Handover 2008

Today during PE lesson, Jac Vera and I took the liberty to plan our own exercise regime and ran cross country route to East Coast and back.
I love running long distance, there's something very appealing about it, at least thats what i feel. Would sign up for the Stan Chart 21km, but have less than 2 weeks to train for it considering the Lit paper which juts out and takes up some space in our calendar of freedom somewhere in mid Nov. Therefore, i have to be content with just a pathetic 10 km again. Sigh. I know 10km may already sound like a feat to some, but after running that since sec 3, that makes it 3 years, its just trite and boring. boo.

Today tuesday was a day of getting back to reality. With some really shocking math grade, i looked back upon my old post Quote : "i guess i have reason to be proud because i crammed what people were doing over the entire term into the last 3 or 4 days. if i count honestly, i think i studied only for mids for 10 days [edit: spending at least 5 days getting by the juvenile confusions first] I also realised that i didnt even catch up with those stuff I missed when we missed school while in New York!" Its my own fault for not challenging fatigue after late nights in school, for not pressing through with those confusing symbols even at midnight and probably for just not having enough resolve.
Both my parents work and since we have no maid at home, and since my sister is overseas plus my oldest sister is really caught up with her crazy hectic banking job, I always reach home first despite it being late, and therefore spend at least an hour clearing up and doing some housechores so that i can spare my mum from the tyranny of some of those unrelenting dust. After that my mum returns and i help her in the kitchen to prepare food so that we dont eat dinner at 10 oclock. after that its another half an hour of tidying up the kitchen and clearing up and hola, i often sit down at my desk to do work only at 10 or 10.30pm! My family is not the traditional Chinese family kind that encourages you to "Study study study" kind because fortunately or unfortunately for me, do not believe in hardcore mugging. Maybe its because my dad and sister are brilliant in a very similar way...Raffles ftw and never needed to touch a book to do well. My parents also cant stand it when im huddled, stressed at my desk with books and really technically yell at me at 12 to go to bed. I have nightmares because then i have only had 1 hour of solid work but this probably covers only 2 sides of a thick stack of Israeli-Palestinian notes and is heavily insufficient. I cant complain because ultimately blame comes back to me for giving away my weekends to friends or rest...poor time management!

All these are not excuses though, because I compare the resolve of those under much more "undesirable" circumstances and I lose miserably. I used to have a friend back in primary school who had to help her physically disabled mum run a hawker stall and prepare all the things at the crack of dawn and after school too. Her grades were one of the best in the level.

So, what can i change? I cannot change the blessings (which we often take it as seemingly banes as i have listed above) God has given us, I cannot change the responsibilities i have been given, I cannot change the cards God has dealt me, so what can i change?

I can change, and must change in fact my own attitude towards everything, how everything is indeed is not impossible and have more resolve to complete things i have to complete. Was talking to my junior today and its really so much easier advicing people then carrying it out yourself.

Thankyou Jessie, Charissa, Eric, Director Poh, Exco, Section, (ahaha kaikeng) and all the year 2s for adhering to my crazy qualms of camwhoring todayy. Thank you so much for understanding me so much this past year and basically know that when i dont give a smile or dont speak a word, something's wrong. Thank you so much for reading me like a book, it scares me sometimes! Thank you for giving me so many enjoyable dinner company and wacky fun where i can really be myself. I remember having a vegetable stuck in between my teeth and somehow after i found out after kind soul charissa told me haha i was surprised i didnt really mind it at all. haha ok thats embarrassing but thats a fantastic example man. Lastly, thank you for making this afternoon and evening so much better for me. All my smiles are still captured in JS's cam and will be uploaded soon. I even have an accidental upskirt picture gosh no no i shant upload that haha!

Tomorrow, how things were are going to "officially change" and though we can cry like Matthew at the end of our video because everything was merely a memory, we will still have the best laughs of our life while watching it, and, the best of company to follow us forever.

For me though, its going to take some time to really let go, but like what i said to Gabriel, what has to be done, has to be done and we must do it with resolve! Happy handover tomorrow and,
pamper your tear glands tonight guys.

Your light Will shine

You know you have days where you sing praises of worship and suddenly you just become so engaged in the envelope of God's love which just floods you? It floods your heart and soon you feel you arent even standing on solid ground. Everything becomes so surreal and the friends you are amidst dont really seem to be there anymore, its into another world, or what I would call transcendance.

Transcendance doesn't come cheap. You could feed on booze to experience another kind of transcendance i guess. Thats the cheapest it can get. To experience the transcendance of real meaning, one including serene calmness comes from something not money can buy, not the maximum SAT scores you can get, not shopping to make you happy, not manicures and not pedicures, not the latest movies, nor the sleekest Ipods you can ever find. None of those. In fact if you want to think of a reason, you can articulate it for the world yet not understand it. You have got to experience it.

This experience (or so in my narrow perspective of life these 18 years) comes from simply opening your heart and mind to Him, whether or not we are singing in church or simply praying for a friend. Believe it or not, my second last experience at this 'transcendance' was a mighty 2 years ago, with my last experience during one of the rehearsals for Dona Nobis Pacem (Grant us Peace) for our Majestia XXIII. I assure you i heard a chorale singing the hymn, and experienced a wider space so much more than where i was. I would blink my ears if i could to check if i was hearing correctly, i mean maybe it was just the fantastic harmony being supernaturally in tune, but no it was something more than that. I looked around to check if others were similarly taken in by the peculiar event, but no, everyone seemed perfectly as they were... my soul fed then and even though standing next to so many, I knew none of them would see my tears or my surge of gratefulness. Amazingly, its just between You and Him.

We are like a kite, and He is holding the string from anywhere below where we are flying. We may be tangible miles apart yet we are intangibly attached. The trick is making this intangiblity tangible in everyway. Offhand i can count so many friends who have been discouraged by this invisibility and i cant say ive never been through that. But if you call yourself happy with just that amount of things you have, seemingly happy I would say. I really crinch at the thought!

If you are a Christian visitor here and you can afford some time, or even if you arent a Christian and would like to, just take some minutes off to listen to my dear favourite evergreen blog-song which should have been playing, replay it if need be and think through all the lyrics. Ill welcome you everyday, everytime you feel weak yet you need strength, everytime you feel life isnt just how it was anymore.

This is how you stay happy my dear. :)
And remember, we are all still trying :)

ALAMAH

Quote Mc: "Alamah"!!

haha shouldnt it be alamak?! lol

why is everything so alamah!

all about the wordplay

a week before cts, wait or was it 2 weeks before cts, cant really remember!
annabelle i really want to sit on that scary thing, but im really scared i fly out and die before my A levels! hahaha.

BACKK!
and alive from cts!

if you see my brain on the street, make sure you salute it!!

it has survived much! travelled around the world to kashmir, pakistan, israel, china, burma, vietnam, malaysia, indonesia and actually dublin too because of Juno and the Paycock.

oh and i nearly forgot! if you see my right hand on the street too, do give it 2 salutes and maybe a bow yea? :)

10 essays on average in a mere 12 hours for the arts papers!

:) im proud of myself and all my classmates and yet i know if that was the kind of work i was going to give in the A levels i wouldnt mind shooting myself 10 times over now! i guess i have reason to be proud because i crammed what people were doing over the entire term into the last 3 or 4 days. if i count honestly, i think i studied only for mids for 10 days. I also realised that i didnt even catch up with those stuff I missed when we missed school while in New York!

I think one of the things that really kept me going was how we girls we in it together, how we all were kept so busy during term and really had to slog hard these few nights. Majestia, tennis season, softball and hockey match supports, tuitions with ants and abc, we were hardly given time to really rest and really settle down for work. our momentum was only destroyed once school hols started but then again we all had our own plans for the first two weeks! Thank God for also all the strength present with us, the strength I can never comprehend how it came about! the strength of my hands and my fingers, the strength of my mind despite the late nights, the strength to keep our spirits high!

Even though going back to school on Monday for a rather important test was dreadful, somehow i felt really good going back to school. VJ has been something really special to me and i can safely say for nearly all of us because of so many memories. i mean there will always be unpleasant ones but we learn to live with it and it makes us stronger. But overall, i think going school has been great and i really love all the friends ive made this past1 and a half year. Will miss school badly once study term kicks in =/

was supposed to watch Sex and the City with the girls today after dinner. the movie was supposed to start with 9 but my mummy wanted to come home before 12 so i gave it a miss! she has been really worried ever since the news of a trend of increasing youths and people of all ages going missing. She is really suspicious of that bridge near my home and she is always very worried when i come back after dark. oh dear! no wonder she always makes sure she fetches me from whereever i am nowadays... my dad too! but somehow my mum has this very strong instinct thing about her advice to us and thats why i always have no qualms of adhering to it. Somehow what she always feels is always quite accurate! Quite scary but good i guess!

My sister is arriving back on 7th July morning. I should be going to the airport to fetch her in the wee hours of the morning before going to school! Its strange how i only really really start missing my sister when she's about to come back haha. She has been gone for close to 6 months and its fine time she's back! She has already been conversing in Spanish with my dad on the phone or email! amazing sister who learns different languages like a b c! She has taken my dad's genes, he can speak fluent, and i mean fluent Thai, Jap and Spanish. Can write them too. Wow.

I feel like signing up for the basic driving theory test but i know i will regret it when the test comes and im caught up with work and all. Ok we have to hit ikea soon, have a list of things to give some favourite people of mine! haha, official handover's coming soon!

online shopping!!

omgosh i cant get myself off online shopping! dang and it doesnt help that i keep seeing stuff i like!

ok i've decided after As ill like sell half of my wardrobe, seriously, almost all of them are new if not worn once, and after that i dont seem to like it anymore or it doesnt seem to like me anymore. seriously i think i could earn quite a lot.

ok, i have to keep reminding myself that now is a bad time to be doing this. Bad time, bad time!

anyway, i just called mark hoping to get some "pearls of wisdom" regarding history and found out that almost all our class guys are at a pub now??!!! does not help to have a slack class. I think A13 can be one of the slackest jc classes in history!

oh no!!

- Worried

:)

Im regretting a teeny lil bit on my last sentence in my last post. haha see it? but yea ill stick to it :) just making a point form thingy here so i wont forget what to update on:

1. At MC's and Class chalet, with funny photos:)
2. different study groups, ...very interesting (esp the one in school and pp) !!..
3. phone calls and 'long lost friends'
4. how life always always plays tricks on you, jessieee!!!

Upcoming:

1. SATs on sat, lunch with junior exco, cut hair!prince caspian and funny funny things!
2. Dr Goh's bash? lol.
3. make up econs :(
4. girls' night out! Clarke Quay and pictures
5. dentist!
6. organise cip with brown mouse!

OK then it will be the cts. good luck to everyone!=D

Pictures!

Sports Day, SOV, Hockey match support, Majestia XXIII including gifts :),

Band Chalet!

I've been pretty consistent with events and blogging..which means i havent been quite consistent elsewhere..... i promise not to blog again until the 25th June! taa!

jts (s) :)

quick one:

this is how big our chalet was, that...

:meiyi:: says:
eh daniel!
:
:meiyi:: says:
how come you didnt go today =D

[d]aNieL says:
haha i did!

[d]aNieL says:
i went n finished up all the crabs!

::meiyi:: says:
huh?

[d]aNieL says:
n i saw u too!!

::meiyi:: says:
i didnt see you at all

::meiyi:: says:
lol

[d]aNieL says:
i saw u for a brief moment in the rm

[d]aNieL says:
aaah meiyi! u never see me

::meiyi:: says:
lol i ddint see you AT ALL....

::meiyi:: says:
lol

[d]aNieL says:
omg!

::meiyi:: says:
maybe i was too engrossed

[d]aNieL says:
hahah in winning?

ok playing mahjong was seriously a breath of fresh air after such a long time!
good job on the jts organizers, the dinner was really good. the first bbq chalet ive been to that i got enough to eat, actually more than enough! thankyou teachers for coming and Mdm Goh for cooking all those crabs and seafood! my gosh, it was really a food haven! small daniel and i got enough space to relive our funny running scene as it happened at Liberty island in NY too, haha :)) the chalet was so huge we had separate groups playing mahjong, all sorts of other games and even guitar heroes. haha which was quite hilarious.a lot of extra space to chat also (haha jessie:))
thank God for blessing us with fantastic weather, amazingly, it wasnt raining there at all while it was pouring cats at dogs just like 2 mrt stops away.

class jts tmr. :)oh yea. im like baking something to bring! hope it turns out well. lol

let <3 be illuminated for everyone

My gosh, my last post here was exactly a month ago, quite amazing! this blog is still alive ok and i have no intentions of closing it since there are just too many memories here and favourite people who still visit the tag board!:)

I wonder how abc, vera, anthea, hwee and mc are at Camp Magicaaa now? haha:) hope you all are having fun! im sure the kids will love you all because kids are somehow able to tell your real personality and since you all are really really truly nice they will just naturally love you!:)

Thank you everyone for all your well wishes yesterday, all the funny calls and smses that started after midnight and lasted throughout the day. Really appreciate it!
I also decided to still wake up early to go to the school even though everyone knew it was going to be a full day off due to the successes, as according to someone, on "stage, field and court!". The last day of Term 2 ! there was a video done by amazing info comm on all the events which happened - From all the investitures to concerts, clips of sports games, music fest etc! After the early dismissal we had batch meeting till 12. we started it off with a birthday song and ended with a small cake for me :) thanks exco for the windchimes and the cake!
Was feeling extremely hot and sticky so i decided to head back home to bathe and change before heading down to vivo to meet the class girls:) we ate carls' jnr and shopped a little (oh im going to get that white outfit ok seriously!), which included pigging out with vera haha. it was relaxing and a nice treat away from busy busy term 2! so coincidental to meet the tennis girls there too! haha Captain Hwee's force attracts! anyway as the girls had to go off for the cip camp, we left at about 5 plus. headed to parkway to meet up with phoebe at coffee bean. not long after jonathan came and we ate dinner at treats. realised how small the world is after we talked about mutual people all of us knew!
Sarah joined us for the Strings concert back at school after that. during the second half Yirui, Melissa and Ben sat next to us. all of us talked like we knew each other for years haha but im glad all of us could still enjoy the music as it should have been. Basically, it turned out much better than i thought it would:) After the concert, i caught a lift from junsen, yay!

woke up all drowsy today because i was so tired but after i got to school, it was fine again:) school was so exciting because there was this 5 a side soccer competition thing going on. the music "sexbomb" was blasting when i entered i was actually wondering if i had entered the wrong place haha.
dafril, pinrui, eric and matthew etc had a stayover at daryl's new house. His house is HUMONGOUS AND HAS A ROBOT TO CLEAN IT according to enghwee haha. so we met the guys after meeting at parkway to eat lunch then went to buy a SATs guide book to share with enghwee and charissa. was so tired so i decided to come home after that. reaally wanted to support the bassoons, clarinets, benedict etc at the busk- in-the-sun event at orchard but i think i really couldnt take it!

besides the 23rd of May, i havent talked about Majestia XXIII! Will come to it soon!
Looking ahead, its going to be the announcement of the new exco, SATS in 2 weeks time, 2 chalets and 1 bbq-cum-long cycling trip. then after quite a bit, it'll be cts 2. whatever, i love being young and thank God for letting me enjoy it in every way.

Like Yuxuan says, we are "more than blessed".:)
Still praying for victims around the world, to enjoy true peace, joy and warmth.

We were given so many chances, yet we need more...

If you can and want to, lets do this together:

For all the families that have been displaced by bad weather, we pray for shelter and a new beginning for them.

For all the families that have been torn apart by death and grieving, we pray for your hand of comfort and healing to be over them.

For all the rescue workers, we pray that you grant them perseverance and all the help and resources they need to save as many lives as they can.

Dear Lord, please hear us.