone to treat them nicely. It is hard to authenticate this feeling to..."oh ya, it really happened." Yesterday the entire setting got a little too happy, in a ficticious way, but other than that it was REAL good. geee, im actually laughing my head off in front of the screen?! :)


Btw, there is little known about this quaint lounge atop on Republic plaza, where a lift takes you to the 62nd to sign in with the recep, to be taken to another lift to go up to the 64th. Thinking about the way the jazz singer was doing that song "Home" by Michael buble, makes the goosebumps on the skin rise....in a good way.


How can you go by Tanglin, to weave to Bukit Timah, past the Botanical Gardens cross to the PIE, make an accidental turn into BKE, turn into Hillview, past Bukit batok east, and then FINALLY, home sweet home?? :) From that place, all we need to do is(assuming i have a license and can drive), go past Gleaneagles, turn at Farrer Road, go past Bukit timah, then swerve in the PIE, exit at Jurong town hall. Still home sweet home, BUT at least 5km shorter, and 15mins faster. Such a strange twist. *cue one melodramatic sigh!* :)