a fruitful life.

Wednesday, December 28, 2005

2005 is coming to a close. it's been one eventful year. i can't seem to gather my thoughts coherently so i shall just sprout out whatever that comes to mind.

christmas was beautiful i love christmas and i love bethany.

fri was christmas concert.

sat was our ypg/yag christmas party complete with pastor laughing nonstop at a joke he was trying to tell us, a hilarious sketch by the sketch team based on the christmas carol (scrooge = jin kiam siap), singing beautiful carols and songs, and fabulous food. and really. the food was really good. aside from the usual fried finger food that we all love, we had a big bowl of nachos and carrot sticks and celery and biscuits with a fabulous cheese dip at the centre and a chocolate fountain complete with cherries, strawberries, bananas, marshmallows! i ate so muchhhh......

then left for carolling at carlton hotel with the hall people, followed by dinner with sam, xinpei linhui and angela at the soup spoon. then trawled the very very crowded and rowdy orchard road to find wayne huimin lijie and zhihao at coffee bean at paragon. what a christmas eve.

then spent the early hours of christmas writing cards to dear friends at church. christmas morning, got up way too early for rehearsal of the ypg item for christmas service at shangarila hotel. i thought we sang the 2 songs with much joy in the Lord. =) could see the happy faces of tr. chung han, tr. aileen and ade. christmas service had pastor reminding us to remember our Lord Jesus, and told us the danger of not being able to recognise Him should He come before us. Pastor taught us to remember His birth once again, the story that has been told so many times. after service we adjourned to the adjacent ballroom for lunch. ohmy lunch was so yummy i ate SO much!! esp the dessert buffet. shamelessly pigging out with glenda (she's back from US!) and nicolyn (she's back from australia!).

after many presents exchange and photo taking me louisa mel and vanathi went to cathay cineleisure wanting to watch pride and prejudice, but they weren't screening it. so we settled for joyeux noel (merry christmas in french). it was a beautiful movie and it reminded me of what the pastors were saying during service's call to worship. about how so many people around the world, of different nationalities, skin colour, all celebrating the birth of Jesus on this day. a celebration that transcends all boundaries.

www.merrychristmas-themovie.com

then came home for christmas dinner with family. ate some more yummy food. grilled eggplant with roasted pumpkin in olive oil, tomato and basil soup, pesto for pasta, pan fried tuna in japanese style (medium-rare) and agar jelly with raspberries and blueberries. i was still so full from lunch i ate only half of what's on my plate. which is rare. haha.

boxing day was spent with sam cycling round pulau ubin. we covered all of the roads and gravel tracks but one short stretch of road. some of the gravel tracks were muddy from the rain so i got dirty slippers and my three-quarters got dirty too! but it was great exercise and it was fun exploring the island. my only grouse being the horrible mosquitoes who attacked me so many times!! now my legs have many mosquito bite scars. argh. but it was nice to do something different with sam. before he leaves for down under in less than 2 weeks' time. argh. anyway we caught the sunset from a slight high vantage point along the sembawang coast, chilled at the secluded little hut. lunch and dinner was at changi village hawker centre. nasi lemak for lunch and chicken chop noodles, wantan noodles, and singapore's-most-spicy-bbq-stingray for dinner. the stingray was SO spicy i drank 2 huge drinks and still couldn't finish that plate. sam even surrendered before i did. ok..for his credit he had a horrible ulcer. so ulcer+spicy stingray=disaster and pain.

day after boxing day i ate a lot too!! met the tj girls for dinner at sakae sushi, followed by dessert at gelare. half priced waffles plus chocolate overload ice cream. i amaze myself at how much i'm pigging out.

ok..but holidays are ending. i'm entitled to pigging out. =)

i'm just typing nonsense.

just a few days left of 2005. and so much has changed. even the world has changed. literally. countless earthquakes and the tsunami has altered the geography of our earth. there are floods and pollution and racial riots, even in a civilised and modern city of sydney. which worries me because anything can happen anywhere. be it a poor or rich country. whether u are white black or somewhere in between. it worries me because sam is gonna be away in a foreign land. but i know all things must be committed to the Lord. and it is so much more important to be strong in my faith. to keep growing and not fall back. and that's my prayer for many people too. and for him.

and in spite of all these. there's so much to be thankful for.

This girl posted at 4:57 PM

Saturday, December 24, 2005

carolling all over shopping centres with 2 of my choirs. i conduct both choirs. so it's been quite taxing on my body. my back aches from standing for too long in heels. my fuel tank depletes way too fast from way too much travelling all over s'pore.

but it's fun. i've learnt to not just sing the beautiful carols, but to actually ponder over the lyrics and think about the meaning of christmas exactly. and this was the message that pastor was trying to convey during this year's christmas concert. how God gave us the perfect present which is His Son, Jesus. how songs talk about the birth of Christ on that night. how the angels sang and the wise men came bearing gifts. suddenly it all just becomes so much more meaningful.

=)

this year christmas seem to come so soon. maybe because i'm so swamped with carolling and hall stuff and wsc stuff, time passes so fast and it's so scary. i don't even have time to write christmas cards and before i know it...it's christmas eve!! and soon it'll be new year's eve and 2005 will be gone.

2006 brings new challenges. my dearest will be gone for 6 months and i must must must resolve not to let that affect me. wsc work is gonna be tough with my president and 2 vice-presidents away on attachment. leaving the club management to my hon gen, financial controller and me.

life gets complicated. and i need to decide how to live it. it's never easy. and someone always ends up getting hurt.

This girl posted at 12:51 AM

Monday, December 19, 2005

DSC01967
Originally uploaded by grania.

the day i took this shot, the weather was horrifying. the winds were so strong and it was so cold it chills to the bones. i couldn't take proper pictures because i was so afraid to take my hands out of my gloves so as to press the camera. so this is probably the only decent photo.

This girl posted at 12:20 AM

DSC01942
Originally uploaded by grania.

this is for sam. =)

i love the sky. it's so blue. and it contrasts so well with the brown branches.

This girl posted at 12:14 AM

DSC01959
Originally uploaded by grania.

the sun rises over the mountain range. =)

This girl posted at 12:10 AM

DSC01920
Originally uploaded by grania.

i took this shot while sitting on a chair-lift at a theme park called everland. not neverland. hurhur. i love this because the sun's rays are peeking through the branches and it was so beautiful just gazing at it.

God does make all things beautiful in His time.

This girl posted at 12:08 AM

Saturday, December 17, 2005

back from land of the cold. enjoyed my trip a lot. made new friends. learnt new things. saw new sights.

since then have been bombarded by all kinds of stuff. hall choir, school choir, wsc canvassing, wsc kids' world, wsc volunteerism fair, inter-hall games and many more things. just performed twice at parkway. quite fun. =) always so meaningful when i sing about Jesus's birth. carols like the first noel, ding dong merrily on high, joy to the world all talks about the joyous occasion of the coming of God's Son. our Lord and Savior.

and that seems to be the only sane thing. the rest are just so jumbled up. watched king kong. very very good. naomi watts looks so like nicole kidman. it's quite scary how in some scenes it's so alike. but it's very good. peter jackson didn't disappoint indeed.

feeling troubled. many things have happened or are happening. some things set in motion where i had no intent of it going there. i'm not making sense. this emotional rollercoaster ride has left me feeling ______. it's heart-wrenching. it's painful. it's upsetting. it's just sad.

yes. it's part of growing up. it's part of the drama series titled Life. without it life would be so boring. in one episode of sec and the city carrie comtemplates about the need for all the drama in life. she muses, "if you know the house (casino) always wins, why gamble?" she argues that men come and go in their life. even if they get married, the guy may just leave her later in life and the girl is back where she started. SINGLE. so carrie advocates just skipping all the drama and focus on spending time with her friends which will always be there for her.

so when you know your partner is not the person you would even consider marrying in future, why gamble?

anyway, i'm learning from every experience. i make sure i do so i don't feel like a robot. like dr. sean mcnamara in nip/tuck. this experience has led me to go back to God in prayer for help. to depend on Him to provide a direction. to ask Him to calm my troubled heart and mind. allow me to think clearly and see clearly.

oh well...going back to send emails and rearrange my schedule.

happy christmas. =)

“Men always ought to pray and not lose heart.” Luke 18:1

This girl posted at 11:27 PM

Saturday, December 10, 2005

blogging from my korea ski resort business center computer. the windows xp in korean sia. cannot understand a single word. even blogger homepage is in korean. have to rely on my memory to figure out which buttons to press.

anyway the trip, which was quite boring at first, was balanced out by skiing lessons today in the morning, followed by an afternoon of more practicing to get the basics right! the only minus point is that the bunny slope is full of people, (actually the whole mountain is full of people, koreans and tourists), because it's a saturday and it's nearly the winter break for the schools here.

so i fell the first time i went down the slope. and i fell wrongly, landing on my knee instead of my butt. so now i'm nursing a bruised knee. but subsequently it was fun! quite exhilirating as i ski down the quite gentle slope, but still could go quite fast and had to learn to brake! wouldn't mind doing it again. =)

back to the horrible weather. aside from today, where the exercise made me perspire even though the temperature was -3 degrees, the other days have been miserable because it was too cold! day temperatures average from -4 to about 2 degrees, while it drops to -10 to -7 at night. it's just so so so cold, i can't even bear to take my frozen hands out of my gloves to take nice pictures. either that or i can't stay still at one spot because that makes me about 10 times colder. i have to keep walking.

i love skiing!

anyway, service in korea is nothing like singapore. NOTHING. i'm proud to say that service in singapore is so much better. don't get me wrong. the koreans are nice people. they are warm and well-mannered and polite. just when it comes to like service in restaurants, our guide has to serve us, not the waitresses and waiters. and when i was out in the cold struggling with the locker that keeps our ski blades and that light-saber thingies (the darn key wouldn't turn so i can unlock it), i gestured to an old man who was sweeping rubbish off the snow to help me, but he walked behind me, swept a piece of paper into his dustpan and walked away.

so horrible! and no one offered to help me with it though i looked quite helpless there for some 2 mins.

i figured out how to unlock it later anyway. hmmpphh.

one very good thing about korea, all their toilets have tissue paper. every single toilet that i've been to has tissue paper. singapore should learn from them!

oh oh. and my asst. tour guide is this really cute 23-yr-old korean guy who is working during his uni holidays to take photos and assist our tour guide. he's very funny because he only can speak a little mandarin. so we all have been teaching him mandarin. and he's funny and he loves to flirt mildly and play with the children on our tour group, which by the way are the cutest kids around. i love playing with them too.

alright. tmr is a long day. going to visit some attractions. hopefully it's not boring. sigh. wished we could ski for one more day. but it's really expensive because such activities only happen once a year, so they can only profit for like 2 months. that's why it's ex.

anybody who wants anything? just email me. i'll see if my hotel in seoul has net access. it's gd here 'cos net access is free! hurhur. they have really fantastic seaweed and dried cuttlefish shreds and kimchi of course. yes the food is not too bad. everynight we have a different type of steamboat with different ingredients and soup base. we also had korean BBQ, much much much better than seoul garden. =)

i miss singapore's warm weather. it's such a hassle to wear so many layers of clothes and before that must put moisturizer all over your body. plus your hat, scarf, gloves and all. in singapore just a top and jeans/skirt will do.

okay dokey. time for bed. oh yeah, we sleep the korean style. on heated floors with thin mattresses and blankets (cos it's still cold). it's an interesting concept, just that the mattress not thick enough, my back is so sore. and it's made worse from skiing, so tonight my back's gonna be so so sore. hint hint to someone who can give me a massage when i get back. =)

This girl posted at 7:44 PM

Saturday, December 03, 2005

reading through the book of psalms to prepare for youth conference. pastor's orders. :)

wondering what does it really mean to be glad.

to have joy in your heart.

joy = ecstatic happiness, pleasure, satisfaction, rejoice, gladness

"But let all those rejoice who put their trust in You;
Let them ever shout for joy, because You defend them;
Let those also who love Your name Be joyful in You."
- Psalms 5:11

how comforting it is to know that we can ever shout for joy because it is He who defends us. it is in Him where we put our trust.

i think it takes a lot to cultivate that sense of everlasting joy. to be glad in the Lord despite all things bad in life.

"In Your presence is fullness of joy;"
- Psalms 16:11 (partial)

=)

sometimes in the midst of all the bad things happening in the world, we forget there's just so much more to be happy about. we dwell on the worst of things. we are blinded and only see things in one dimension. it's quite shocking that even the most rational person could fall prey to such narrow-mindedness. we focus on the worst examples, the most horrible facts and thereby we become terribly depressed and pessimistic and cynical.

even when things do not seem to go our way, it's so important for us to take a step back, clear our head and start really thinking about the other side of the coin, the other dimensions, and the better of things.

p/s. and if you're thinking that i'm naive and there's no "better of things", that's where you need to stop and look at the bigger picture.

the scriptures do provide comfort and a way to be optimistic again. and to always strive to trust Him and to find that joy in Him.

and i'm just so happy to be in church worshipping the Lord and fellowshipping with friends, teachers and pastors.

that's a good start.

smile. =)

For the Glory of the Lord

The Lord is my shepherd, my guardian and my guide
I shall never hunger, all my needs He will provide
Even though I walk in darkness, His love will be my light
and I will go where He leads me
I will serve Him each day of my life

I will praise Him, with every breath I take
I will honour Him, in every choice I make
I will live for the glory of the Lord
yes I will live for the glory of the Lord

Though I often wander, He gently takes my hand
and leads me to living waters, that I may rest in Him
Still, He calls me onward, to share the gift of life
and I will go where He leads me, I will serve Him each day of my life

I will praise Him, with every breath I take
I will honour Him, in every choice I make
I will live for the glory of the Lord
yes I will live for the glory of the Lord

I will arise to answer God's call
I will go forth and give Him my all
I will be faithful and be strong as I live for the glory of the Lord

I will praise Him, with every breath I take
I will honour Him, in every choice I make
I will live for the glory of the Lord
yes I will live for the glory of the Lord

This song shall be my resolution this year. to really praise and honour Him with every choice i make. to be faithful and be strong. that everything i do, would not be for the glory of anyone or myself. but for the Lord.

and to find joy within my heart. always. =)

This girl posted at 11:14 PM