Mister 83

Review: L-Change The World

2008-02-26T13:45:00.003+08:00

Watched the movie with Wend. Not a bad spinoff from DeathNote. Get to see the more human side of the lengendary detective L. Lawliet. The only downside of the movie, it downplayed the intellect powers of L.

In the original DeathNote, L was such a great thinker and strategist that it was thrilling just to see him and Kira pitted against each other with just wits alone. This movie however depended more on "action" rather that the mind-blogging mental fight.

And one more thing, there are terms in this movie that is easier to follow if you had watched DeathNote. Go watch DeathNote first, after all it is a spinoff.

It is sad to know that L will still die in the end.

Overall, 7/10. *******

"I'll Be Waiting" by Lenny Kravitz

2008-02-24T18:50:00.004+08:00

This is the theme song of "L, Change the World", the song which is playing in the background when this post is published. Really like this song a lot as it speaks my heart.

He broke your heart
He took your soul
You're hurt inside
'Cause there's a hole
You need some time
to be alone
then you will find
what you've always known

I'm the one who really love ya, baby
I've been knockin' at your door

and as long as I'm livin'
I'll be waitin'
as long as I'm breathin'
I'll be there
whenever you call me
I'll be waitin'
whenever you need me
I'll be there

I've seen ya cry
into the night
I feel your pain
can I make it right?
I realize
there's no end in sight
yet still I wait
for you to see the light

I'm the one who really loves ya, baby
I can't take it anymore

and as long as I'm livin'
I'll be waitin'
as long as I'm breathin'
I'll be there
whenever you call me
I'll be waitin'
whenever you need me
I'll be there

You are the only one I've ever known
that makes me feel this way, couldn't on my own
I wanna be with you until we're old
you've got the love you need right in front of you, please come home

as long as I'm livin'
I'll be waitin'
as long as I'm breathin'
I'll be there
whenever you call me
I'll be waitin'
whenever you need me
I'll be there

as long as I'm livin'
I'll be waitin'
as long as I'm breathin'
I'll be there
whenever you call me
I'll be waitin'
whenever you need me
I'll be there

Z Monster Post.

2008-02-23T17:02:00.004+08:00

If only I am a more photoholic like my friend, I would have more pictures to post. Haha. Nonetheless, most of my post will be words, words and more words.
Going for my second night shift soon, can't really sleep now, yet so sleepy. YAWN~

Just went to China Town recently with Wend, realise we kinda fancy the Straits Chinese influenced clothes over at this store called, Isle. The clothes look pretty Indonesian but depends on how you wear it, I think it kinda look good on the both of us. Will be heading there in our next pay day.

Le Grand Chef, American Gangster, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, CJ7 then Sweeney Todd. Next? L-CHANGE THE WORLD! These two months really a lot of good movies.

Mister 83

2008-02-05T13:30:00.000+08:00

Upgraded my template. Took a while to figure things out. Had a few photos which I will upload shortly. :)

Myth about Children

2008-01-09T16:34:00.000+08:00

Wen suddenly called me in the morning. Something happened? Ya, a boy, seemingly in secondary school was throwing "pearls" from his bubble tea at Wen on the bus.

He threw once, she endured.

He threw twice, she endured somemore.

He threw thrice, she stood up, went over to him and scolded him.

That unrepentent boy scolded vulgarities at her instead.

When she got off the bus, the boy kept calling her "Doggy".

If I was there, I would want to drag that boy (preferably by his hair) down the bus to the nearest police centre for public harrasement.

There's always a Boy's Home for kids such as these.

So it reminds me of a myth that many adult parents childishly believe in. That "a child will learn the right way as he grows up". That is Nonsensical NONSENSE!

If that is true, then we will not need police forces and prisons in our society.

There is a Chinese saying, "that if a child is not corrected, it is the father's (parents') fault".

So speaking, one of the irritating moments is really to see children monkeying around on a bus or train, disturbing other passengers and the parents just sit there and do nothing. Or worse, encourage the children to continue playing. Irresponsible parents.

There was a joke that reflects well about all these things,

These days, in the education system, the teacher is afraid of the principal,
the principal is afraid of the school board,
the school board is afraid of the ministry,
the ministry is afraid of the parents,
the parents is afraid of the children,
and the children, is afraid of no one.

Ironman? That's what a few people call me.

2008-01-06T14:15:00.000+08:00

Yet another person called me iron-man, cuz it seems I don't need much sleep. True, I can't sleep well in the day, I tend to wake up before 8am in the morning no matter how late I sleep, and I can stay out late with friends on consecutive nights.

But it all depend on the company I am with. There is a few friends who I can sacrifice my sleep for anything. :)

These are my Nakama(s). :)

My new CG, N255.

Yet another photo-taking session with Wendy. That's her friend, Carrin besides her.

We kinda like the stairs.

2 pretty ladies. He.

Title: Girl by the Picture.
Sounds classic right? But I like this photo.

Wen said we looked like siblings. Ha.

Last pose of the day. :)

Back to this blog.

2008-01-05T03:26:00.000+08:00

After much though, I have decided to come back to blogger. Will I be blogging regurlarly? Guess I will just be glad that I even have time to type a few words. Nonetheless, here I go. Soon that is. :)

My Blog Had Moved!!!

2006-10-04T18:16:00.000+08:00

My new blog is at www.serialno8332.multiply.com.

I will be keeping this blog for the sake of all my old entries and pictures. The tag board at the new blog is the same as the one here.

Be sure to add me!

It's Hard Holding You, Loving You, Losing You.

2006-09-26T23:39:00.000+08:00

Occasionally, I can be offended by people but learning to express my anger is the only way to keep a friendship strong.

You can't live with a friend offending you all the time.

Neither can you just burst out all of a sudden when you are frustrated.

Both ways will destroy your friendship. There must be a balance.

Regarding relationships I have in the past it can be sung this song.

Should I Stay

Had a drive
Driven by your love
But when you messed around
I lost the drive I found

Thought you needed
Needed someone true
But you changed your mind
Or had I failed you?

Wish you'd been
Careful with my heart
But you tore it apart
And broke an angel's heart

The kiss was true
Has to end somehow
But I am livin' proof of what love is about

It's hard holding you
Loving you, losing you
It's sad to be true
And be fooled by you
I don't know (I don't know)
I gotta know
Should I stay or should I go?

You played me on
Played me like a clown
But I feel for you
Eventhough I'm down

My heart is heavy
Heavy like a rock
But I am so amused
You're still in my thoughts

It's hard holding you
Loving you, losing you
It's sad to be true
And be fooled by you
I don't know (I don't know)
I gotta know
Should I stay or should I go?

Oooohh... should I stay?
Should I go?

It's hard holding you
Loving you, losing you
It's sad to be true
And be fooled by you
I don't know (I don't know)
I wanna know
Should I stay or should I...?

This time its done
It'll never feel the same
But we had some good times
Guess it's sad just the same

I guess the truth
Doesn't matter somehow
But you were livin' proof of what love is about...

So I wondered how come I never talk to some people anymore. I realise that I was greatly hurt by these people and even felt cheated.

I know I am not perfect myself. But there are some things that once done, there can hardly be any trust between two persons anymore.

I remember I am always the one who will initiate the reconciliation.

Even though there may no longer be any anger, there is already a barrier between us.

Harsh? I think not. It is just the consequences of actions.

Have I forgiven them? Yes, and again, maybe not. Because I still remember them. I am no longer angry and I am no longer bothered by it but I still remember how I was hurt.

Nonetheless, I pray to God that these people may be set free. I love them just as Jesus loved them. :)

Why have I not talked to some who was so close to me just a while ago?

Because I have found better friends and I can no longer consider that person a close friend. I have moved on, I have become wiser with who I call friends. It's that simple.

But if you come to me and say "Hi!", we can still talk like old friends. For we are after all, friends to begin with. However, you can no longer expect me to share my most personal things with you.

I am sure you don't share everything about yourself to everyone. So do I. It's that simple.

This time its done
It'll never feel the same
But we had some good times
Guess it's sad just the same

TOP MAN is SEASONAL.

2006-09-25T21:41:00.000+08:00

So Hardy just won The Singapore Idol. Cool. Actually I supported Jonathon. I thought he is more charming and marketable as a singer.

And ACTUALLY, I never watched any episode of Singapore Idol this season. At most, it was only five or ten minutes when I happen to surf channels or when it was aired on TVMoblie. Haha!

I gathered the information through the news, magazines and of course, the adrenal conversations among the ladies who either roots for Hardy or Jonathon

They are also the one who:

Thinks that Paul Twohill is a freak with bad makeup and singing from bad to worse.

Feels that ousting Mathilda was a great loss to the competition.

Felt that Joakim really can't sing.

And that Jasmine kinda overstayed in the competition.

And the rest are not worth mentioning. Haha!

Went shopping with Minqi and Hong Yun at Parkway Parade on Sunday. Went into TOP MAN and found that after one whole year, they finally come out with some really good designs for their T-shirts and Polos once more. Haha.

I guess TOP MAN is seasonal. It happen that the fall/winter collection last year was also pretty good.

I really like this light-blue T-shirt that has a pattern of a skull on it, looks very Ed Hardy. Haha! Some of the white T-shirts are nice too! (I wear XL by the way cuz I like it loose.)

The polos like I said are also quite nice. But I only like a few of the designs. Most of the tops cost $36. Cheaper than last season. However... I think I had overspent a little so I didn't buy any.

Oh wells...

There's always next time. Haha!

GOD's W.I.P.

2006-09-24T22:31:00.000+08:00

I had being a little lazy to upload my photos for the past 2 weeks. Haha! Nonetheless, here are some memorable and interesting photos I have taken.

This was my Final Year Project with my team members. It was presented on a Monday two weeks ago. The topic is about Training Caregivers for Terminal Cancer.

We put in a lot of time, money and effort. We made posters, banners and even booked a lecture room to hold our exhibits.

Putting the long story short, we had a Distinction for it! Praise the Lord! Yeah!!! Haha! After the project's over, we finally felt more relaxed.

This was the class gathering we had last Thursday. I was planning and my Treasurer, Tracy helped me a lot with it.
I played two games.

The first game was Murderer. Every "night", everyone will go to sleep (closing their eyes) and the murderers will go and kill someone. The next "morning", the surviving town's people must vote who is the murderer and remove the person with the highest vote out of the game. This goes on till the murderders (I had two murderers for this game) are all voted out.

The game was a little unfamiliar to the class but they got a hang of it by the second round and there were much commotion going on when those who "died" found out who the murderers were. Haha!

For the first time in my life, I actually see the whole town killed! Not even one murderer was voted out of the game! Haha!

The second game was People Bingo. Everyone were very active in this game, running around to ask people to sign on their paper and at the same time, trying to grab the limited pens that was provided. Haha!

Choy Fung won the first prize of $20 Tangs Voucher (sponsored by yours truly :) ) and Lizhen won the second prize of a Uni Tri-Color Pen which cost $5+.

We had Canadian Pizza and KFC after that. The lecturers we invited said it was well-organized. :)

Here's some funny pictures.

Have a look at "Father" Desmond. Haha!

That's Tidus, a cute little boy. Love to have him around.

Yixuan's "monkey business".

That's Minqi blowing bubble into her Almond Milk Tea. Haha!

Love my CG. Haha!

By the way, I am God's W.I.P. (Work In Progress). So please be patient with me. Really wanna thank Sister Darryl, Desmond and Carolyn for being so supportive during this period of time.

Praise God for friends like you around. :)

"If I must die, I am willing to die."

2006-09-24T01:39:00.000+08:00

This words were spoken by Esther thousands of years ago and it currently rings in my mind all the time.

No man is perfect, not even leaders.

I know this long time ago, but I can never believe what I know.

The sooner I had realise how true it is, the sooner I would have understood my leaders and instead of working against them, I would have being a great help to them.

Well... Even I am in the changing phase.

Praise more, don't criticize.

Be careful not to hurt people when I joke.

Be open and truthful to others, especially to the people you treasure.

Be loving and be private when correcting someone.

After all these years, have I not heard all these? Many times. Yet, it takes determination and a change of mindset to put all these into actions.

If I have not totally eliminated all critical words in my conversations and joke, I am sure it had significantly lessened over the past 2 to 3 weeks.

I am stopping to think what I want to say. I am sieving through the choice of words for my jokes.

If it isn't appropriate, if it isn't going to sound nice, I will not let it out of my mouth. Even at the expenses of being called dull and boring.

I have to learn. I rather be dull and boring, than to be irritating and offensive. But I am sure I can strike a balance to be interesting yet at the same time loving.

"If I must die, I am willing to die."

If I don't change, the results will always stay the same.

If I want to grow from glory to glory than my efforts must increase and my methods must change.

Somebody Save Me!!!

2006-09-15T08:57:00.000+08:00

We had an AWESOME Zone Outreach on 10th Sept! Many friends came and all of us had a great time!

Read more about it on W372's Blog.

So this song kinda suit the mood/mode I am in now. I know Jesus is my Saviour and I am already saved, don't get me wrong. I am talking about my feelings.

Ever since I came back from the mission trip, I found myself more open than ever before.

I get to see how Pastor Kong work. When Pastor expressed his tiredness in front of us, about his worries when his son was very sick while he was in KL, how he preached so strongly during the confernce and yet never hide his fatigue from us, the image of Pastor as a mythical Great Man of God all collaspe. He had become a human that I could identify with, just an ordinary man but doing extraordinary things for God.

This experience made me all the more respect and love pastor and his vision.

In the past whenever I heard pastor shared about his struggles, I imagined him like Heracles or Jason doing things that normal humans like us can never do. However, seeing him in person during this mission trip made me realise just how real pastor is, and this made all the future messages he preached more credible, more real and more powerful. Because these are the teachings of God through an ordinary man whose life is transparent and truly love God and trust God with all his heart.

The message that really moved me a lot was the one right after the mission trip, the one about emotional baggages.

Pastor had taught about similar topics in the past. However, this was the first time ever this message had really impacted me so much, after attending church for more than 5 years.

During CG, my CGL leader preached the same message again as pastor sensed that many people need to hear it one more time.

In my heart, only a few words keep repeating itself as I listened to the message.

"Stop it already."

"It is so hurting."

"Please let the CG end quickly."

Yes, behind that smiles are really struggles that had being going on for a long time.

So being a Christian after so many years, one would still have much struggles with past hurts and pride?

Yes. And the greatest woe a Christian can do, is to bury that struggle because of fear and pride.

"How can I let people know I made the same mistake again?"

"What will people think that if they know I am still struggling with the same problem after all these years?"

"Will my leader think that I am problematic or unteachable?"

"Will my leader understand how he/she had hurt me?"

All these questions are made in the heart, with fear in the face of pride.

It is not natural at all to share a person's weakness.

In fact, putting my point straight, someone who goes around sharing his/her problems and weaknesses to everyone all the time is really weird, strange and emotionally traumatising to the listeners.

However, burying everything underneath will not help you to bring your problem to the surface to be healed.

There must be a balance of course, that you share with only with the people who are matured and those that you truly trust. Or else, you may find yourself getting more rejections because people who are not mature enough, are usually quick to judge.

Esther 4:11-16
Then Esther told Hathach to go back and relay this message to Mordecai: "The whole world knows that anyone who appears before the king in his inner court without being invited is doomed to die unless the king holds out his gold scepter. And the king has not called for me to come to him in more than a month."
So Hathach gave Esther's message to Mordecai. Mordecai sent back this reply to Esther: "Don't think for a moment that you will escape there in the palace when all other Jews are killed. If you keep quiet at a time like this, deliverance for the Jews will arise from some other place, but you and your relatives will die. What's more, who can say but that you have been elevated to the palace for just such a time as this?"
Then Esther sent this reply to Mordecai: "Go and gather together all the Jews of Susa and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. My maids and I will do the same. And then, though it is against the law, I will go in to see the king. If I must die, I am willing to die."

Be like Esther, PRAY and FAST. However, that is not enough. If you want a breakthrough, if you want different results, then you must do something different.

You have to step out of your comfort zone and start facing your struggles openly. It is terrifying to share your weaknesses with another person. That is true even for Esther, don't even think that she was not terrified when she entered into the king's presence. She had to be trembling all the way that day when she left her room and made her way to the king's chamber.

Anyone who go to the king's chamber uninvited was doomed to die if the king doesn't pardon him/her.

And Esther was going to say to the king with words that would contradict a ruling that he made earlier. Another reason that could cost her life.

However, unless you have an attitude of "If I must die, I am willing to die" like Esther, you would never see your breakthroughs in life. You will miss many opportunities and you will only cause more hurts to yourself and to the people around you.

Be strong and God will pave the way. God is good.

Back From KL Mission Trip!!!

2006-09-03T00:04:00.002+08:00

I have made a very long post on W372's Blog so I am not intending to make a long one here. Haha!

Nonetheless, here are some of the pictures I had taken, there will be more on W372's Blog. The mission trip was really AWESOME and UNFORGETABLE! I have also made many new friends, had new encounters with God and got to know the leaders more.

Me, Samantha, Pastor Zhuang, Pastor Audrey, Yixuan and Desmond.

Two tall guys with one not-so-tall girl. Haha!

Super BIG mug of juice for supper!

New friend, Martin and I, both of us were security.

Pastor Kevin Loo, senior pastor of CHC-KL.

New friend, Chew Ling.

Brother Robin.

Pastor Kenneth.

The security team from Singapore and KL.

The final photo shot with PASTOR KONG!!!

We also went shopping with the very little free thing we had and blessed each other. Haha!

Yixuan bought a very cool looking metal bracelet for me and it wasn't cheap but it was what I wanted! She also bought a pink Mickey T-shirt for Desmond which he likes.

I in turn bought a wallet that she like and a Mickey pouch thay she wanted. Desmond bought her a colorful Mickey polo-tee for her. Haha!

Our "Harvest". Haha!

Finally, I just want to thank all of you who had prayed for me and the rest of the mission team. God is good, He had protected us and made this trip very successful. I am sure revival is indeed happening in Malaysia! Amen!

Mission Trip KL!

2006-08-28T01:34:00.000+08:00

I will be away on my mission trip to KL, starting today!!!

Just before I go, I wanna thank Jacelyn for helping me take so many photos during the AH health screening. They are beautiful! I will post the photos when I return.

Visit W372's Blog for the lastest updates.

Great Day of Revelations

2006-08-24T00:49:00.000+08:00

I begin to read "The Heavenly Man" today. I read just the first four chapters and I already felt so moved by the works of Brother Yun. In fact, just reading the foreword alone is almost enough to move me to tears, which I didn't because I was on the MRT. Haha.

Sometimes, I really wonder why I don't seem to have any best friends who stayed with me young. I do have people I used to call best friends in the past, but as time pass, I called someone else my best friends.

Sometimes I wonder if there is anything wrong with that and that was until Pastor mentioned that we have to keep moving on from where we are and as we move on, we will change the company we hang out with. Also, friends are there to see you through different periods of your life.

The foreword for "The Heavenly Man" was written by one of the brothers who went through thick and thin with Brother Yun in the past. They were arrested and tortured in prison. Because they were locked in different cells, they even shouted to each other down the corridor to encourage one another.

That brother then mentioned that they have since drifted apart because God had called them to move in different directions.

I am sure many people have not even went through what these two persons have experienced and yet when it is time for them to part, the two of them were still willing to let go and choose to obey God, leaving behind the many wonderful memories they had together.

As I look back at the friends I have made, I just realise that my best friends just change as I move on in life. In fact, the quality of the friends and friendships improved over the years. It is really interesting indeed, that I am making friends with more awesome people. Perhaps, that is a good sign that I am growing.

And so just today, I just knew that we have gotten "A" for both the presentation we have presented! Praise the Lord! Haha.

I also chatted a lot on W372's tagboard this afternoon. Chloe, Cordy, Mei Hui was online! It is amazing to see the Tagboard so busy. Haha.

After that, I went to Bugis Street to get some new jeans and top. Meihui came to joined me and also bought a pair of jeans. She got it at a pretty good deal cuz I know the shop owner pretty well. Haha.

Meihui was almost late for her bible study after trying out and buying the jeans. We rushed down to church office as fast as we could. Had many interesting conversation with her. Haha.

Later, I went down to City Hall to meet Carolyn who offered to help out with COPE. As it was still early, we went down to Toa Payoh central and ate some really nice Chwee Kuey.

We move on to Toa Payoh meeting area to register the elderly for this Saturday's health screening at AH. We were also joined by Guan Him, one of the ministry member. The elderly were very active tonight. Haha. Had some very interesting conversation with them.

In fact, this Saturday, Carolyn will also come to help out at COPE. However, I was called back to AH to help the hospital with the health screening. So I will get to see the COPErs on Saturday but I will not be with them... It will still be fun but it will never be the same when not serving with them. Haha.

Carolyn left to meet her friend after that. Guan Him and I went to meet Jacelyn for dinner. She happen to just finished bible study and was on her way home, to Ang Mo Kio. I knew very well she will yet to have dinner as she expected to end her work late today. Haha.

We ate at Ang Mo Kio central S11. The prawn noodle there is really nice! The soup is very thick and fragrant and the chilli isn't too hot but it enhanced the flavour of the noodle.

Had some interesting talks with Jace and Guan Him too. Later took the MRT together with Guan Him and shared quite many revelations with to each other.

Yes. Today is very much a fruitful day. Haha.

Photos with my new camera.

2006-08-20T22:05:00.000+08:00

Here's some photos I taken during COPE saturation with my new camera. Hehe.

Attended Dr. A.R. Bernard's conference and it was FANTASIC!!! More about it on my post in W372's Blog.

Going to sleep now. More updates again... Haven't sleep for 2 nights.

Finally... A DIGI CAM! and MISSION TRIP!!

2006-08-17T11:04:00.000+08:00

I bought my digital camera yesterday! It is the new range of Exilms by Casio. Although mine was the cheapest among the range, the Z60, I am still very happy and excited to own it!

A certain electronic chain is selling it at $459. However, this particular shop at Ang Mo Kio call M S Color Service is selling it at $449.

The best thing is, they will allow you to bargain and I manage to get it at $410! With an original pouch, a 512mb SD card and a screen protector thrown in!

What else about it?

Slim, light-weight, 6 megapixel, 3x optical zoom, large screen, best-shot function, anti-shake function and of course, SUPER USER FRIENDLY! Almost foolproof. And it is more affordable than other cameras around it's range. Casio is also a trustworthy brand.

I will be going for KL mission trip from 28th Aug to 1st Sept. It is going to be KL's Emerge and I believe it is going to be AWESOME!

Going to capture all the excitement with my Z60. Haha. Praise the Lord!

Mr. and Mrs. Seet

2006-08-15T21:14:00.000+08:00

Went to NTUC today and bought so much things! Just so I can cook curry for mum's birthday today. Haha.

This was the first time I made curry and it isn't too fantastic. It isn't so bad, really. My mum, bro and I finished the whole portion of 9 chicken wings, potatoes and carrots! I am a natural cook I guess. Haha. However, I hope I can make better curry next time.

Yesterday, my team completed one of the four presentations for this semester, on Cleft Lip and Palate. As our facilitator gave us more time to present, we came up with certain new ideas.

First of all, I introduced myself when it was my turn to present. I crap a little bit, saying that i always have to take care of both child and parents so I am like a father to them. Thus, everyone called me the Godfather. The class and the facilitator were a little lost, but only for a while, they laughed the moment my team mate played the theme music from "The Godfather". Haha.

I have this idea of getting the audience to participate in our role play. Everyone wasn't very sure about the idea at first but after explaining to them how it will work, they all think it is a great plan to get points for audience participation!

So before the role play, I will call out the class to vote one guy and one gal from the audience. They will play as parents and will be instructed by my team mate what to do, which basically just answering three questions.

The guy's family name was Seet, so I refered to them throughout the role play as Mr. and Mrs. Seet. Their awkwardness made the whole thing even more entertaining. Haha. (I am evil. :P)

There were much clappings and laughter among the audiences. Haha. There was a part where my team mate asked the "mother" if she breast feed, she forgot the answer and turned to ask the "father", "Do I breast feed?"

"You are asking me?" The "father" replied in astonishment.

This unplanned senerio made the whole class laughed. Haha.

The last part to every presentation is a conclusion. Instead of doing a "quick" and "thank goodness it is over" kind of conclusion like everyone else, I asked my team mate to present a bit longer for it.

We used a newspaper article to talk about the topic. It was summarized together with a picture from the article, a boy who had cleft lip surgery and his before operation photo. It proved to be a very good move.

The facilitator said we could have add in a few points but we manage to cover very extensively on that very short twenty minutes. (Yes! We manage to do it within 20mins!) He said we will definitely get a "A" for this presentation. Haha.

So one down and three more to go. The next one is this Friday! Busy busy! But Fun! Haha.

National Day Parade! (NDP)

2006-08-09T09:33:00.000+08:00

Went through deliverance service with Rev. Mike Connell two weeks ago. Attended the 20th Festival of Praise and CHC's 17th Anniversary. Not going to say much here since I already posted it on W372's blog. Haha.

Two weeks ago, I brought the elderly to watch NDP Preview with the Copers. I took a lot of pictures with my friend's camera. Waited quite awhile to get the picture's from her.

Photos taken with Copers and elderly.

The day events.

Paratroopers coming down! Elderly watching above intently.

The parade formation.

The night events.

The fire works. It got kinda smoky. Haha.

Happy Birthday SINGAPORE!!!

Gigs and Geeks.

2006-07-25T08:23:00.000+08:00

Last Friday, went to this bar at Bugis called The Gashaus to support Alex's gig. The crowd was really wild that night, especially during Gethsemane's performance. Here are a few photos that a journalist from Nightlife.Com took.

That's Alex and his band, "Gethesemane".

Photos of me and my CG members. We also took photos with other supporters. :)

This is my friend, Julia, whom I used to serve together in Bookstore Ministry. Happen to see her here. :)

A video I shot during Alex's perfomance.

We didn't manage to stay throughout the whole performance. The whole thing was suppose to last till 11pm but since some of us had yet to have dinner, we left after Gethsemane's performance.

We came to this eatery that sells Taiwan's food, just across Bugis Junction. It used to sell smelly beancurd but apparently, it has to stop doing so because people were complaining.

Doesn't this bowl of "Kong Ba" rice goes well with Yixuan? Haha.

Helped out with the Extreme Makeover on Saturday. Basically helping the residents living in one two-rooms flats around Redhill to clean and paint their house.

I have 17 students plus one teacher (who happened to be my friend, Jing Ying!) attached to me.

We were assigned 4 units on the 8th and 9th floor of Blk XX. However on that day, 3 units cancelled their appointments because of family problems. Then later, a resident from the 15th floor also wanted her flat painted. The request was approved so I was assigned that unit too.

Apparently, I need to keep going around to source for equipments and running between level 8 and level 15 to oversee the two units. Since the old lifts don't serve the levels in between, I have to keep running up and down the stairs and slightly twisted my right archilles tendon.

It was very tiring yet it was fun. It is always a pleasure to serve the community.

Later on, we rushed to church and my friend, Kelly gave us a lift. Haha.

Went for the Marriage Enrichment course last weekend. I have to say it is one of the best bible study I ever attended. Pastor taught about the purpose of marriage and taught many other issue regarding relationships and the roles of husbands and wives.

Thank goodness Pastor decided to open this bible study to the whole church. I believe people should learn about such things way before even they want to get married. After all, if it is only open to the married couples, those whose marriage is already on the rocks probably will not attend. Then the only ones who attend are most likely having healthy marriage. Know what I mean? Haha.

Anyway, I was down with flu last week, kept tearing, having running nose and headache and missed the prayer meeting on Tuesday. Man...

It was worse when I try to look into the monitor. My eyes will keep tearing. Even experience that before? Haha. Anyway, I am fine now and I have to catch up with all the tutorials that my class have submitted to me and I am suppose to collaborate and submit to the lecturers.

Stress? Yup. But enjoying it. Haha.

Week of Fellowship

2006-07-16T23:33:00.000+08:00

Being more then a week since I blogged but this weeks goes like this.

On Wednesday, I went down to TTSH to visit Sjeting's Granny. Since I was very early, I went to shop around and read newspaper at Ya Kun at United Square. I also bought a new watch at $124.50, with was already after 50% discount! Haha. Praise God for Great Singapore Sale.

Currently, I own 9 watches. The cheapest is only $10 while the most expensive is a Tag Heuer which cost $1000+ (obviously a gift from my mum, haha)

Met up with Sjeting when she arrived. Her granny had chest infection and was bed-bounded for near 2 weeks. However, the good news is that one of Sjeting's cousin had already led her in the Sinner's Prayer. Praise the Lord! I prayed for her just before I left. Remember to pray for her!

Since I was alone after that, I called Jacelyn, one of my ministry member who happen to work in Novena Square, and meet up with her.

We went to try out this chicken rice stall at Seah Street, Sin Swee Kee Chicken Rice Restaurant, as we are organizing a ministry fellowship that on Sunday. It is not bad, the rice is fragrant, the chicken is smooth.

The most commendable dish has to be the Fried Tofu with Thai Salad Sauce. The fried tofu skin absorded the sweet, sour and spicy favour of the sauce. This dish is crunchy on the outside and juicy on the inside! Awesome!

Later, Jace brought me to this dessert store down Bras Basah Road called Ah Qiu Dessert. She ordered Almond Paste (this dish is a No No for me. Haha!) and I ordered Peanut Paste.

It is indeed one of the better peanut paste I have ever eaten, smooth and rich though Jace said the one at Chinatown would be better. I have yet to tried that though. :)

I also brought Jace to Musuem of Shanghai Toys after that. I can't remember how many times I went there but all my friends really enjoyed themselves there. We spent nearly one and a half hours there! Haha.

Jace was quite caught up with some of the puzzle games. She seems to like such games... though she isn't exactly that good at it. Haha.

Here, she was trying to solve the Seven-Piece Puzzle. A puzzle that have seven pieces and a frame with many ways to arrange it.

Reached home nearly at 12 that night.

On Thursday, I rushed off after school to watch Pirates of the Caribbean with my CG. My friends Lina and Wang Ling also joined us. Read "YO HO! YO HO! A PiRatE's LiFe foR mE!" on W372's blog for more of it.

Friday. Went to attend briefing at CHEC for the Extreme Makeover, a community project to help refurbish the flats of elderly who live alone. The event will be held on the morning of 22th July. Do join us if you are interested!

Went to have dinner/supper with some of the Copers at Burger King, Raffles City. Another good time of fellowship.

Went for COPE saturation on Saturday. Tiring but fun as usual. Finally get to lunch with the Copers again. Haha. I used to have bible study just before service and have to rush off after ministry. Now that bible study would be after service, it means I will get to fellowship more often with my ministry members. Haha.

Rev. Che An preached today and he was sharing his life with us. It was amazing how he came to receive Jesus in the midst of all his drug addiction and immorality and become the man he is today. He is indeed a living testimony of the goodness of God.

Rev. Che An also prayed for the sick and many healing takes place. People with knee, stomach and other problems were healed. The atmosphere of faith was so strong that day that some of the healing took place even before people start praying for them! Praise the Lord! I have noted that many people seems to have back problems in my church. Haha. May the Lord heal them.

Went to have chicken rice at this place which Alex have recommended. It is somewhere near Peace Centre but I can't remember where. One of the sauce they provide was grinded ginger and it goes really well with the chicken! After that, we went to this soya bean shop two units away which sells the smoothest soya bean curd I ever eaten!

Sunday, sleep as much as possible. Was going to meet a few Copers for dinner at City Hall, 6pm. Went to visit my grandparents before that. I was glad they seemed pretty well.

Wanted to get something at Bugis before going to City Hall. Jace called me as she had just finished watching Pirates of the Caribbeans with her Colleauges at Plaza Singapura. We meet up at Bugis and walked to City Hall to meet the rest of the Copers.

We went to Sin Swee Kee Chicken Rice Restaurant (That is the 3rd time I ate chicken rice this week! Haha.) and ordered quite a lot of dishes. There was only 6 of us, Jace, Vincent, James, Yee Kiat, Yehui and me but it was a good fellowship. Do not despise small beginnings. Haha. I am sure we can get more people to join u next time.

We also went to shop at Bugis street as Vincent wanted to look for some clothes for his workplace. Later on, we went down to Ah Qiu's Dessert Shop. I ordered the Coffee Flavoured Fresh Milk with Steam Egg, Vincent ordered Mango with Sago and Ice-cream, Jace ordered Grass Jelly with Longan, James ordered Bubur Hitam with Ice-cream, Ye Hui ordered Mango with Sago and Yee Kiat ordered Yam with Sago.

My dessert wasn't bad. However, I think the Mango with Sago was the best! I got to tried one spoonful from Yehui's and it was fabulous! Gotta order that for myself the next time I go there.

Really enjoyed myself this week. Haha. I hope I can get to know the Copers more.

God is Good. :)

Time for Leisure?

2006-07-06T14:07:00.000+08:00

Things that I have yet to do.

1. I bought some snow jelly from the frog farm 2 weeks ago. Still yet to make desserts out of it. Reason? Too busy.

2. Jacelyn came back from Kuantan last week and gave me some salted fish. Still yet to cook 咸鱼炒饭 (Salted fish fried rice) with it. Reason? No time. Thanks Jace for the salted fish thou. :)

3. Complete the copying of Ecclesiastes into a notebook. Reason? Lazy. Haha. Ok, I was tired too.

And I was on 2 days MC last week because of stomach flu. I have to make up for my hospital attachment last Saturday and this coming Saturday. Missed two weeks of COPE ministry. That is so annoying.

Lesson learnt? Don't ever fall sick again. (Or try to fall sick less often.)

Finally started off with my weight training exercises. Hopefully the muscles on my arms and shoulders will start to be visible by the end of this month. Haha. No matter how little time I have, I guess it is still good to keep myself healthy.

So school has started and still so little time. ICA projects are getting more demanding. The higher you climb, the more is expected of you.

Lesson learnt about living in this society?
You are either a winner or a loser. You are either someone useful or you are trash. A little contribution is still much. Do the best in everything in hand. Know your limits and work within your means.

What is this post about?
It is to commemorate the end of my second year and the start of my third year in Nursing Course. Haha.

拉到脸青青

2006-06-29T05:38:00.000+08:00

Here is an interesting video taken during a farm visit with COPE.

Parental guidance advised.
THE FROG PREP.

Just when I thought my attachments are almost over, I have to come down with stomach flu, diarrhoea, vomiting and back sprain. Totally no appetite at all... The sight of food and the smell of strong spices (e.g. curry) makes me nausea.

Still having diarrhoea. Still feeling giddy the whole day, probably due to dehydration. No matter how much water I drank, my mouth still feels very dry...

Slept the whole day yesterday. It is amazing how much I can sleep when I am sick... Most likely not going for CG tonight... Haiz...

My stomach grumbling again... hope it will be alright by tomorrow.

Self-Reflection

2006-06-21T21:15:00.000+08:00

It has being a week since I blogged.

I will be performing in front of sixty ambassadors from Africa this Friday. Stress sia. Haha. Apparently, many were called but only six were chosen to perform practical skills for the guests. Had to rush to school today to practise till 5.30pm.

What's more, I am fasting.

Am I tired? Of course I am. But I am enjoying everything at the same time. Haha.

Got to know some other students from nursing today. One of them looks so strikingly like a friend I used to know that I thought maybe they were related. But they weren't, of course.

One of the thing that I really look forward to everyweek is the reply of my spiritual diary from Sister Darryl.

So come to think about it, my words are indeed harsh at times. Although I may love unconditionally, I may just be over-zealous when it comes to work attitude.

I got to admit. I tend to be judgmental. That, I have to change, for sure.

For most people, I am friendly and hilarious. Yes, crappy at times. For some people, I am their worst nightmare. Meticulous and unwavering.

Perhaps, it is the nature of my work, every decision could mean life or death.

But still, I could be less judgmental and be more loving instead.

My post isn't making much sense? I guess that is because I am sleepy. YAWN*

So said, I hope I can do a more detailed post next time.

Christians. Holy or Hole-ly?

2006-06-17T08:49:00.000+08:00

Back to the hospital again. It's busy day in day out. Couldn't blog so often now.

So my Grandpa was discharged and my attachment has started.

What else is interesting? I realized that I am a very night person. Haha. Tend to feel real sleepy during the morning duty. However, I seems to get more and more active during the afternoon duty when evening time is approaching. Haha. Maybe I should ask for permanent night duties next time?

Nonetheless, I built a pretty good rapport with my patients and all the nurses; staff nurses, assisstant nurses and student nurses, as usual.

Seeing the mistakes that others made (actually, most of the mistakes are made by one student and she never learn) helped me to learn from them. Everyone in the ward hates her and they have reasonS to do so. She is a Chirstian since birth, fast regularly but her attitude speaks of another thing.

Another crazy girl from the previous attachment is in the same ward again. I make it a point not to go near her. She is scary (psychotic). I openly talked to everyone except her, steering clear of her whenever she pass by. Apparently she isn't popular with others too, and worst, she is also a Christian.

Sometimes I wonder, it is no wonder no one likes Christians. Not just because the Lord says we will face persecution, but sometimes it is just the consequences of our own actions and attitudes. Even my mother would used to associates all the bad attributes like agressiveness, rude, selfishness and laziness with Christians. Well, with Christians like these out there, who could blame my mum from believing so?

God looks on the inside, but man isn't God, man looks on the outside (unless you are Prof X from the X-Men). In fact, what you do reflects what is truly on the inside of you. So please don't try to talk all holy when you are showing all the lousy attitudes. It is like eating the wrong stuff and the stomach wants to force it out. It makes people want to puke.

Fasting and praying while showing lousy attitudes, it is meaningless - like chasing the wind.

Oh well, with my presence in the ward these days, what used to be in the hearts of people, everyone starts to pour it out to me. Strange, but now everyone in the ward openly shows their displeasure to the first girl I talked about. I have nothing against that. After all, our service is to our patients and the hospital. If there is poor service, it should be brought out and not kept, so that service can improve.

With the over-saturation of nurses in the current market, it will also do good to sieve out the bad ones. After all, no one wants their patient to suffer and die in the hands of some incompetent and uninterested nurses. And it also give other hopefuls out there a chance to join nursing.

可喜可贺。可喜可贺。

2006-06-08T20:45:00.000+08:00

外公住院已经是第二天了。他因为脑出血而头痛，整个人变得很累，站也站不起来。其中的原因是因为服用药物 Waffarin 的副作用。

Not going to use Chinese anymore. Ah!!! I can speak Mandarin pretty well but my "typing" of the language will take ages!

Anyway, I was saying that today is the second day my grandpa is hospitalize. He had bleeding in the brain and it is causing him to have headaches and body weakness. He slept alomost the whole day and he couldn't even master the strength to stand up.

It is partly due to the medication, Waffarin, he is taking. The side effect of this drug is the tendency to bleed. Also, he had history of stroke.

When I was about to visit him today, I just felt I really need to pray for him before I leave the house. After praying, I just sense something isn't quite right so I decided to take a cab.

While on the cab, my mum called me and told me that grandpa is going for an emergency operation within two hours time to remove the blood clot in the brain. You can't believe how anxious I was.

Nonetheless, I stayed with my grandpa and prayed with him, asking for his recovery and a few more good years to be added to him.

The surgery took nearly 4 hours but it turned out successful. PRAISE THE LORD!

Currently, he needs to be under observation for 48 hours and if everything is well, he should be able to leave the ICU to a step-down unit or the general ward.

Grandpa is certainly looking much better after the surgery. He is more alert now.

While looking at the sickly grandpa, I remembered the days when he was younger and healthier, when he could still drive and bring us out every Sunday to eat, to shop and to play.

My name, "Benjamin", which means "Favourite Son" in Hebrew befits me well. As the first grandson, I was adored by everyone in the family. I remembered that my grandpa always buy toys for me whenever we went out to shop.

Among my toys include those big LEGO sets, action figures of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, G.I. Joes and a full set of Star Wars Action figures! Yes! I remember Han Solo, Storm Troopers, Luke Skywalker, R2D2, CPO3 and even Darth Vader among them! Haha.

In fact, mum was telling me that all it takes was for me to stare at any toy for a little while, my grandpa would just get it for me.

Thank God that the operation is successful. May God protect my beloved grandpa.

Anyway, I also saw Ms. Gwendoline at the ward. She happened to be the facilitator there and she came over to talk to me for awhile.

Yup. I also wanna thank all of you who had prayed for my grandpa and in one way or another showed concerned for him.

I am happy now. At least the worst seems to be over. PRAISE THE LORD!

Unplanned Outing. Where to go when you don't know where to go. :)

2006-06-01T00:18:00.000+08:00

A few of us from E369 and W372 went to Suntec office to help out today. Apparently there were too many helpers and everything was completed earlier than expected.

Together with Alvin, Chloe, Meihui, Peishan and Sandy, we went to this place call The Inle Myanmar Restaurant for dinner. This restaurant serves authentic Burmese food, which tastes somewhere between spiciness, sour and sweet as they favor tomatoes in their cooking.

If you are not sure what to order, just go for anything in the Noodle and Rice section. Everything is NICE and everything is WORTH TRYING! Price range from $5 to $10.

Alvin ordered Butter Rice with Curry Chicken, Chloe ordered their Inle Special Fried Rice, Meihui ordered a special soup-based rice noodle dish (the name is in Burmese, can't remember), Sandy ordered Crispy Noodle and I ordered Fried Kway Teow. Every dish smells GREAT and looks TEMPTING! Every ingredient used were very FRESH, especially the seafood! It doesn't taste like our local food as Burmese doesn't use soy sauce in their cooking. Every dish has a unique taste that truly tingle the taste bud!

Not forgetting Peishan, she didn't order any main dish but she ordered their specialty dessert, the Hpa Lu Da (read pa-lu-dar, the 'H' is silent). It is a dessert with rose syrup, milk, lots of hidden 'treasures' and topped off with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream. The outlook is IRRESISTABLE and the blend of sweetness and chewy items is WONDERFUL!

And not forgetting their Myanmar Milk Tea. The taste is very different from the milk tea at your local coffee shop. Their strict quality control and making of the milk tea is so good that it always taste the same no matter how many times you have being there. The blend of milk and tea is so well-balanced that the sweetness of the milk doesn't overwhelm the frangrance of the tea. What's more, the temperature is just right! The tea is warm and doesn't scald your tongue. This is very important as tea tend to turn sour when left to cool on the table. If it is too hot, your tongue will become numb and marred the taste of the tea. This milk tea indeed deserves a 10/10!

The Inle Myanmar Restaurant is just walking distance from City Hall MRT. The address is:
111, North Bridge Rd
#B1-07(B) Peninsula Plaza, Singapore 179098
Tel: 63335438
Opening Hours: 11 am to 10 pm (Mon - Sun)

Be warned that this restaurant tend to have a lot of patrons during meal times. I recommend you come early to avoid disappointment! Haha. (Forgot to take photos...)

Later on, Peishan left as she needs to reach home early and Geogina came to join us. As it was totally unplanned, we decided to visit the Museum of Shanghai Toys (MoST), which is near Little India. For Geogina, Meihui and Sandy, it was their first time there.

The owner, Marvin is a very nice man and a good host. He opened the museum out of passion and was very hospitable to the guest. The museum displayed vintage toys made in China from the late Qing period to Chairman Mao's time. This is a very interesting and fun place to bring your friends and family for a weekend outing. If you have any friends from oversea, it would also be a great place to invite them to. This place can indeed be one of the MUST-VISIT places in Singapore!

We took a lot of pictures as usual. Haha. Here are just some of them.

Geogina looking at the toys.

Chloe with a vintage battery-operated toy train. It still works!

Chloe and Meihui trying to look fierce in this photo. Haha! :p

Sandy, happy to be in jail.

Sandy braving the heights as she pose for this photo. The stairs are quite steep. :)

Just the sisters. This is one of my favourite photo.

Playing cards together. Alvin is not in his best form today. Haha!

All of us posing with the toys. :)

MoST is just walking distance from Farrer Park MRT. The address is:
83 Rowell Road, Singapore 208015
Tel: 6294 7747
Opening hours: Monday - Sunday 10am to 8pm
Admission: Adults: $5, Children/Students: $3

Seeya there! :)

Letting Go to Receive.

2006-05-29T18:38:00.000+08:00

Sometimes, the more you desire something, the harder it is for you to get it.

Perhaps, it is because you have not put in enough effort.

Maybe not.

More likely you wanted it for the wrong motive.

Fame, pride, selfish reasons.

Sometimes to get something, all you have to do is to humble yourself. Sometimes, not wanting something for yourself will place that very thing into your hands. When you start to realise your life is not just yours alone.

"Not my will but Your will be done."

Have you ever have that experience, that you just keep fighting so hard for something, it just doesn't happen?

Then the day you start to let go, a sense of peace will come. Holding on to things that aren't meant to be is tiring, frustrating, and depressing.

"Hope deferred makes the heart sick..."

All of a sudden, life seems peaceful, and sometimes boring.

Nothing is happening much but you are just contented at how things are now.

As you look back at the old days when you fought so hard, you no longer feel sad or angry about it. It is just another memory, that creeps back at you when you aren't doing anything. It doesn't matter anymore. You may even feel glad that it is over.

Just when you thought everything has ended, you start to see the things you desire begin to come to pass.

A little at a time but at a steady rate. You no longer yearn for it but you find yourself better equiped to handle the challenges.

You have more confident now. You are doing your best. Things are going smoothly and you wonder why it wasn't like this in the past.

That is because your "lust" has turned to "love". You no longer look at yourself and you have learnt to let go.

The work is no longer a burden, it is become a joy.

"To enjoy your work and your lot in life... God keeps such people so busy enjoying life that they take no time to brood over the past."

Delay is not denial.

Hold on to the promise and let go of your undue self-awareness.

You can never succeed on your own.

The Liberation - Chapter One

2006-05-23T23:10:00.000+08:00

“And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.”
~ Genesis 1:26

Chapter One

The year was A.D. 2057. The date was 7th of May. The time was 8.16pm, Singapore time.

The human brain was still a mystery. Other than knowing its primitive functions and anatomy, no man had ever been able to fully utilize the brain.

For unknown reasons, the past few decades had seen the increase in the number of cases where individuals all over the world could utilize their brain function above the normal human range.

At first, such cases manifested as individuals with high Intelligence Quotient or possessing certain passive mental abilities such as having superb memorizing power.

Later on, individuals with Psychic Powers started to increase.

These incidences sparked a renewed interest in what was once known as the “pseudoscience” of Psionics or “Psi” for short. It movement started 35 years ago and was known as “The Great Liberation”.

Even though extensive researches are still ongoing, there is still no specific evidence of what really causes these sudden increases in the utilization of the human brain.

About 1 in every 1000 individuals in the world today demonstrates some form of Psi. However, most people who possessed such abilities could only do nothing more then bending an object or toppling a glass of water.

More powerful ones could cause multiple objects to move in mid-air, ignite fire, levitates and even cause mild quakes. However, such cases are rare.

“Deputy Superintendent! The suspect is hiding in that warehouse. Three of our men were hurt in action, all of them were injured by small flying objects. One of our men was also held hostage.”

“Thanks Inspector. My team will take over from here. Hagan and Elise, both of you ready?”

“Anytime Louis.”

“Inspector, seal all entrance to the warehouse. Hagan and Elise, put on your gears and follow me.”

***

In these day and age, Psi crimes are increasing although it is still rare. Most cases were deranged psychics who went around causing injuries and damages.

Louis Tan, Hagan Lee and Elise Lohan belonged to the Psionics Department of the Singapore Police Force to handle such cases. The Department was formed 7 years ago and it was runned by a group of specially trained personnels, 7 altogether, head by Superintendent Daniel Manikum.

Others were Intelligence officer Razak , Administration officers Alexis Liew and Nicole Tan.

Being in the Department need not neccesarily means they have Psychic powers. They were just trained and dedicated to handle cases of such nature.

“Razak, run a check on the suspect. Do you copy?”

“Richard Ho Kim Siang. 32 years old. A confirmed Psi, Level 2 Telekinesis. No criminal record. Currently receiving treatment for mild psychological disorder.”

“Roger. Another deranged one.”

The three donned their vest, head protector, face shield and cocked their handguns. They entered by the back door and hid behind some crates.

The warehouse was dark except for the lights that shone in throught the windows.

Elise ran a mental scan on the layout of the warehouse.

“Louis. I sense some movement at the centre of the warehouse. The way there is on our right.”

“Let’s move in. Remember there is a hostage. Don’t attack blindly.”

The three moved quickly and silently towards the centre of the warehouse. Just then, Hagan accidentally made some noise by stepping onto a pile of nails.

“Who’s there!”

The nails on the floor started to rise.

“Duck!”

The three ran and dived in different directions as nails and other small debris flew and bounced off walls and other obstacles everywhere.

Louis kept low as he quickly assessed the situation. He couldn’t see where is the target and things were still flying around.

Looking up, Louis saw some lamps on the ceiling and it gave him an idea.

“Hagan! Elise! Close your eyes!”

Louis focused on the lamps and there was a sudden electrical surge running through the warehouse. Every machinary was turned on and the lamps shone forth brightly. For a moment, the whole place was lighted up with blinding white lights.

“Argh! My eyes! What did you do!”

All the flying objects fell to the ground. The room became dimmer as the lamps fused one by one. The target and the hostage were now clearly in sight.

“Now!”

Hagan and Elise spranged up and fired at the criminal.

Richard slumped to the ground, laying still.

The Liberation - Prologue

2006-05-22T03:50:00.000+08:00

Prologue

Two human figures were moving through the wilderness. There was no road nor path paved out for them. Bare-footed, they walked aimlessly and each of them wore only a piece of rugged fur that barely shelters them from the chill.

The furs reeked of blood. It was the first time they ever killed another creature for covering. They wondered why they never felt the need to wear something before that.

The man looked back at his weaker companion who was struggling to keep up. As he looked at her, joy, anger and hope filled him.

Just a few days ago, he and his beloved could soar in the sky to appreciate the beauty of creation. They could dive deep into the waters and yet breathe, allowing them to experience the magnificent marine life. They had command over every other creature, every inanimate object and even the weather.

When they were cold, they could just command fire to ignite.

When they needed to water the plants, they could command the heavens to rain.

They could shift boulders and mountains by merely ordering them.

They enjoyed the daily pleasure of meeting their Creator face-to-face.

Nothing can harm them and nothing would disobey them. They could have had anything in the Garden, almost everything.

“Now everything was gone, all because of this woman.”

Both of them longed to return to the Garden. Both of them missed their Creator. However, a moment of disobedience had cost them everything.

The Creator had cast them out. Fearsome creatures and flying swords now guard the entrance to the Garden.

What’s more, the accursed fruit had poisoned their mind. The knowledge of Evil clouded their thinking. Their thoughts were darkened and their abilities were lost.

The beasts no longer listened to them.

They could no longer fly nor breathe under water.

When they used to just flick a finger to ignite fire, they had to rub stones and branches until their hands were blistered to create it.

Even though the man was angry and tried to push the blame to the woman, he knew in his heart that he shouldn’t have eaten the fruit in the first place. He knew he could have stopped her, but he choose to follow. He knew he had failed in his part to obey the Creator.

And he also failed in his part to protect the very companion who had taken away his loneliness.

“Adam, could we find a place to rest? I am tired.”

I am Back!

2006-05-22T00:40:00.000+08:00

I am back. I was busy with attachment and decided to put aside with blogging for awhile. So how is everyone doing?

I know not every one will come and read this but just from the bottom of my heart, these are the thoughts that run through my mind as I think about these friends.

Is everything going well for you Jovi? How's things in Philipines? Hopefully whatever is going on in your relationship is resolved.

Thanks Abel for being such a good friend. One of these day, I am gonna get you and Samuel out for a cuppa to catch up.

Briony! Thanks for the movie! And I hope those nail paints can last you for awhile. Haha. We shall meet up again soon.

So Cinthia, how's school? When you are in school, I am out. When I am back, you will be out. Hope presentations are not giving you too much headache these days.

How's everything back in China, Li Fen? See you in AH soon. You will probably be a staff nurse the next time I see you. I will drop by to say "hi" when I am on attachment.

Linda. Hope you make up your mind soon which hospital you wanna work. Although it isn't easy to find a job as a nurse, there is still time. I strongly recommend AH or KKH for you.

Feel so sad for you that your friends all went back to China except you, Li Na. When I go out with my friends, I shall call you along, if you are interested. Let's catch Da Vinci Code!

Hope you are feeling better Michelle. I will be praying for you. In the mean while, I will get back to you as soon as possible where to find the most affordable dental whitening service.

Stay strong Sze Min. No storm last forever. Remember I am always praying for you.

Lifeng! We really need some serious catching up, that is if I manage to catch you. Hahaha. You are always so busy. I am glad that you are doing pretty well now and really focus on what you really want.

Dad. Though I never call you nor have I heard from you for a long time, it doesn't mean you are forgotten. You are always in my prayer. There isn't really much I can do for you, except to hope that you will be in good health and live a realistic life. There is no more sadness, or hurt or anger when I think or talk about you because you are forgiven. I hope you will be wise in your ways. I love you.

There are still many many people who I will think about, I only mentioned a few of you who I don't really get to spend time with. All the best and may God bless you.

Renew.

2006-04-20T09:35:00.000+08:00

Some of my links aren't working anymore cuz they are outdated. I don't really have much time to blog these days, much less tinker with my templates so I just have to put up with it for awhile.

Attachment kept me busy but it was fun. Not going to say too much to protect the identity of the staffs and patients at my workplace.

My mind is cluttered with a lot of things to say just like there is a lot of rubbish in my computer I need to clear. You can see for yourself how disorganize this entry is.

My friend was telling me about how frustrating to make friends and only to know that they are not your type of people. "They could not understand you, they are insercure, they always think so big about themselves."

So I tell her, "I have made many friends and I have let go many too. For the same reasons as you."

Friends come and go. As I get on with my life, I realise that most of the friends I made are not permanent. In fact, some of the closest friends I have are the ones who hurt me the most. The fact when something like this happen, it is almost not possible to try to be "like in the old days" anymore. There is a lack of trust though there is forgiveness.

What are some of the things that my ex-friends used to do?

Backstab me, spread rumours about me, irritates me, think too big about themselves, treat me unfairly, and a couple of them downright treat me as non-existant by not bothering to sms or reply and blame me for things I never done.

Yup. Come to think about it, it is scary. But nonetheless, there are still friends who will care about me and friends whom I can truly trust.

"Why didn't you try to make friends with people who will not hurt you then?"

Because there is no where to avoid hurts. Even your best friends can hurt you.

"Why didn't you choose your friends wisely then?"

Because you never know who a person is really like until you get to know them as a friend.

"Why are you still making friends then?"

Are you CRAZY? Of course I am still making friends for the fact that all of us need friends. Good ones will support you, bad ones will betray you. But on one can ever make it on their own. That is the irony of life.

To fail doesn't means you are a failure. To lose a battle doesn't means you lose the war.

The only people who don't need anyone anymore are six feet underground.

So to say, there is nothing wrong, to be friends with someone today, and on longer friends tomorrow. It is just part and parcel of life. The fact there we are all alive and moving on with life. That we keep making friends believing that there is someone better out there.

For God is my friend forever and ever, and He never lets me down.

Many things are indeed meaningless without God.

GOD IS GOOD. :)

BLOOD...

2006-04-09T14:08:00.000+08:00

Went to donate blood at Assyafaah Mosque with my CG member, Alex, Desmond, Elton, Meihui, Peifang, Yiquan, Yixuan and a new friend, Meiling.

I wonder if it is because I didn't sleep much the day before or was it because of the blood donation, I felt really tired after donating blood yesterday. Hahaha. Apparently I am not the only one, so is Alex, Yiquan and Desmond who also donated blood. We were struggling to keep ourselves awake during service. Hahaha.

Saw Cinthia and Weisheng at the blood donation drive too. Haven't seen her for a long long time but she hasn't changed much. Hahaha.

Also saw Sister Irene and a few Copers helping out there. It was quite fun seeing familiar faces that I don't get to see other than during some special events.

Here is a video I took and edited during the blood donation. Hahaha. Look out for the guy lying down. As if like having a last rite. :p

GOD IS GOOD. :)

MoST! Fun Day!

2006-04-08T00:23:00.000+08:00

Today is most FUN!!! Okok. MoST stands for Museum of Shanghai Toys! Hahaha.

Today happen to be the only day I will be free for the next 3 weeks as my attachment will be starting next Monday. Went out with Alvin, Chloe and Xueting to Little India. We shop around at Mustafa a little.

Here's a few photos we took over at the Children's section.

Chloe having a little fun...

Chloe pigging around.

Pirate Chloe! Yup. No doubt she is the most playful among us.

Pirate Snow! Hahaha.

After that, we went to Bersar (dunno how to spell) food centre and had dinner. We had Turtle Soup, Stew Frog and the only thing that seems normal was the Roast Meat. It was very delicious! Thou Xueting almost freak out when we made her ate turtle meat. Hahaha.

We were on our way to the MRT when we chance upon this Museum of Shanghai Toys. Suppose to go home but we ended up spending more than an hour there! Hahaha. We took a lot of photos, had lots of laugh and was really amaze that we found such an interesting place! The toys were all from olden days China; some from as early as the Late Ming Dynasty! Wow! Hahaha.

Here's a video we took at the museum. (Pause the video and allow it to download fully for smooth viewing.)

Here's some of the photos.

An old signboard of an old toy shop in Shanghai.

Alvin. Nope, he wasn't sitting on it.

Chloe, with sword in hand!

Xueting.

Xueting. With one big doll.

That's me, trying to look 'dead' here to pose with that doll-in-coffin. Hahaha.

Xueting and Chloe, trying to pose like Mickey Mouse. Apparently... Hahaha.

Me and Alvin, trying to pose like revolutionay militant. Hahaha.

Our photo together with our admission tickets.

We are together again...

Yup. Really enjoyed ourselves. Hahaha.

Before we left, the shop owner gave each of us a BIG gift! Each of us received a tin toy that cost more than $60!!! Wow! I guess we really made a lot of noise there and enjoyed ourselves so much that the owner really loved us. Hahaha. He even autographed on the toys for us. :)

Gotta get Alvin to bring us to other places to eat. He knows a lot of "Makan" places. Hahaha.

GOD IS GOOD. :)

Last Paper Tomorrow.

2006-04-05T20:11:00.000+08:00

Yesterday, I attended prayer meeting at Jurong West for the first time ever since church moved to Expo. It was fantastic! The presence and the power of God filled the auditorium and many people were ministered at the end of the meeting. In fact, I could feel the anointing so strongly the I was really 'drunk' halfway through the meeting. I wasn't really much sober after the meeting ended. Hahaha.

Nothing special today. Mugging for my Bioscience paper now. Tomorrow will be the last paper. Yeah!!!

Cooked dinner in the afternoon. Decided to prepare Fried Noodle, the way my maternal grandmother will cook. This dish is cooked with egg noodle, it is made to taste a little blend yet not too blend, with a little saltiness to enhance the frangrace and sweetness of the egg noodle. It is dry so that it can tingle your taste bud, stimulating the production of saliva to make the noodle taste sweet. Hahaha. I like to call it Cantonese Noodle because my maternal grandmother is Cantonese.

Anyway, after tasting my noodle, I feel it is pretty satisfactory, at least 90% like my grandmother's noodle. Hahaha. My mum really enjoyed it, Cantonese Noodle is her favourite. Hahaha.

Ok. Wish me all the best for my exams.

GOD IS GOOD. :)

One Down and Two more to go!

2006-04-02T00:55:00.000+08:00

Completed one of the three papers for my semestral exams on Friday. Yeah! Was in quite a good mood so I went to pick up my brother at the child care centre and brought him to McDonald's for dinner after exams.

Quite a good experience. Perhaps, I will put aside more time to accompany my two grandparents and my brother now. Yup.

Went for service today but... I dressed up a little different today. Hahaha. I wore the new, faded-dark jeans with the chain and the long-sleeve shirt with vertical silver stripes. OK, look pretty hip, punk, City-Harvest. That is the comments I got from the people. Apparently, my CG tend to dress this way too. Many people commented that my CG really know how to dress up. Hahaha.

OK... a revelation I wanna share but will leave it for a later date when my brain is in a better working condition.

Oh ya, all the best to XUETING who will be taking her English proficiency test on 10th April for her NIE entry.

GOD IS GOOD. :)

GOD IS GOOD. Regardless of anyone.

2006-03-30T23:42:00.000+08:00

I hate to say this, but yesterday, I stayed home the whole day, study and play game only. Rotting at home.

Nevermind, I stepped out of the house at 7am today to accompany my maternal grandmother for her medical checkup.

In the morning, we went to NUH for her Diabetes checkup and in the afternoon, we went to SGH for her eye laser treatment. Apparently, they discovered her diabetes is getting a bit out of control after 30 years, there appear to have some problem with her kidneys and there's bleeding in her eyes; which is why she need to go for the laser treatment to stop the bleeding.

My grandmother is obviously a bit scared. I mean who wouldn't? Someone come and tell you that you may may have kidney failure and you may go blind, wow... I know I am not going to be happy about it if it was me.

The eye laser treatment is especially painful. She really have some form of phobia going to the eye clinic now. Nonetheless, she will still go, she knows she has to go through it to get well. She is a strong old lady.

My company indeed brightens up her day. I heard from my mum that she was really happy the day before when she knew I will be going with her. In fact, she will telling everyone in the house that I will be accompanying her to the doctor. Hahaha. Well, I got to admit, I am the family's favourite.

Later, she treat me to all three meals of the day, bought me a very nice, street shirt and bless me with some pocket money. Hahaha. I feel a little bad... but I have learnt to receive blessing gracefully, especially when I know she gave it because she really adore me. I can't reject that.

I later had the chance to pray for her. She wasn't sure if it is alright since she isn't a believer, but I assure her that God is good to everyone, regardless of whether a person believes or not and all it takes, is just for one person to pray. Well, she accepts. Praise the LORD.

I hope she will get better. I believe when someone becomes old, it doesn't mean the person can no longer be healthy. I shall continue to pray for her, and please pray together with me too.

Thanks everyone.

GOD IS GOOD. :)

H for Havoc!

2006-03-28T23:16:00.000+08:00

Went out and to meet Daniel, my ex-CG member who is now in Indonesian service to watch V for Vendetta. We decided to watch at the new Cathay Building at Dhoby Ghaut and my oh my, It was such a magnificent place! The place is still under renovation so the shops are yet to be open, but already we can see the glory of that place! The interior design is breathe-taking! Hahaha.

The only thing that is operational there at this moment of time is the cinema. The cinema is BIG! And the services are great! The attendants greets you and even brings you to the threate. I don't remember any other cinema provide such excellent service. Hahaha.

The movie, V for Vendetta was one of the better movies I have seen for quite some time. The previous few movies I have watched are well... to put it in a nice way, not worth the money. Hahaha. However, "V" was great! I love that sense of justice and that romantic flair expressed by the main character known only as "V" in the show. Not forgeting, the action part. Hahaha. The story is dark but good. Think Batman. :)

Later, Daniel left and I met up with Alex at Bugis. I just received my pay you see. Hahaha. Went to shop for some new clothes and jeans. (Seriously, I really do need a pair of new jeans and a bag.) I bought one red short sleeve shirt, a shiny black long sleeve, a faded dark jeans, a belt chain and a daffle bag at $127! I bargain with the shops of course. Hahaha. And Alex also knew most of the shop-owners. So everything was pretty cheap.

Alright. Looks like my dressing is going to get a little more havoc now. Hahaha.

GOD IS GOOD. :)

My Sabbath

2006-03-27T20:52:00.000+08:00

Nothing eventful happened today. I borrowed Final Fantasy 7 from Pei Fang and was playing the whole day. Which reminds me that I wonder who did I lend my own Final Fantasy 7 CDs to... Oh wells.

And also, it reminds me that I should be lending Pei Fang Final Fantasy 8, Chloe the book on practical English and Yi Xuan TVB's The Legend of the Condor Heros 1994. Better remember to bring it this Thursday for CG.

Got a call from the school yesterday that I am very likely to be selected for Overseas Attachment! Yeah!!!

Other than that, looking forward to meet Daniel tomorrow for movie, V for Vendetta then we will be shopping at Bugis. Hahaha.

Well... I don't think I will do well in Spelling Bee or Word Power seriously. Hahaha. I hardly joined any activities during Emerge because my attachments always fall within this period of time. Nonetheless, I am still excited to see revival among the youth and long for the passion and excitement during every Emerge Conference. :)

Thanks to Word Power, I am motivated now to study and to memorize a particular book in the bible that God had truly impacted and changed my life through; The Book of Ecclesiates, NKJV. It is not going to be easy but I am going to do it because I believe I can still get more revelation out of this one very special book in the bible.

Ever realise that I don't use the word "try"? Because if all you do is to try, then you will give up easily when you face setbacks. After all, that is what it means to try out. "Buy something, try it out, if you don't like it, you can always return it for a refund." But if you were to put your heart and soul into something, you are no longer trying, you are making things happen.

Alright! GOD IS GOOD. :)

Need help removing spyware?

2006-03-26T21:58:00.000+08:00

Some real serious thing in the previous post huh? Hahaha. Well, I am a person who ponder, think and use my brain a lot. I may look real crappy most of the time but I can honestly tell you that I am not putting on a mask.

I choose to smile most of the time. I seems to talk a lot of crappy stuff is only because I have a motor mouth to par with the speed of my brain. Hahaha.

Thinking, that is something I like to do most of the time. Thinking about God, about myself, about people, about things. Even when I am working, I will be thinking what to do next, what to say next.

Underneath all that laughter, I am very much a person who think a lot and will seriously assess many different issues.

The whole week have being pretty fruitful.

Friday
Had my elective exam then went over to Dakota to help CHCSA with some CIP work. Everyone was really really tired but still, it was fun. Hahaha.

Saturday
Went for ministry as usual. Went for service, then went straight home.
Why?
The previous night I was battling with this spyware called SPYFALCON. I logged on to the internet at around 11 and immediately, I was infected with it. It was really really irritating as it keep downloading this program forcefully into my system and keep auto launching it. No Anti-virus programs nor anti-spyware can remove it, at least not for free, so I have to search around to search for a manual method to remove it. Most of the methods shown were not very precise so I have to figured out many things on my own. Finally, at 4.30am, I was able to totally remove it, went to sleep and woke up at 8am for ministry.
At least I learnt one thing through this, I learnt how to remove spyware manually. Prob can even do it within 30min now. Hahaah.

Sunday
Went for Sun Fanclub's gathering at Douby Ghaut Fish & Co.! Very fun. Hahaha. I am waiting for the photos to be send to me and I can upload them. Later meet up with Desmond to visit a friend.

Well, quite tired now. I am still thinking but my physical (fingers) will not allow me to go on. Hahaha.

GOD IS GOOD. :)

Qoheleth

2006-03-25T22:29:00.000+08:00

Meaningless, all are meaningless.

It takes a long time to build a good reputation,
but only a split second to mess everything up.

Meaningless, all are meaningless.

Few people see your good deeds,
but A LOT of people will complain about your misdeeds.

Meaningless, all are meaningless.

Just when you thought everyone is your friend,
and they were all smiling at you,
all it takes,
is just one person to tell you that A LOT of them think you have something wrong,
you start to wonder what are they really thinking about you,
and wonder if they are all hypocrites.

Who can I trust?
It is them?
Or is it really you?

Perhaps then,
you think you are not as good as you think you are,
or think that no one is really your friend.

That when you are hurt and no one bothers,
only make matter worse.

Doesn't anyone realise that you are not your normal self?

You give tiredness as an excuse,
but the truth is you are really feeling down.
And no one cares.

When you are down,
you don't want to be with happy people.
It make you feel worse,
you think they don't care.

Perhaps man don't,
But God is always there.

Even if things don't come true for me,
The Lord is still my God.

So while you can do good, do so,
for if man don't see, God will.
if man don't praise, God will.

And when you make a mistake,
man may leave you, but God will never.
man may not forgive, but God will.

Life is meaningless indeed, if it is without God.

GOD IS GOOD. :)

Personal Study Tips: Wisdom Gives Life to Knowledge.

2006-03-23T15:17:00.000+08:00

We learnt from pastor that in order to do well in our studies, we must stop saying negative things such as, "This time fail liao!", "Die lah!" but instead, confess positive things like, "I will have good results!" and "I am going to make it!"

That is indeed the first step to good results.

The next step is to of course, study!

Jas 2:20
"But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead?"

However, have you know of students who study and study but never seems to do well?

They are stuck to their notes the whole day, they keep doing past-years papers, make a whole pile of personal notes and can even recite their textbooks but their results is always nothing more than a pass.

I always hear many student saying this after a test or when the results are out,

"I know, I really know but I just don't know how to answer!"

Does that sound familiar to you? Perhaps, even you have said something similar too.

So what went wrong?

Ec 2:17
"For wisdom is a defense as money is a defense, But the excellence of knowledge is that wisdom gives life to those who have it."

The problem with many student is not knowledge but they lack wisdom! According to the verse, wisdom gives life to the one who already have the knowledge! Knowlegde only excel with wisdom!

What is knowledge and what is wisdom?

According to the Cambridge Dictionary,
Knowledge information and understanding that you have in your mind.
Wisdom is the ability to use your knowledge and experience to make good decisions and judgments.

Reading textbooks, memorizing and doing past year papers are important but all these just increase knowledge and not wisdom!

The verse also remind me of a Chinese saying, “读死书，读书死” (Which can be loosely translated that if all one does is to study from books, he will die studying.)

So how do you increase wisdom?

Jas 1:5
"If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him."

The first and foremost thing, as a Christian, you should pray and ask God for wisdom.

Remember this point well, what works for the spiritual will also work for the natural. The key word for this verse is "ask". Wisdom comes by asking questions and answering them!

Now, I don't mean asking question that will come out for exams. Questions like "What is the role of vitamin C?" and "How is a waterfall formed?" will just set you reading and refering to your textbooks, which is again just dealing with the area of knowledge. You need to ask questions that will set you thinking, thinking of more questions and multiple solutions to each questions then branch out to more questions again.

Lets have a look at an example of a good thinking process when studying.

"What is the role of vitamin C? It is helps to boost the body's immune system." "
"So where can I obtain vitamin C? Vitamin C can be found in most vegetables and fruits, not forgetting vitamin supplements which you can get over the counter."
"What is the recommended amount of vitamin C a person should consume? Most food labels will recommend taking at least 500mg to 1000mg of vitamin C each day but there isn't a maximum amount stated."
"Have I read any articles or journals about vitamin C? Yes! Most articles will mention vitamin C with vitamin E and beta-carotene as anti-oxidants that could reduce free-radicals which causes aging and cancer growth."
"So where is vitamin C absorbed? In the small intestines together with digested food particles."
"So how does the small intestine function? The small intestine blah blah blah..."

I will not go on further but that's the basic idea. The ability to think beyond what most people will consider the "standard" answer. Of course you don't answer your exam question that way but thinking in such a way make your brain work and help you to link up with other knowledge that you have previously learnt. It sets you thinking, explain things in greater and further details and gives a deeper understanding of the knowledge that you have learnt. From there, you will also gather new knowledge and greater insight, just by thinking and asking questions alone!

When you study, when you ask questions and answer them, You should never let the knowledge in your mind be isolated like stand-alone computers. Never make the mistake that "biology is for biology" and "physics is for physics"! Such method of study I like to call it "Micro-study" as it restricts the learner to just looking at every piece of information in a narrow perspective.

However, learn to understand that one topic can always be linked with another topic. One subject can also explain or give a different view of another subject. Let your thinking work like a network server where you can have access to many computers from one computer. Think of how you can link different pieces of information together and learn to look at one subject in many different perspectives. Ask questions about a question and answer them. I call this method of study, "Macro-study" as the learner see things in a wide, limitless view.

Sounds difficult? Well, no one ever said that studying is easy. The main point I want to stress on here is to ask questions, think wide, see things in different angles and perspective and answer the question and ask more questions once again.

Wisdom as you can see by now, is really a collection of the experience you have and the flexibility of it is how much you really use your brain.

There is a myth that study is easier for younger people and thus, it is less suitable for older people. In fact, people also try to prove this point by stating the fact that the brain decreases in size as the person age.

However, studies have also showed that as a person gets older, the different parts of the brain also have better nerve linkage to each other and thus, despite the size of the brain decreases, the person is able to better reason and see things in a wider perspective. Which is why it is very common to see older people able to understand certain topics better than younger people. It also explain why a Varsity Degree is offered to people after a certain age.

But do you have to wait until you are old before you can "study better" or have wisdom? Not true. The reason why older people have more wisdom is because they have used their brain more than younger people over a longer period of time. In other words, if you learn to use your brain more, you can also improve the connectivity and function of your brain.

Thus the saying, "Practise makes perfect."

One way to increase wisdom is then to read widely, be up-to-date with new informations, to go beyond your textbooks and what is expected of you.

If you are studying Infocom, don't just read about I.T. but read also about healthcare and politics. If you are studying Healthcare, read also about electronic and world history. Read not just what you are interested in but allow yourself to be saturated with knowledge from different perspectives and disciplines. Look at information even if they oppose your belief. Seek to understand how other people think in differing views. Doing so, you will be able to answer many questions in many possible ways. That is how you can set yourslef thinking.

Thus, I am not really telling you how to do well in certain topics. What I am sharing is really a method that will help you to excel in not just your studies but also in every decision you make and in your future career.

If you want to have better result but see no breakthrough because you keep studying using an old method, try something new today! To keep doing the same thing and expect to have a different result is not perseverance, it is MADNESS!

ASK for wisdom today. It is going to ease your study once you grasp hold of it. Remember, it is not about IQ. King Solomon wasn't born with great intelligence in the first place.

GOD IS GOOD.

Darkness...

2006-03-22T22:18:00.000+08:00

No no. Not talking about myself. It's my room, the bulb fused and I am now working in darkness. Hahaha. Sign...

Presenting to you, my inner thoughts.

2006-03-22T21:24:00.000+08:00

Being awhile since I blog. Nothing much to blog about because things are just slowing down now.

Monday just went home to sleep right after school.

Tuesday didn't go to school, went out with a few of my CG members, Alex, Chloe, Desmond, Yiquan, Yixuan, Pei Fang and Joey. Went to watch this Thai "horror", Dorm.

Well... all of us laughed about half the time while watching the movie when it is suppose to be horror. Hahaha. The story plot is suppose to be touching but the story is just too typical and a bit lame. It just ended up making us laugh at times when we are supposed to "cry". Hahaha.

Also heard from Xueting that she passed her modules and will be getting her Diploma! Congratulations! I am very very HAPPY for you!

As for today, there is no lesson. Stayed at home until my mum called me to say that my grandma is sick and asked me to go and visit her.

About a couple of weeks ago, the blood vessels in her eyes burst and everything she see is red. She had to go for a few laser treatment to correct it but she still risk getting blind. Then she have being having pretty bad headache for the past few days and she had being sleeping through out because of the medication. I had a look at the medication today and realise 2 of them were actually very strong painkillers. One of them is Panadeine.

Having attended my 5th uncle's funeral last Tuesday, I was a bit paranoid that my uncle died of stroke and before that, he complained of a very bad headache and died just one day later, while watching TV. I just pray that my grandma is... alright.

Nonetheless, I know that "all things happened for the good of those who love Him."

GOD IS GOOD. :)

Where is my Sabbath?

2006-03-19T23:24:00.000+08:00

Monday: Went out with friends after school.
See previous post.

Tuesday: Attended funeral.
It was my fifth uncle, from my Godfather's side. He was the youngest among his sibling. Died of massive bleeding in the brain, also known as stroke.
He was only 50 years old... probably because of high blood pressure. He only had a bad headache a day before and he collaspe the next day while watching television...
Grief overwhelmed me as I looked at his still face... I almost cried.

Wednesday: Visit friend at her new place.
See previous post.

Thursday: Cell Group Meeting + East Coast BBQ outing!
One of the shortest CG meeting ever. Hahaha. We really enjoyed ourselves and celebrated Desmond's birthday at the BBQ. A few glitches here and there, nonetheless, it was still very enjoyable.
Two new friends, Hanzo and Pei Fang joined us for both CG and BBQ.
Most memorable quote of the day was the birthday greeting Alex wrote on Desmond's birthday card:
"...you are one year older and one year closer to the Lord..."
Maybe he could also add "The Lord is my Shepherd I shall not want..." Hahaha. Everyone including Desmond was laughing away.

Friday: Attended yet another funeral.
It was Sister Irene's grandmother. Went together with Vincent, Jacelyn and Hong Yun in the afternoon.
Irene seems quite ok though she looked really tired. Just pray everything will be fine for her and her family.

Saturday: COPE ministry + Bible study + Service + Fellowship!
Had an interesting encounter during ministry today. Spotted 2 youngsters sniffing glue at the staircase while doing saturation. Smiled and spoke nicely to them and adviced them not to do it again.
Greatest weapon of persuasion? Told them I am a nurse and tell them what will happen if they continue to sniff glue.
Svc was great and the sermons will be up on W372's Blog soon.
Fellowship at Suntec City. Peifang and Daniel, both new friends joined us. I was a little out of my mind that day. Hahaha. Guess I am a little too tired. Nonetheless, everyone including I enjoyed myself. I am becoming the people's person already. Hahaha.

Sunday (Today): JAMs PA + Photo Shootout + Spelling Bee!
Helped out in JAMs today. Really fun, and a bit scary. Hahaha. I personally attended to this particular student who will go around and beat up anyone whom he dislikes. I sat beside him, focus my attention on him and guide him along. I think he really like me somehow, keep holding my hands, clap together with me, laugh like me and keep "high fiving" with me. Later, he even respond to the altar call as I offer to do to the front together with him. Hahaha.
Later got pulled into the photo shootout for Sister Darryl. Got to pose like streetwise youngster and we gotta frown throughout to look cool. Hahaha. Got Xueting, Sandy, Yiquan and Alvin the five of us. A bit funny lah, we all look too "nice" to shoot such photos. Hahaha. Nonetheless, I think it still go pretty well. Will post the photos once I recieve them. Hahaha.
Spelling Bee is... oh wells. Didn't really study much. Left a lot of blanks. When I notice the camera coming near me, I tried to cover my paper with one hand and pretend I was writing something on my paper when I am not writing anything. Hahaha.

The best thing this week was the message the Brother Ming Jin shared with me right after bible study on Saturday. My spirit was really stirred up. Man! Gotta be more active and hungry for God from now onwards. Hahaha.

GOD IS GOOD! :) Hmmm... So where is my Sabbath?

Light in the midst of disappointments

2006-03-16T06:25:00.000+08:00

Hmmm... Actually, I think I did pretty well for my clinical skills assessments. Ya, I wasn't happy that my Bioscience Practical only have a B+ but I can still find pleasure in other things. Not stuck up aren't I? Hahaha.

There is 2 parts to the clinical skills module test. 1 is the practical assessment, which I think I did pretty well because ALL the lecturers in the assessment room that day are smiling at me with looks of approval during my assessment. Yup, I seems to have overcome the uneasiness of having being observed by a facilitator during my practical and I was one of the loudest as I explain and verbalize my steps that day.

Normally, most of us will try to speak under our breathe during assessment as we aren't sure if we did and explain everything correctly. Yup, you can say I was pretty confident somehow.

The 2nd part of the clnical skills test is a written theory paper which consist of MCQs and SAQs. BTW, I scored 24 out of 25 for my MCQs, which according to the lecturers, was the highest score for this section in the school. Hahaha. Overall, I calculated that I have an A for the theory paper. Yeah!!!

Went to Jiji's place today with Xueting. Was something like an invitation from Jiji. Hahaha. Jiji's really happy that we went all the way to the end of Singapore at Pungol to visited her new place. Hahaha.

Visiting Jiji lets me understand why she said her previous place is too small for her. She is now living alone in a 3 room apartment. The moment I step in, I saw this ~~big~~ gigantic canvas rack with a half done painting in the living room. The painting was really nice even though it was not yet completed.

In one of the room was a Cello. I was quite surprize to know that she play the Cello. It was one big instrument... No wonder she really need a large place.

Nonetheless, she is really multi-talented. Amazing.

Had dinner at her place and we spend a good of a time fellowship. It was a wonderful time and when Xue and I left, Jiji kept telling us that we must go back again and next time, we will have ice-cream at her place. Hahaha. I look forward to that. ;)

GOD IS GOOD. :)

Back once again. With a little disappointment.

2006-03-14T15:32:00.000+08:00

Not being blogging because I was:

1. Busy with my exams
2. Getting involve with a lot of activities with my CG/zone mates.
3. A bit lazy to blog. Hahaha.

Anyway, a lot had happened the past week and it had being pretty draining. Nonetheless, I really do enjoyed myself. Learning to play and work at the same time.

Lots of thing have to handle in school last week. Gotta prepare my presentations and study for my exams. The presentation took up so much of my energy (Not so much of time) that I find it very exhaustive to study for my Bioscience practical paper. In the end, I found out that I had a B+ for it.... ONLY A B+!!! Too much lah...

Ok. It may seem like I am arrogant when I am complaining that I have a B+. Fact is, I always have an A for my Bio practical and this is the first time I have a B+.

So now when someone read this, they will start to say, "How about people who have less then a B? how about those who fail?" Let me explain myself. This is the kind of standard I set for myself. I don't look down on people who didn't do as well as I do. I am just disappointed at my own results.

When my friends who always score a D and finally have a C this time round, I will still cheer and celebrate with him/her. But for me, if I fall short of the expectation I set for myself, I will not think it a reason to celebrate. Get it?

What is "good" for someone need not neccesary be "good' for another person. Just like the phrase goes, "What is one's man's rubbish is another man's treasure." Same application.

Just like many people who like cherries, they will describe the taste as sweet. But for me, I totally dislike cherries because it taste bitter to me and it reminds me of cough syrup.

Yup. So I am pretty disappointed about it.

Went out with Xueting, Alex, Jiji, Kenneth, Kenneth's brother and Gerald yesterday. It was really fun initially, until some miscommunication happened. Nothing to do with me though, watched everything as a bystander. Later I have to see to things that it don't turn into some form of arguement. Not going into the details here.

But it make me see one thing.

A real man with who live with a purpose will make his purpose be known right from the beginning.

A real man will not expect everyone to understand him irrationally.

A real man is not self-centred.

A real man is generous.

A real man know how to use his words wisely and speak tactfully.

A real man will be concerned of true practical needs instead of going into unneccesary details.

The words of a real man bring comfort instead of anger, fear or anger.

Hahaha. Well. GOD IS GOOD. :)

Facing the Challenges Ahead.

2006-03-08T22:20:00.000+08:00

Finally finished off my last two presentations for this semester this Monday.

One of the presentation was an individual presentation on patient education. As the first person on the class list, I was once again the honored one to present first.

I wasn't sure of many things for the presentation so I did quite a lot of things in the last minutes and because I was so busy, I didn't exactly practice for it. I only know what I wanna say and do and I try to visualize what will happen during the presentation itself.

Thank God for the power of visualisation. I was really nervous during the presentation as I was the first and it was also the first time I am presenting alone. Anyway, I go ahead with what I wanna do and make my voice really strong. I made my presence known and my next move unpredictable, which kept everyone focusing their attention.

I forgot to do a couple of things that I intended to do but nonetheless, at the end of everyone's presentation, the facilitator was all praises for me for being confident (where in fact I am very nervous), well-prepared and good vocal strength. Hahaha. Praise the LORD!

The individual presentations continue today till next week until everyone have presented. Took a video of one of my classmate's presentation today. Everyone was laughing from beginning till end as he was quite... ah... crappy through out the presentation. Hope he does well for the presentation. Anyway, presenting Ying Ming!

Then it was followed by our Psychology presentation on the Psychosocial Impact of Coronary Heart Disease. I had expected other groups to have role-plays in between and I was right. The previous weeks, the other groups presented in lecture style with a role-play in between.

In order to stand out from the rest and be different, I actually made an bold attempt to make my group's whole presentation a role-play. There is no lecture at all, just role-play all the way. I appointed Jeya to take charge of narrating and the transparencies while the other five of us will act out.

In the first scene where everyone of us will have to act out a certain unhealthy lifestyle and eventually die of heart attack, we did so in a narrate(intro), act, freeze, narrate (explain), act format.

I was quite worried at first as the group does not have any prior full rehearsal. All we have were quick runs that were not finalize at the point of rehearsals and a final script that I emailed everyone a few days before the presentation. As everyone seems to be quite conservative during our group meetings, I was also worried that they may not act out to the fullest.

I was trying to make this presentation a humorous one so it is really important that everyone be very dramatic. When they do anything, they must really exaggerates everything they do, especially the part where they die.

I was the one to go first. So I made my words funny, made the class laugh. Then as I die, I really slumped to the floor and surprized everyone. I got up and went back to my group. They have a look that they are going to faint anytime. Hahaha. Anyway, they really went out they and did their best to match up to my expectation and acted like I did. The least that anyone did when they died was to have both knees on the ground. Can really hear the whole class laugh, it feels great! Hahaha.

The next part was to act out a social support group to discuss the problems that heart patients will face and how they can manage them. We invited 2 guys from the audience to join us, something totally unheard of, totally new, fresh and unexpected. They 2 guys dunno what to do which I already had that in mind so I wasn't worried. Hahaha.

Had a lot of fun during this part. Jeya controlled the transparency well so as it was really easy to follow through the message we want to bring about as we acted out.

We made jokes in between, was glad that the audience laughed. Hahaha. Made fun of the 2 guys and thank goodness they were very spontaneous and flow well. Hahaha. My group carried the right mood as they talk about different topic. Like when Ting Ting was talking about sexual issue regarding heart disease, she stumbled here and there because she was a little embarrased. It would have being bad if it was some other topic but for this particular topic, it was great! The class was laughing. Hahaha.

Well, you can see that I am quite a comedian by now. I love to make people laugh as I act or present.

Anyway, the comment by the facitlitator was excellent! He praised us for making a very good attempt to have an explanation-within-explanation-within-roleplay. He mentioned that it was well coordinated, easy to follow through and other groups could learn from us! What more can we expect? Praise the LORD. To everyone in my group, YOU'RE THE BEST! THANKS!!!

On Tuesday, Xueting asked me to meet her as Gerald will be coming to NYP to appeal for the course he wants. It was nice to see that the Cut-Off-Point (COP) for nursing in NYP this year had dropped to 21, which shows that standards have gone up. Hahaha.

Also saw some interesting offered. Diploma in Horticulture. Was joking with my friend that it can also be known as Diploma in "Farmacy", read "Pharmacy". Pun intended. Hahaha. I know it is more than just 种菜（planting vegetables） lah. It also involve research into agricultural, plant breeding and such. Just an interesting way to look at it. :)

The rest of the day till today is studying for test test test and more TEST! Oh well. Monday had my Bio practical test. Today just had my Skills theory test. Friday will have Psychology theory paper. Next Monday will be my Skills practical test. Well, 2 down and 2 more to go. Had being managing pretty for the 2 papers. So all the best to me. Hahaha.

GOD IS GOOD. :)

Crying Out Silently...

2006-03-05T21:43:00.000+08:00

Really very stress this whole week. With presentations to rush and exams to study, man, I am still smiling and laughing with all my friends. Hahaha.

I tried not to let others see that I am tired but nonetheless, it is really thanks to my CG members that helped me keep believing that life is more than just work and stress all the time.

The members like Alex, Boon Teck, Chloe, Desmond and not forgetting Joey were just so spontaneous when it comes to fellowship. They talk, they make you feel relax and they will come out just about anytime to spend time with one another. You're guys never know much how your availability help me to relax and kept me going through out this week.

By the way, I have uploaded the videos for the KTV outing on W372's Blog. Hahaha.

Together with a few Copers; Jacelyn, James, Vincent, Tina, Kelly, Sarah and even Hansel, we went for Joanna's 21th Birthday Party!

Here's some video I've taken

The birthday present shared by 10 of the Copers! A crystal pendant from SWAROSKI!

Look at how her cousins disturb her! Hahaha.

It was really fun. Joanna loved the pendant a lot. The Copers who turned up had a good time of fellowship.

Well... if only I have a 21st birthday like this. Hahaha.

Didn't have a party for my 16th, 18th and 21st birthday. One thing is because I don't really know how to hold a party, another thing is because of my budget, then perhaps it is just not my style to throw a party.

Despite the fact that I can be really loud, I still somehow like smaller groups and a quiet celebration. Then again, how I wish I could have throw a fantastic birthday party like this for myself or... some friends were to throw it for me. Hahaha.

Looks like there is this inner side of me who will constantly cries out silently whenever I am tired or when i desire something. What an oxymoron. Hahaha.

Nonetheless, I still have my 60th birhtday to go. Gonna make my 六十大寿 BIG! Hahaha!

GOD IS GOOD. :)

What have I being doing all these while?

2006-03-04T02:37:00.000+08:00

Today went to KTV with my CG. I didn't really sing a lot of songs because I hardly listen to the radios these days. I never have the habit in the first place and I don't really appreciates it. Hahaha.

The only music that I like in the past are all rock music such as Bon Jovi and Duran Duran. Now I only listen to Christian Music. So I felt many of the songs that my members sang in KTV are really alien to me, save for a few really old songs. Hahaha.

Nonetheless, I still had fun, smiling and laughing all the way as they prank and make silly noises while singing. I did what I could have only done if I am not singing, I video recorded the whole thing with my phone. Hahaha. Quite good. My members are all eager to get the clips from me.

Desmond, Alex and I went down to Eunice's place to help her fix her wardrobe after KTV. For some reason, everyone was really tired. For me, it was because I was rushing my project for the past few days. The wardrobe wasn't difficult to fix up.

***

On the way home, I closed my eyes on the train asn kinda doze off. As I quiet down, I start to hear the Spirit within me asking me.

"What have I being doing all these while?"

I start to reflect myself upon this question and while doing so, my ears became very open and I could hear everything that Desmond is saying through the phone, at the point when he was talking about spirituality and learning to press in into God and our leaders.

Rev. Ulf's words also came to me, "Don't end up reaching for something only to lose what is truly important."

"What have I being doing all these while?"

I have being in church for almost six years. I have changed much, I have gained much and I have also lost much. I have my share of blessings, as well as my share of hurts and corrections. One thing I know, I have grown and I am a much better person compare to who I was before I was saved. In fact, I have also changed much since the past one year.

However, I came to realise that, I am beginning to feel complacent. I am not as hungry for the spiritual stuff as I used to be. I seems to do things just because I enjoy doing it, not because I want to do it with the glory of GOD. I don't grumble, I don't complain, in fact, I really enjoy doing things. But what difference does that make me from an ordinary, helpful non-believer? It is really just vanity.

"What have I being doing all these while?"

Even though the words Desmond said was for the other person through the phone, I was still very stirred up by what he had said.

Truly, everything is always so divine.

The moment I got home, I can really sense God touching me as I prayed. I could feel that the one important thing to pray for was really to pray for my leaders, Brother Ming Jin and Irene. The main thing that God really want me to do now, is to press in into their lives.

I don't know how I am going to do that. Write a card? Call them? It is not easy because they are both busy and also the fact that they are leaders. But at least there is one thing that I can do everyday, I can pray for them. And if God tells me to press in, He will provide the way and the means for me to do so.

It all just depend on how hungry I am for it and to what extent am I willing to do it. God always provide more for great hunger. Today, I rededicate myself to Jesus.

GOD IS GOOD. :)

Fun with A&B!

2006-03-01T22:10:00.000+08:00

On Monday I think. I was really tired after so many days of sleepless nights and something happened to piss me off that day.

As I was alighting the MRT at Jurong East that day, the people who were trying to board the train press in towards the door and left no gap. So As I try to alight, I got to brush past these people as they try to squeeze in. (so much for the courtesy campaign about letting passengers alight first.)

As I was already very very tired, I was totatlly pissed of at these people. So I broaden my shoulder and MARCH out instead of trying to squim myself to squeeze through some narrow gap.

Then I knock my shoulder into this guy who was standing right in the middle of the two doors. He fell down with his hands holding on to his bleeding nose. He was crying in pain. I went over, squat down beside him and insult him with two light slap on his left cheek.

~~"Next time, let passengers alight first."~~

~~Then I stood up, gave him a football kick across his face which sent two of his teeth flying off.~~ (Just kidding. Hahaha.)

I went to Mustafa with Alex and Boon Teck (A&B) today. Alex was suppose to ORD on the 2nd of March, which is tomorrow but he kept thinking it is today. Hahaha. Anyway he will be getting his Pink IC tomorrow. ORD LOR! Hahaha.

Oh ya. Things at Mustafa is CHEAP. CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP! I bought a Scandisk 256MB Dual Voltage Reduced Size MMC card for my phone at only $36! Sports shoes and almost every thing there is almost $10 to $50 cheaper! That include perfume, digital cameras and many more! Gotta go there to get my stuff in the future.

Later Boon Teck Gotta leave and left me and Alex. We went to this food centre near Bugis and had Roast Duck Rice. It is a very famous store and there was a long queue. The roast duck is simply delicious! The skin is crispy, the meat is tender and not too salty, in fact, it is juicy! The fats though visible but yet it doesn't taste oily. Very nice! Hahaha.

We shop around Bugis village after that and Alex bought a pair of jeans and a red, gothic top. I bought a new pair of jeans there that resembles Levis. In fact, the material is the same as Levis. Thick yet flexible and I bought it at only $33! The lenght is just nice, the cutting is good and the design is unlike the plain jeans I always wear. It looks more rugged and fresh. Looks like I will be going back there to get more jeans and clothings in the future.

Man... having this headache. Alex also having the same headache. I think we probably smelled too much perfume over at Mustafa. Hahaha. Ok. Gotta rest now. It was fun getting to know the guys. Brother-to-brother fellowship is indeed very different from fellowship with the sisters.

It's a men's world and the ladies don't get it. Hahaha. (Just a pun from that Lady's Card)

GOD IS GOOD. Hahaha. :)

What a Great Weekend. :)

2006-02-28T23:18:00.000+08:00

Friday, Saturday and Sunday is busy busy busy!

I had a test on Friday, school ends at 4pm then I went down to Expo to meet Chloe and Desmond for dinner before the conference with Rev. Ulf Ekman.

Desmond was speaking to me regarding certain issues that I really need to take note of. Thanks Desmond for the honesty. You're the best! Hahaha.

Later after the svc, Desmond, Alex and I went to Clarke Quay for supper. I was really tired as I have being rushing for my project and had not slept more than 4 hours for the past 2 days. However, I will never pass a time such as this. Hahaha.

I reached home at around 2am that night. I woke up at 6am on Saturday morning as I need to reach Toa Payoh for my ministry at 8.30am. My ministry, COPE bought the elderly to Sentosa that day. I was appointed to be the bus captain for bus 2.

We are supposed to play a game where the elderly in each bus have to guess where is the next location by answering a riddle and they have to complete a certain task at that location before going to the next location. The bus that finished that most task before the time given would be the winning group.

However, my bus driver is unfamiliar with Sentosa and keep getting lost. Even with a map, the place seems confusing and the bus driver also don't know how to read the map! Sign...

I have no choice but to bring th elderly to whatever location I can come by. So instead of going to Palawan Beach, we went to Siloso Beach instead because the driver chanced upon it. I let the elderly be free and easy as we reached different location and went around chatting with them and entertain them while on the bus. Thank goodness the elderly in my bus really enjoyed themselves a lot!

At the end of the day, I was complimented by the elderly in my bus that I have 好口才。(which means to say that I speaks speaks well). Hahaha. I never imagined getting complimented for my Mandarin but I guess I have a way with my words. Hahaha.

Later I rushed down to church for Pastor Ulf's Conference again. After that, I went to Lau Pa Sa for dinner with a few of my CG members and zone members. Had a real good meal and fellowship.

Sunday, I woke up early again to attend the morning conference. Later went to fellowship with a few of my CG members at Orchard. We ate at The Food Republic, the ambience is nice and so is the food! Hahaha. Great place to fellowship.

Later, Desmond and I accompanied Xueying and Xueting to bring their cousin, (what is his name again?) around. Their cousin is from Australia and came to visit for a few days. Xueting and Xueying are not really familiar with him as they only seen him once when they were really young so they were quite glad to have Desmond and I around.

I was saying that I want to be home by 6, 7pm but I end up hanging out with them till 10pm. Hahaha.

Monday I woke up early again for a project meeting in school. Later, it was skill practise session for my Clinical Skills. At around 2.30pm, I met Xueting to help her friend to register of admission into NYP. I was really tired already so ah... I think I almost got pissed off by her friend. Reason being... she made me really confused with what she want to do. She isn't sure what she already done and was very unprepared when she came. But I can see that she was very worried. Sign...

So I decided to stay home today to rest. Rest I did! I slept the whole day. Hahaha.

Rev. Ulf had really inspired me a lot. Gonna write more about it in the CG blog soon.

Too much to write about, seems so brief... anyway, what matter is my own memory. Will elaborate more on future events. Hahaha.

GOD IS GOOD. :)

Blogging one more time...

2006-02-23T21:12:00.000+08:00

Hmmm... spent some moment to make a phone call Cinthia whom I have not contacted for awhile. She's busy with something and so am I. Rushing for projects. Hahaha. So I didn't make it too long. In fact just a few minutes.

Communication is the key. When there is no communication, relationship breaks down. That is what I have learnt from the service last week. So even just a few minutes, I'm glad I had called up. Hahaha.

Missed the days I would spend the time with Briony and Cinthia when we will walk from places to places and talk and comment about the things we see. Also missed the times when we shared our revelations together and the hardships we face as a CG helper. Hahaha. Man! Gotta meet up one of these days again. Hahaha.

I will always rememeber Cinthia because I always use that multi-color Pilot pen that she bought for me. It is still in good condition and I bring it everywhere with me! For lectures, for exams, for CG, for service and for my attachment. Hahaha. I always tend to lose my pen but I took great care not to lose this one. Not only because it is a very good pen to use (it is makes writing very smooth!) but also because it is a gift. I always treasure the gifts people gave.

And I will always miss Briony. I still have that withered bar of Dead Sea Soap in my bathroom. Hahaha. It is too small to be used now. So nice to use! It is there because I am too lazy to throw it away. Hahaha. Anyway, that long sleeve shirt from Samuel & Kevin that she picked for me during Christmas is my favourite piece of top among the rest of my clothings. My mum always complain that I wore it too often. Hahaha. Must control, must control.

"Work work." ~ Peons, War Craft.

2006-02-23T20:43:00.000+08:00

Ever have the day when you feel so tired yet the more tired you are, the more it drives you to work even harder?

I thought I am going to go straight home today after school. I don't know what got over me that I end up in the library and start to search for books and journals for my individual presentation on Dengue Fever, which is on the 6th of March.

Thank goodness it didn't take too long. I found the right book, the right articles and photocopied them all in the time-span of just 30mins. Fast isn't it? Hahaha. Yup, the more tired I am, the more efficient I work. So now I am done with the minimum requirements of a textbook and a journal for my referencing. In fact, I have TWO journals! Hahaha.

Next, I will have to quickly finish up the Health Psychology Presentation on Coronary Heart Diseases by tonight so that we can touch up tomorrow and save the trouble of meeting up in the holidays.

This presentation is also going to be on the 6th of March, the monday after our one week break. On that day itself, we are also going to have our Bioscience Practical Exam. So that means I will be having 2 presentation and an exam on that day. Talk about stress! Hahaha.

Then on the coming Wednesday which is the 8th March, I will also be having the Clinical Skills Theory Exam. Then the following monday, I will very lightly be the 1st person to take my Clinical Skills Practical Test since I am the 1st person on the class list. Then on the 10th of March, Friday, I will be having my Health Psychology Theory Exam. After I survive through that week, I should be able to take a breather BEFORE I go for my semestral exams. Wah hahahaha!

Oh! Not forgetting that I will be having my Clinical Trial Theory Exam tomorrow. Looks like I'm not going to be sleeping tonight. Hahaha.

OK. Gotta end my blog here. Back to work. :p

Headache, Go Away, Come Again... NOT!

2006-02-22T08:33:00.000+08:00

After so many hectic schedules and lack of sleep for the past few nights, I had another bad headache yesterday. Lasted all the way from the afternoon till I slept. The moment I done my prayer focus, I just slump on my bed and sleep right through till 7.30am this morning. Praise the Lord, no more headache when I woke up. Hahaha.

Some things about dealing with headache.

1. Banging your head doesn't work.
Be it using your fist or banging against the wal, banging your headache is just a dumb action that make people think you are crazy.
However, it does work only if you really bang hard enough. So the saying goes, "Nothing a funeral can't cure."

2. Taking Panadol is only short-term.
After making the presentation on drug overdose and liver failure, I have decided not to take panadol unless it is really necessary.
Anyway, panadol doesn't seems to work all the time. If it does work, the effect will fade off as time goes by and you will feel the pain and giddiness once again.
Also, taking too much panadol also seems to make your body resist it. Making it less effective the next time you use it.
I know a army mate who is "addicted" to panadol. Every morning, he will come to me and say, "Hey medic! Got headache lah, give me panadol." Thank goodness my supply of panadol is free.

3. A good night sleep really works.
Nothing proves to cure headache better than a good 8hrs of sleep (other than the funeral). If you headache is caused by lack of sleep, all the more you should sleep!
To fellow Chrsitians: Gotta take care of yourslef ya? Remember your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.

And I wanna talk about McDonald's Milkshake.

Last night as I was on the way back from school, one of my classmate was suggesting to get milkshake from the McDonald's at Jurong Entertainment Centre. Why not? I really wanna try the milkshake ever since it was reintroduced again. It reminds me of my childhood. Hahaha.

HOWEVER! The milkshake is a thorough DISAPPOINTMENT. The chocolate milkshake on the advertisement is really brown/chocolate but the one that we had looks WHITE! I thought at first we were given the wrong flavour because it looked like vanilla until I drank it then I could taste that tinge of chocolate in it.

The milk is too thick, the chocolate is too stingy. The drink itself is too hard, not easy to suck through the straw. And the taste of the milkshake reminds me of some protein or diet supplement. Yuck!

If you haven't try it, I suggest you don't. If you ever loved milkshake as a child when you were young, don't touch the current milkshake and keep your childhood memories sweet.

The Tea Leaves Eggs at Yu Eng Sheng.

While on our way, we also bought tea leaves eggs from the nearby Yu Eng Sheng medical hall. It cost 80cents per egg, a liitle expensive huh? But it is worth it! The egg is smooth and nice. Unlike the junks you get at some Pasar Malam (makeshift night market), the taste of the egg is really rich with all the herbal preparation! The smell is aromatic and tempting. I could hardly control myself to eat the egg before I reach home (But I did anyway because it is really hot). Hahaha.

Stress with work and many thing. Once in a while do something to pamper myself. Hahaha. It says in the bible, "All things works out for the good of those who love Him." No worries! Hahaha.

GOD IS GOOD. :)

Wanderlust Returns

2006-02-21T15:09:00.000+08:00

Hmmm... Seems to be running around a lot lately.

What did I do on Saturday? Went for service. Before that, I meet up Huiyi and went to her mum's florist shop to collect the roses. 50 of THEM! Had pretty good conversation with her along the way. Later also met Zhiyan in the MRT.

Pastor preached a very good sermon that day about how to get along with people. I have posted the sermon on W372's Blog and I will encourage you to read it because it will really bless you. :)

Later after the service, Desmond, Alex, Mei Hui, Yiquan, Eunice, Joey, Huiyi , Xueting and I went to visit Chloe (Xueying; Xueting's sister) who was very sick and down with high fever.

Chloe seems to be a lot better when we went to see her. Can see that she's pretty happy to see us. She is still sick today thou. She went to see the doctor again on Monday and is currently resting at home. Please pray for her as you read this. :)

Later on, we went over to The Roti Prata House which is along Thomsom Road for our lunch-cum-dinner-cum-supper at around 1030pm. Really busy huh? Hahaha.

Later at night, some issues regarding a member pop out but it was quickly resolved by Desmond, Brother Ming Jin and I. Not going to elaborate as it is pretty personal matter for that member. I slept around 2.30am that night.

On Sunday, I woke up at 7am as I promised Chloe that I will accompany her for service if she got better. Apparently, her fever did went down so I forced myself up, took a shower and prepared to leave the house at around 8am. I am really tired as I haven't being sleeping much for the past few days. Anyway, for the sake of a member, I am willing to sacrifice that amount of sleep. Hahaha.

Later, Chloe told me that her mum will not allow her to go out as her sickness is just getting better and wanted her to stay at home. I understand so I just went back to sleep and prepared for the prayer meeting in the afternoon instead. Hahaha. Left the house at around11.30am. Metup with Desmond on the MRT.

Prayer meeting was FANTASIC! AWESOME! INCREDIBLE! And yes, BEAUTIFUL! (Gotta practise the use of these four words more often. Hahaha.) The presence of God is so thick during the worship that I can sense not just me but almost everyone was very energized as we prayed in tonuges. We prayed very strongly and non-stop throughout the whole prayer meeting. I believe that we are going to have our next breakthrough once again. Hahaha.

Later after the prayer meeting, Desmond told me that someone from the zone fainted and may need my help. Desmond and I ran all the way from the MRT platform back to the Singapore Expo. Apparently, it was actually a chronic condition and the person already woke up so there is nothing much I could really help with except giving some standard advice to the CG members what to do next.

Desmond and I decided not to join our CG members as both of us were really tired. We went to Jurong East and had our dinner together.

I always says this and I will says this once again. I truly appreciate the time I spend with Desmond as he is one of the few guys whom I can really converse on the same intelluctual and spiritual level. The things we talked about are always spiritual, important, close to our hearts and sometimes serious. Not a lot of crapping around and no beating around the bush. Conversation was always intense yet enjoyable.

On Monday, I met up with Eunice and her friend, Sarah. Supposingly Yixuan should also be joining us but couldn't do so in the last minute because of family issues. We cancelled our initial plan to catch a movie and decided to walk down the streets of Orchard Road instead.

Apparently, everyone's tired. The two girls had stayed up all night to complete a project which they have to hang in that day. I was just physically tired after so much activities in school and church for the past week. Managed to introduced myself to Sarah though I felt it wasn't very fruitful... Nonetheless, there is always another time to catch up.

Later that night, I rushed some admin stuff for my COPE ministry and also updated the W372 Blog. I was a bit too tired so I went to sleep early and continued this morning and managed to complete everything.

Now... still tired as I am fasting today with my CG. Fasting can really make you feel sleepy isn't it? Yawn... Anyway, gotta pray and fast because we cn sense that the time for our breakthrough is near! Amen!

All in all, God had really being good to me. I am now getting on with the pace at which the CG is moving and God is really strengthening and providing for me throughout all these.

GOD IS GOOD. :)

Naked I Came, Naked Shall I Return.

2006-02-20T08:09:00.000+08:00

I was reflecting upon the service message that Pastor was preaching this weekend and I came to be reminded of something pastor said earlier.

"If the friends you always mixed around with are spiritually weaker than you, you are not going to go anywhere above where you are." (Something like that.)

As I get to know a man of God like Desmond, I really started to learn a lot from him. Conversation with him is really minimal crap, very intellect, spiritual and sometime serious. I may seems to really crap around with a lot of people, but the real me really yearns to converse at such a level and Desmond is really a gem of a friend at this point of time. Hahaha.

It is true sometimes, that I really have to be aware of who I call my best friend. Sometimes knowing a person for long doesn't necessary mean that person is my best friend. If that person if not a believer, or if that person is a new Christian, or if that person doesn't have have a good spiritual level that is of my level, then there is no way he can equip me for my future.

Not just that, even if you dun called the people you always mixed around with your best friend, the company that you mixed around with most of the time is going to shape you the most.

I know many people who dun spend a lot of time with their CG members or even their own fellow church mates. Even if they do, they spend time with those that are not so matured. Most of their time they spend with unchurched people. And the excuses I hear is always the same. "I wanna reach out to them."

Now in the first place, if you dun spend "true quality time" with your members, what makes you think if you ever bring your friends to church, they will really be integrated into your CG?

Pastor said that Friends equip you for the future.

So reflecting upon this truth, I realised that I have really found a good friend to begin off with in this CG.

You can have many friends out there. Some people can even claim they have "brothers" and many "best friends". But I know what the bible says is true. That a true friend, or a real "brother" is rare. Some people may never even find their "Jonathon" at all.

GOD IS GOOD. Hahaha.

No One Is Perfect

2006-02-16T16:24:00.000+08:00

About the recent post, I said that sometimes church members can be a "stumbling block", but perhaps, it is better to say that sometimes they don't meet your citeria in every situation. Reason is because no one is perfect and therefore when we get together, there is no way to totally avoid conflict, misunderstandings or even frustrastion and offenses.

So another better way that my friend, Cinthia put it is "iron sharpens iron".

Even the best of friends can argue about things and parents can misunderstood their children. So truly, we have to learn from one another and realise that indeed, we should put our expectation on God and not on people.

Yes, once in a while I will think about some of my old friends, very good ones like Abel, Briony, Cinthia and I wonder if I will have the time to meet them. Abel called me yesterday because he will be somewhere near my school during the afternoon and he was asking if I will be free to meet him for a meal but... I am still having lessons at that point of time. Oh well...

Ya... I am a little busy too and so are the rest of the people. Sometimes as I read the blog of some of my friends and I was quite glad that they are happy being out with their friends too. Yup, everyone have their own life.

Once in a while, a friend may think I sever ties with them. However, come to think about it, it is always me speaking up first and planning everything. So if stayed quiet a little, they thought I have lost interest.

My Friends, why not ask yourself,
"Why must it always be Benjamin to call up, to sms, to MSN or to even tag on my tagboard first?"
"Why not I take the initiative to call up Benjamin instead of blaming him of severing ties with me?"

Yup. Sometimes I am the one who feels it was the other party who lost interest because I always don't hear anything from them if I don't contact them. And after a period of silence, one of my good friend can actually say that I severed ties with her, when I didn't even intended to do that in the first place. It can be a little hurtful, you know what I mean?

Yes. I always care for others. I am always the one who is more generous. I am always the one to ask, "How are you doing?" first. So if I don't do all these anymore, you deem I have lost interest? Well, like Paul says, "CERTAINLY NOT!" Hahaha.

Sometimes really, it is not whether you have anything to say when you tag or sms or call a person. It is the effort that you put in to press in into someone's life. Please, I beseerch you my friends, don't ever accuse me again of severing ties with anyone.

I long to meet up all of my old friends but first of all, I must find the time and my friends have to take the effort to "reach out" to me too. Remember, it takes two hands to clap.

Now after reading this blog, will anyone just give me a call to chat and catch up with me? Or do I have to be the one to call up first again? Hmmm...

Well, no matter how things will turn out, GOD IS GOOD. :)

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

2006-02-14T10:40:00.000+08:00

Alright. Hahaha. Was reading a friend's blog, let call her Z and it reminded me of a lot of things in the past.

One of the things I remember is the ties and friendship I severed in order to move forward.

I don't usually sever ties unless it is really needed to. In fact, I only remember one or two friendship that I severed and the rest, I simply forgotten. Yes, sometimes when I break a bond, I will totally forget it.

However, recently the friends I made I need not do so. Hahaha. Some I agree they had being a stumbling block but I realise more than the work of man, the recent obstacles had being the work of God to mold me and make me stronger.

The people whom God had used to shape me recently are all godly people, people who understand me, prayed for me thou they also became my obstacles. However, by the grace of God, I have overcomed these obstacles. Hahaha.

I have greater control over my emotions and desires now, which is why I don't do certain things I used to do so if anyone who knows me is reading this, esp Z, don't feel weird, it's just that you have seen a new me. :)

"Behold, all things have become new." That is what Jesus said and this verse came to me as I was typing this blog. It is a time to renew friendship, to reassess motives and to readjust the mindset.

Here I am, an old shell with a new mindset and new motives. Crappy as ever but know what is the right thing to do. Looks chaotic but clear-minded. Hahaha.

My style is really not of my own but the influence of many friends and leaders whom God had sent to shape me.

One example is this "Hahaha" thing. I never typed like this until I met and get to know this wonderful friend of mine, Z. Hahaha.

You probably wouldn't get to see the old Benjamin anymore. No, what you see in me now is not what I used to be a few years back. I am now a collection of all the people whom have come to touch my life in one way or another.

It is true with this saying, that a person's life is a sum of all the friends he had made.

You know what? GOD IS INDEED GOOD. Hahaha.

Happy Valentines' Day! To all my friends. :)

Giving Have Never Being Happier.

2006-02-12T22:28:00.000+08:00

Got chocolates from Royce for a few of the sisters I knew personally in the zone yesterday. Dun think anywhere further, I did so because it is Valentine's Day and because I knew these few of them are going through some stress in life currently. I also bought another "more affordable" but still very good-quality chocolates from The Cocoa Tree for the rest of the sisters in my CG. Later after svc, we went to Bedok to have dinner. I treat Yixuan and Eunice. Hahaha. Then I treat everyone to “zhui kuei".

What makes giving them such a wonderful experience? They have a grace of recieving!

Many people really failed in this area because they feel very bad when they recieve things from people. Some people either feel they are not worthy or they feel it is not right to recieve. While there are some other people who will take but will not show any gratitude and all they want is just to keep taking because it is free.

However, my cg and zone members are different! They don't complain when they recieve. They reward you with a bright smile and a big "THANK YOU!". It will definitely make the giver feel blessed. This is something I hardly see in most of the people, even my friends.

Some of the best recievers are Eunice and Yixuan, they really smile and appreciate blessings. It is wonderful to be around people who are thankful. Chloe and Xueting too, not just will they appreciate, they will go around telling the whole world, this I just discover. And so are the rest of the CG members, they are just as thankful.

And not forgetting Briony whom I happened to met yesterday. I also gave her a box of chocolates since I bought one extra and since she like chocolates! Oh! Briony is someone who will not just take but will also love to give! Man! Just like the bible says, "Let your giving be as good as your recieving." Hahaha.

I believe indeed that one can only truly give in faith when they know how to recieve in grace. If you do not believe in recieving or if you don't like to recieve, what makes you think that if you give, the other person will recieve? This is like decieving yourself. This is not faith, this is being religious, this is being FLAKY!

Well. So good to give. And I also love to recieve. (hint hint) hahaha. :p

GOD IS GOOD. (God is still the greatest blesser of my life.) :)

Energy Spent. Literally.

2006-02-10T20:10:00.000+08:00

2 nights ago, I stayed up late to chat on MSN. Last night, I stayed up late because of CG and because I need to finish some school's admin staff. Lessons starts at 8am both morning and I am out for almost the whole day.

I held a meeting for one of my ICA presentation today. End it fast as usual. Never like to have very long meetings. Rather it short and fruitful then long and waste of time. I got to the main points, delegate the work and off we go. Nothing much.

As the team leader, I will also be doing research and also read through the articles my teammates will be sending me by this Sunday. So once again, I will be reading, editing, drafting, meet up with team members to do more research, follow by more reading, more editing, more drafting, and more research. Not an easy job, tiring and sometimes frustrating but still, it is something that I like to do so I am not complaining much. :)

If there is one thing I really wanna do, that is to finish up chapter 17 of Langundo. I am halfway through chapter 17 but was just too busy and too tired to finish it up. After all, I know what are my priorities and story-writing just have to wait awhile... perhaps in a day or two, it may be up. Who knows? Hahaha.

One of the worst thing I can experince is really the headache that comes along with the lack of rest. When the headache comes, I will keep to myself and perhaps, not speak so much than a word as if talking will make it worse. Then if I get a little giddy, I may just massage my temper and shake my head a little, as if doing so will make it better. Which in fact, it doesn't of course. Hahaha. The pain will just come and go on it's own. Only a good rest will truly keep it away.

Had being hearing a lot of "misdeeds" by student nurses out there in clinical attachments. Year ones giving medication when they are yet taught how to administer. They even make mistakes and blame it on the patients. What kind of attitude is that!

I am very angry when I see fellow student nurses who try to slack or malpractise during clinical attachment. I never fail to let the staff nurse in charge know if something goes wrong to any of my patient under the care of irresposible student nurses. And if it is the staff nurses that malpractised, I will be sure the Nursing Manager hears about it and I have done that many, many times.

Some people do agree that many nurses will "suffer" if I become a Nurse Manager or Clinician because I really cannot stand sloppiness when it somes to handling of life and death issues. Hahaha.

Yup. I was sharing that I had kept my GPA above 3.6 for every semester and I am nominated for overseas attachments during CG. Hooray! Praise the LORD! Hahaha. Thank you JESUS!

Some of the places that I seems to be able to choose to go would include USA, England, Australia and Germany. I wouldn't wanna choose England as the exchange rate and expenses would be the highest there. However, I would really wanna go to Germany for some reason... Perhaps it is because I have being to the continent of Asia, America, Australia but not Europe yet. Perhaps, I am a little influenced by friends like Briony and Eunice. Hahaha.

GOD IS GOOD. :)

Nice Place to Sleep in Campus

2006-02-09T11:04:00.000+08:00

Shouldn't have stayed up and chat so late on MSN when I have lessons at 8am today. Very sleepy. Hahaha. I will be going for CG later so I need to rest/sleep as much as possible after my lesson ends at 2pm today.

Going home is not an option. I have to reach Paya Lebar by 6pm. I will lose a lot of sleep in between. What better place to sleep other than school then? So here's a few suggested places to sleep in NYP.

1. The Library Wings
Be it the north or the south wings, is it by far the best place to sleep. Nice cooling environment and no one will come to disturb. You can even try the 5th floor but the librarians like to patrol the 5th floor very often so it is not really socially "considerate".

2. The Computer Labs
A bit cold sometimes but still a nice place to take a nap. You can surf the web a little and even tune in to online radio and listen to music while you nap. Do bring a jacket along just in case. Caution thou, the smaller labs may be booked for lessons so you may have to leave if so.

3. The Corridors along the Classrooms
You can act as thou you are waiting for tutorial to start and sleep outside the classrooms. What is great about this place is you can really slump on the ground and the corridors are air-conditioned. Only problem, it may get little noisy if people are moving around. Some blind cocks may step onto you once in awhile.

4. The Lecture Theatres
For those who are more adventurous or need a stimulant, nothing prove to drive a person to sleep better than old boring lectures. Go into a lecture theatres where there is some ongoing lectures, sit at the back of the theatre, focus a little on the presentation and you may soon find yourself in la la land. Don't try this during your own lecture or you may find yourself sitting for the same lectures next semester.

5. The Spectator's Gallery at the Running Track
Very quiet and low on human traffic. A really nice place to sleep. However, be warned that this could be one of the HOTTEST spot and unless you are intending to get a sun-tan, find somewhere else to sleep. Don't even try to sleep here on rainy days.

6. The Toilet
This is one place no one will ever complain if you do fall asleep. Just sit on the toilet bowl and start dozing off. The once-in-awhile smell when someone else uses the next cubicle may be a bit offensive and it can also get a little stuffy in the toilet but it can be helped using a portable mini fan and some medicated oil (the oil will let others think you have some serious diarrhea and encourage them to leave the toilet as soon as they finish their business). However, the downside of this, it was said that you could develope piles if you sit in the toilet for too long.

7. The Canteens and Food Outlets
For those people who need "noise" to sleep, you can always find a place here. It is really noisy thou but I do know of people who like such atmosphere. Please wear a face mask thou, your drooling may put diners off. We want to be "considerate" neighbours.

Time to prepare for leson then SLEEP! Yawn...

Gotta confess this before I leave. GOD IS GOOD. :)

Fellowship Day!

2006-02-09T00:23:00.000+08:00

There is only 2 hours of lesson today so went to "Bai Nien" at my classmate's place after school. Her mum cooked for us and even prepared "Yu Sheng" for us. Hahaha All of us even get "Ang Baos". :p

Went over to Center Point Coffee Bean later to join Desmond, Yixuan, Chloe and Joey. Had a really nice conversation. Joey is a really captivating person as she can really listen and pay attention to what you wanna say. It is RARE to find people like this nowadays. Hahaha.

On the way home, I was talking a lot to Desmond. Let me say this, he is also one of the RARE guys/male/man who can talk on the same intellect level with me and talk about serious and spiritual topics naturally. We were talking non-stop on the whole bus journey.

Why is it rare? I find many guys tend to keep to themselves if not, they are only interested in talking about computer games and sports, things that are very superficial and doesn't challenge the mind. Which is why most of my friends are ladies because very sad to say, I personally find most ladies are wiser in conversation. However, Desmond is one of the rare man who can really speak with wisdom. He is what I call, a REAL man. Hahaha.

So to say. GOD IS GOOD. And I gotta sleep! Hahaha.

Energy Saving Mode

2006-02-07T17:11:00.000+08:00

Here I am blogging the second time today.

Nothing much to do in school today. After that big presentation yesterday, I decided to take a break and go on "energy-saving" mode. That means, I go where ever I like when there is no lessons and keep to myself, get away from idle conversation and allow my mind to look inward rather than bothered with the hassles of the things happening around me. Even my classmate was commenting that I was very quiet today. Hahaha.

Actually, when I am quiet, I hate to be disturbed. Perhaps it is because I am having "conversation with myself" and anyone else is a "thrid" party. Sometimes, it is just so hard to find time for myself that when I finally have such luxury, I don't wanna be disturbed.

But it doesn't mean I don't care. If anything happened, I will still attend to it. If anyone is in trouble, I will help as much as I can. It is just that, I also want some time to be alone. And I mean, to be truly alone. Then I can "talk" to myself in my mind, make a few "silent" prayers to God and even hum a few worship songs to praise Him. I have being humming "What a Friend I've Found" recently without knowing it myself. Such "luxury" can only be afforded when I am alone.

Hmmm... Looks like I am on "Wanderlust" mode again, aka "Energy-Saving" mode. Hahaha.

So to say, I really wanna watch the movie "Fearless". Seems like many of the people had already watched the show. I wonder who else who be interested. Maybe I would just go watch it alone. I really wanna watch. Hahaha. Oh wells...

And what is the saddest thing? I will be missing the first ever prayer meeting of the year, which is tonight. All because I have lessons till 8pm!!! Too much sia. So many people will be going. My schoolmates-cum-zone members Eunice and Xueting will also be going and yesterday. Xueting even asked me if we could meet in school and go down for prayer meeting together. Argh!!! Haiz... Oh wells. Have to do my part to pray at home lor.

Gonna read my bible and pray. Gotta pick up my guitar and worship. YEAH!

For those who knows Xueting and Eunice, please pray for the two of them as they will be having a lot of projects and presentation to be completed by this week. Then next week, they will be having their semestral exams. For me, I will always keep them in prayers. Hahaha.

So let me confess this again, GOD IS GOOD! :)

A Time to Weep and a Time to Laugh

2006-02-07T10:06:00.000+08:00

Finally, one of the most difficult presentation is over yesterday. Missed out one point forgot to talk about thou but nonetheless, it is still pretty good. Hahaha. Not easy to distribute the work and presentation among 14. So now 2 down and 2 more to go. But the last 2 is not going to be too difficult. Perhaps, I should just take a rest this week and continue the other two projects next week... depends. Hahaha.

Heard from Xueting that she also completed her hardest project yesterday. This particular project have being causing her to lose many nights of sleep and a little of her sanity. Hahaha. Well, I can identify with that. Talking to her over the phone reminds me of myself too.

Sometimes when I am stressed or frustrated, I may just bang the table or stamp my feet without much thought. Or when closing the door, I may just let it swing free and slam shut. I wouldn't try to do it on purpose, just perhaps it happened without much thought; sometimes I am shocked myself when the door slammed. If my mum is around, she will start to scold me, "buei son huh?" (as in "unhappy?") then I will quickly tell her "it's an accident" or "the wind blew". Hahaha. Coincidentally. Xueting sometime does that also. :p

Well... today I am suppose to have a good rest in the morning but I seems too have another bout of mild headache again. Haiz... I am getting used to it already. Everytime when I am stress, headache is really common. Nonetheless, I still enjoy the company of my church mates. They will always tend to understand and may even chat with me in a Christian viewpoint, which I find very comforting.

Speaking of which, sometimes I find my unchurched friends not so easy to get along. The last time I tried to let them know that I am not really feeling well and I am stress over the school projects, I kinda get very cold reactions if not, they will try to joke with me as if I am kidding. Naturally, that only make my blood boils. So whenever I am not really happy, I will still put on a smile but I will talk less and perhaps, even avoid them.

Perhaps it is true, that they are some friends whom you can only share "happiness"; like my school friends. Then they are some friends who can really laugh with you when you are happy and cry with you when you are sad. Such friends the bible says are friends who are closer than a brother. Thank God most of the people in my CG/zone can really listen when you need a listening ear or be with you when you need company.

Hey, I give a listening ear and comfort people too. I am much mature already. Hahaha. But I came to know one very inportant truth,

Alone I am nothing.
At all times I need God.
There is a time I can help others and there is a time I need help from others.
So the bible says, "it is not good for man to be alone" and "iron sharpens iron".

Well. GOD IS GOOD. :)

The Weekend.

2006-02-05T21:09:00.000+08:00

The Christian band "Delirious?" came to lead songs in church this weekend. Their style is very different in the sense they may have praise follow by worship and then praise again, a very free flowing style.

However, it wasn't chaotic or out-of-sync. The transition to every songs are very smooth and it really bring in a very strong and tangible presence of the Lord. Their style of music is very much like a rock band but every word is so anointed! I felt so soaked in the presence that I start to feel very 'drunk' in the spirit.

So yesterday, Pastor taught about the need to honor the house of God and our priority should be firstly God's House, Family second and Carreer third. Why God first, because God always help to take care of everything. According to Psalms 92, God promised 7 blessings if we put Him 1st.

1. Fresh anointing
2. New vision
3. Hearing God's voice
4. No dryness
5. Health, riches, honor
6. Life-long productivity
7. Shine for Jesus

Then CG today was a combination of 2 CGs, plus MANY people coming for makeup from MJ zone. Hahaha. CG taught about Relational Evangelism. Yes! Got to be relational to reach out to people. No matter what role I play, always know that no effort is put to waste.

Was suppose to visit Geogina with Desmond at Clementi today. But we realised that her Dad's soya bean shop is not in Clementi Central but West Coast instead. Somemore, she's not working by the time we called her. End up fellowshipping with Desmond and had dinner with him instead. Later I treat him to satay. Hahaha. We were thinking about setting our own CG blog. :)

I am planning to go out with Eunice and Xueting this Wednesday and try out the Valentine's Day Chocolate Fon Due at Hagan Daz. Hahaha. In case you think otherwise, Valentine's Day is also called FRIENDSHIP DAY so dun think otherwise. Hahaha. All 3 of us are from the same zone, MJ zone and we studied in NYP. Eunice and I are the same CG. I really hope to start a zone fellowship in NYP to reach out to more people. Hahaha. Can give each other support when reaching out.

So truly. God IS GOOD. :)

Hectic Week

2006-02-04T23:36:00.000+08:00

Back blogging again.

So so so busy for the past few days. The presentation is literally giving me a headache everyday, even today, I seems to be feeling giddy the whole day. Gotten worse at night but seems to become better after a shower.

If not, I wouldn't be blogging.

Went out to shop and dine on Wednesday and Friday. Wednesday was with Xueying and Xueting while Friday went with Eunice. Finally got to go out with the NYP people of my zone! Yeah!!!

On Wed, I met Xueying at 5pm and waited for Xueting to finish her tuition. She was suppose to be done at 5.30pm but not sure why she ended at 6pm instead. Hahaha. We went to Bugis Village to shop, only to find most of the shops are closed. Haiz... Chinese New Year mood. But we went to the Burmese Restarant at City Hall to eat. Hahaha. Had a good time chatting and fellowship with the sisters. By the way, Only Xueting is in NYP, her sister isn't.

On Friday, went out with Eunice, had dinner 1st before we proceed to Raffles City. We then gp on to Suntec City. At first, we wanted to go to Bugis but end up shopping the whole of Suntec instead. Hahaha. It was also fun to hang out with Eunice too. ~~very nice to 'suan'~~. I bought my new wallet at Top Man finally. Hahaha. But that would means I probably will get my new belt after the next pay day. Gotta control my spending. Hahaha.

Wanna blog about Delirious? too... but if you can read from my blog, you prob can sense my brain is shutting down... so I will blog about it tmr instead. Hahaha.

By the way, retail theraphy really does help to destress. Hahaha.

GOD IS GOOD.

Baring My Fangs. Rr...

2006-02-01T10:06:00.000+08:00

I actually wanted to blog about my Chinese New Year. So much fun and FOOD! Hahaha. But it's so long, it yet to be completed.I have dratfted it and was thinking of completing it today.

However, I just wanna blog about something else. It is about the ICA this coming Monday.

This is one ICA that really make me wanna VOMIT BLOOD. (Gotta sharpen my fangs and suck someone's blood later. Tradition method of blood transfusion.) Not because it is diffictult but the kind of RUBBISH some people can give me.

1st of all, I made it clear to everyone, GO AND READ THE LECTURE NOTES 1ST! One particular team in charge of doing the medical and nursing management can give me something almost totally different from what the lecture notes have. What does this show?

IT SHOWS THAT NO ONE FROM THAT TEAM READ UP THE LECTURE NOTES!

So counting today, we still have 3 more days, not counting the weekends, AND THE WHOLE PRESENTATION IS SUPPOSE TO LAST FIFTY MINUTES! With so much things yet to be done, we can't even try to have a full rehearsal.

It is not easy trying to coordinate 14 people to give a 50min presentation. I really reck my brains to think of a wonderful idea. Praise the Lord. But without the information, the whole presentation would be POINTLESS!

And when I call up the team leader this morning and ask her to make changes, she said IT IS NOT FAIR TO ASK HER DO EVERYTHING CUZ HER TEAM MEMBERS ARE NOT DOING ANYTHING.

Hello! If that is the case, WHY DON'T I DO EVERYTHING MYSELF? Get the people in your team to help you lah! If you always try to do everything yourself, OF CUZ ON ONE WILL BE HELPING YOU! Who are you kidding when you say YOU ARE STRESS?

Anyway, thanks to such people (and who needs the devil), I decided to meet up earlier with that team today and tell them STEP BY STEP what to do. We have no more time to waste. So now the STRESS IS ON ME. Fine. Haiz...

Thank God I didn't shout over the phone. There is nothing wrong to be angry, but just as some people are told by God not to touch alcohol or not to do certain things, I am told not to blow my temper. That is because I go out of control whenever I lose my temper and will hurt the people around me. I can feel angry or frustrated but, I cannot lose my temper.

I also didn't shout over the phone because I understand how stress it can really be. The other person is really stress despite of not being efficient. It isn't easy to handle people, I went through it myself. Each of us got to learn, it is important to know how to get along with team members. As far as I know, I being through that and I know how it feels. I am annoyed with the situation, not the people. I think it better to help the person than the situation 1st. As the leader I will sacrifice my time to see that everything is in order.

I pray that God will truly give me strength and the support I need. I need wisdom more than ever. I really need Your grace. Nonetheless, I know that God is always there for me. Thank You.

GOD IS GOOD. :)

Happy Lunar New Year!

2006-01-29T00:00:00.000+08:00

HAPPY LUNAR NEW YEAR!

May all my friends and my family be healthy and prosper in the new year.

May all my friends who are studying have excellence for their academic.

GOD BLESS EVERYONE! :)

A Stop Over

2006-01-27T22:10:00.000+08:00

Finally, the ICA for Acute Liver Failure is completed today. In fact, the lecturer said it was very good. Hahaha. Really gotta thank all my group members for putting in the effort to make this presentation good and informative.

Thanks Phui Yun, Jeyamalar, Xueqin and Ting Ting, it was great working with you gals and no one stumbled when the class raised any questions, you really did well to rehearse on your part and you know your details well. A few of the classmates had said the presentation was well done too. One even commented that the information was good despite the whole presentation is only limited to 20mins. Hahaha.

It was really a challenge to try to bring in all the relevent details within 20mins. There is just so much things to talk about and everything was so hard to understand! I had to read through pages after pages of information and technical terms and simplify them until it can be easily understood.

I tried to summarize one particular information from 2 to 3 pages into less than half the page and I made it simple enough for any layman to understand. I send one of the final draft to Eunice, who had no experience in the healthcare section, to read through and she could understand. Good! Hahaha.

Here's a detailed copy of what we presented today. It is not exhaustive, remember, we only have 20mins to present so we have to be selective on what we want to present.

ICA on Acute Liver Failure

Learning Objectives
(presenter: Phui Yun)

Summary of the case study
Explain the pathophysiology of Acute Liver Failure.
State the rationale for the investigation done.
Describe the abnormal laboratory findings.
Presentation of drugs.
Discuss the collaborative management.
Discuss health education to be given to patient.
Conclusion of today’s presentation.

Summary of Case
(Presenters: Benjamin & Phui Yun with role-play)

Name: Ms Tan (F)

Age: 23

Race: Chinese

Social history: Single post graduate student

Drug Allergy: Nil

Date admitted: 01/07/2005

Time clerked: 10.45am

Diagnosis: Paracetamol Overdose with Acute Liver Failure

Present History:
Admitted twice for Paracetamol overdose in the past six months
Noted to take 10 paracetamol for menstrual pain 2 weeks ago, last menstrual period on 19/06/2005
Took 8 tablets of Paracetamol today because of “stomach pain”

Complained of:
Nausea and vomiting, fatigue, diarrhea and loss of appetite for 2 weeks
Jaundice for 1 week.

Family History:
Mother has hypertension
Father died of “old age”

Sign and Symptoms Presented by the patient:
(Presenters: Benjamin and Phui Yun with role-play)

Physical Examination

Normal vital signs except for fever of 38.2°C
Ø Could be due to infection as the liver failed to detoxify toxins and other harmful agents in the system.

Poor nutrition with Nausea, Vomiting, Diarrhea and Loss of Appetite
Ø As part of the digestive system, the liver regulates the breakdown and metabolism of certain food substance (e.g. lipids).
Ø Liver failure will disturb the normal functioning of the GI tract and cause the patient to have Nauseas and Vomiting, Diarrhea, Loss of Appetite.

Looks weak
Ø Due to poor nutrition

Dehydrated skin
Ø Poor nutrition
Ø Loss of appetite
Ø Loss of liver function to regulate blood volume

Tenderness of the abdomen
Ø May be cause by pain in the liver and discomfort in the GI tract in relation to liver failure.

Sluggish bowel sounds
Ø May be caused by poor function GI functions in relation to liver failure

Jaundiced skin
Ø Yellowing of the skin due to accumulation of bilirubin in the skin as the liver fail to metabolize it.

Slightly confused
Ø Accumulation of urea as ammonia is converted cause encephalopathy

Introduction to Acute Liver Failure
(Presenter: Ting Ting)

Functions of the Liver
To detoxify drugs
To produce proteins for the synthesis of clotting factors and albumin
To regulate glucose/biblirubin metabolism
To serve a blood volume regulator
To aid in digestion of certain nutrients e.g. lipids

What is Acute Liver Failure?
Acute Liver Failure occurs when large parts of the liver become damaged rapidly (in as little as 48 hours) and the liver is no longer able to function.
This is a life threatening condition.

What are the Causes of Acute Liver Failure?
Paracetamol overdose - most common
Hepatitis A, B, and C
Reactions to certain prescription medications
Ingestion of poisonous wild mushrooms

Pathophysiology of Acute Liver Failure due to Paracetamol Overdose
Acetaminophen, the parent compound of Paracetamol, is nontoxic, but hepatic metabolism leads to formation of a toxic metabolite, N-acetyl-benzoquinoneimine (NAPQI).

The liver will then release Glutathione which will bind with NAPQI and form nontoxic conjugates which will be excreted. As glutathione stores are used up, NAPQI is not detoxified and binds to the lipid bilayer of hepatocytes causing centrilobular necrosis.

In simple terms, it means when the glutathione is used up, the remaining NAPQI will bind with the liver cells instead and destroys them, causing Acute Liver Failure.

Complications of Acute Liver Failure
· Liver Cirrhosis
· Renal failure
· Multi-organ failure
· Hepatic Encephalopathy
· Coma
· Death

Investigations
(Presenter: Xue Qin)

Note - First of all, let’s understand that Liver Failure can lead to multi-organ failure.

FBC- Full Blood Count
This is to check for any abnormalities in the blood in the patient by checking the level of RBC, WBC, platelets, Hb and RBC size, which could determine any form of blood loss or infection

U/E/Cr – Urea/ Electrolytes/ Creatinine
This investigation test the level of urea, electrolytes and Creatinine in the blood which could be used to assess liver function, kidney function and possible electrolyte imbalanced due to vomiting and diarrhea

PT/PTT – Prothrombin Time/ Partial Thromboplastin Time
This test is ordered to determine if the patient have any impaired blood clotting and risk for bleeding

Amylase Test
As the pancreas is responsible for amylase production, this test is ordered for the patient to check for pancreatic functions.

Liver Function Test
This test is ordered for the patient to check for level of certain enzymes and substances such as AST, ALT and albumin which are used to assess liver function

GXM - Group and Cross Match
To check the blood group so as to prepare the patient for blood transfusion if required

CXR & AXR – Chest X-Ray, Abdominal X-Ray
This test screen for any abnormalities of the patient’s liver and other organs

Urine C/S – Culture and Sensitivity
This is to determine if there is any infection in the patient’s urinary system

Paracetamol level
This is to test the patient’s paracetamol level since she had paracetamol overdose

ABG - Arterial Blood Gas
This is to test the patient’s respiratory and metabolism functions by checking the pH, oxygen and carbon dioxide of the arterial blood

Explanation of Abnormal Laboratory Results
(Presenter: Xue Qin)

Low Glucose Level
The loss of glycogen stores in the liver from damaged cells and impaired gluconeogenesis result to hypoglycemia.
Hypoglycemia can also be attributed to the loss of appetite and poor nutrition.

High level of Albumin, AST, ALT, Amylase and Bilirubin
High level of Albumin indicates dehydration
Elevation of the activity of AST & ALT in serum is believed to be the result of leakage from damage cells and this reflects hepatocyte injury.
ALT is found in high concentration in liver cells, small amounts in cardiac, renal and skeletal tissues, so ALT is a better marker of liver problems.
Amylase is produced primarily by the pancreas, but is also produced in the salivary glands and liver.
Elevated levels of serum amylase are found with pancreatitis, bile stones or obstruction and perforated peptic ulcer etc
High serum bilirubin level suggest liver disorder

Increased Prothrombin Time and Activated Partial Thromboplastin Time
The liver produces proteins that are essential for the synthesis of certain clotting factors. Liver failure will cause poor coagulation as the clotting factors in the system decreases.

High level of White Blood Cells
A raised level of WBC mean that the patient is having some form of infection. Infection is common as a result of neutrophil and kupffer cell dysfunction.

Collaborative Management – Pharmacology
(Presenter: Xue Qin)

I/V Acetylcysteine
Theraupeutic effects - Acetylcysteine is converted in the body into metabolites that could function like glutathione to bind and detoxify NAPQI
Indications - Paracetamol overdose
Contraindications - Known hypersensitivity to the drug
Adverse Reactions - Rash, pruritus, nausea, vomiting, wheezing, angioedema, tachycardia, bronchospasm, hypertension, flushing and hypotension, especially with IV administration
Drug Interactions – Can interact with activated charcoal. Not recommend to give immediately after activated charcoal is given through lavage
Note:
1) This antidote is most efficacious within 8 hours of ingestion and should be given as soon as possible. Re-assess when serum concentration result is available.
2) Late administration of NAC has been found to be beneficial. Therefore, NAC is still recommended in patients who are already in liver failure.

I/V Omeprazole
Drug Class- Proton pump inhibitor
Theraupeutic effects- suppress the gastric acid secretion relieving gastrointestinal distress and promoting ulcer healing
Indications - For alternative use to oral medication in duodenal ulcer, gastric ulcer, reflux oesophagitis.
Contraindication - Known hypersensitivity to omeprazole
Adverse Reactions - Headache, diarrhoea, constipation, abdominal pain, nausea/vomiting, flatulence.

Nursing Care after drug administration
Monitor the patient for any adverse reaction and report to doctor if there is any.
Since both drugs may cause vomiting and general GI discomfort, report to the doctor if patient’s condition worsen and stop the drug or administer additional drugs such as antiemetics if prescribed by the doctor.

Collaborative Management – Medical + Nursing
(Presenter: Jeya)

Management of Fever and Infection
Observe strict hand-washing
Perform cold compress or tepid sponging for the patient
Administer antibiotics or antipyretics if prescribed by doctor
Monitor vital signs, especially temperature regularly to monitor the progress of the treatment

Management of Liver Function
Administer paracetamol antidote, Acetylcysteine
Regular liver function test and other necessary lab test to monitor the progress of recovery and effectiveness of treatment and to determine the discontinuation of the paracetamol antidote, Acetylcysteine
When serving of any medication, ensure the medication doesn’t contraindicate with liver failure, e.g. paracetamol

Management of poor nutrition/dehydration/nauseas/vomiting/diarrhea
NBM until patient is able to eat without vomiting or when GI discomfort is manageable
Administer any IV nutrition if prescribed by doctor
When patient is able to eat, start with soft diet before progressing on to full diet to allow the gastric to slowly improve it’s tolerance level
Administer Antacids (Omeprazole) to relieve GI discomfort if prescribed by doctor
Administer Antiemetics to relieve nauseas and vomiting if prescribed by doctor
Administer Anti-diarrhea drugs to relieve diarrhea if prescribed by doctor
Administer Vitamins and Electrolyte supplements to improve overall nutrition when prescribed by doctor
Make arrangement with dietician if referred by the doctor
Strict I/O to monitor the nutritional progress of the patient

Management of hypoglycemia
Maintain glucose levels > 4.0mmol/l
Administer IV Dextrose to increase blood glucose level if prescribed by doctor
Follow the MOH guideline to do hourly hypocount or as prescribed by doctor
Strict I/O to monitor the calories intake of the patient

Management of poor coagulation/risk for bleeding
Order for GXM and prepare for blood/platelet transfusion if prescribed by doctor
Ensure patient is CRIB or RIB to reduce risk of injury when ordered by doctor
Inform patient of her bleeding tendency and instruct her to call for help if she needs to get out of bed
Attend to patient promptly so that she will know that help is readily available and will not risk getting herself injured

Management of confusion/depression/risk for suicide
Promote communication that contributes to the patient’s sense of integrity such as providing care-takers with health information and giving respect to the patient during conversation
Provide sufficient and meaningful sensory input to the patient such as discussing about current events and giving one instruction at a time
Promote safety of patient such as ensuring patient swallow every medication that is served and allocating a bed that is visible from the nurses’ station
Arrange with MSW if the patient has any personal problems if referred by the doctor
Arrange with psychiatrist to treat depression/ confusion if referred by the doctor
Monitor conscious level of patient with Conscious Level Chart

Health Education
(Presenter: Benjamin and Phui Yun with role play)

Educate the patient about the danger of drug overdose
Inform the patient that drug overdose cause acute liver failure which may lead to death if no emergency treatment given promptly
To teach patient to how to find and follow the recommended dosage when taking any over-the-counter drugs

Inform patient about acute liver failure
Teach the patient about liver failure and the most common causes of liver failure
Teach patient to identify signs and symptoms.
Inform her about the complications of liver failure. E.g. Encephalopathy, renal failure etc

Instruct the patient about the need to change in lifestyle after acute liver failure
Encourage her to take low salt and low fat diet
Inform the patient that alcohol is strictly not allowed as it might harm the liver even further and delay the recovery progress
Encourage her to adapt a more pleasant lifestyle and discourage a sedentary lifestyle
Encourage the patient to quit smoking if she smokes

Discuss with the patient and family members about depression and suicidal tendency management
· Teach patient about stress management as she might be facing a lot of stress at home or even at work, so we would like to highlight some easy-to-do relaxation technique like Meditation, or she may go out with friends to go shopping or movies once in awhile.
· Encourage supportive care by involving the patient’s family, peer and support group: Family and peer involvement is vital as she can’t be coping alone.
· Try to boost up her self-esteem.
· We could give her the Hotline for counseling @ Samaritans: 1800-221 4444 (24 hours hotline available) so that she can find someone to talk to if she needs
· Encourage patient to express herself, encourage her to talk to her parents or friends whenever she wants, do not keep things to her own

Conclusion
(Presenter: Benjamin)

We have learnt:

Paracetamol overdose can lead to Acute Liver Failure

Signs and Symptoms, Pathophysiology and Complication of Acute Liver Failure

Liver Function Test is the testing of the level of AST, Alt and albumin in blood to assess liver function

How liver dysfunction can affect certain laboratory results

Acetylcysteine is the antidote for Paracetamol Overdose

The Collaborative Management for the symptomatic treatment of a Liver Failure patient

Collaborative Management of a Confused, Depressed and Suicidal Drug Overdosed patient

A need to change in lifestyle after Acute Liver Failure

Helpline for Depressed patients

References

Capenito-Moyet, L. J (2006) Handbook of Nursing Diagnosis (11th ed.). Philadelphia: Lippincott Willaims & Wilkins.

Joyce, L. K (2005) Handbook of Laboratory & Diagnostic Tests with Nursing Implication (5th ed.). New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall

Lemone, P., Burke, K. M. & Carpenito-Moyet, L. J (2000) Clinical Handbook Medical Surgical Nursing: Critical Thinking in Client Care (2nd ed.). New Jersey: Pretence Hall Health.

Wilson, B. A., Shannon, M. T. & Stang, C. L. (2006) Nurse’s Drug Guide 2006 Australia: Pearson Education Inc

http://http://www.medlineplus.com/ (2006, January 24)

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/003436.htm (2006, January 24)

http://www.emedicine.com/ped/topic7.htm (2006, January 24)

http://www.moh.gov.sg/cmaweb/attachments/publication/management.pdf (2006, January 24)

http://www.thorne.com/altmedrev/fulltext/acetyl3-2.html (2006, January 24)

http://www.hpb.gov.sg/hpb/default.asp?pg_id=1862 (2006, January 24)

http://www.asia.cmpmedica.com/cmpmedica_sg/regindex.cfm?sec=21&dcname=sg (2006, January 24)

Disclaimer: I am not responbile for the accuracy of the information I had posted here. This is the original copy that we submitted to our lecturer and it may not be free of mistakes. But in any case you spot any inaccuracy, you can always notify me but I will not change anything on this post because my intention to post here is to keep it as a memory of my team's presentation and not as a reference point. Therefore, if you wish to use any information posted here, you use it at YOUR OWN RISK.

For now, gonna rest as much as I can and get as many ang baos for Chinese New Year. Hahaha.

GOD IS GOOD. Hahaha.

The Wanderlust taking a break.

2006-01-26T20:52:00.000+08:00

Rushing to ccomplete my 1st ICA today. Tomorrow is the presentation and my group have no time to lose.

I spent the whole night to create the slides and edit the scripts. I edit over and over again then this morning, I decided that it can still be imrpoved so I worked almost througout my 3 hours break in schoold just to keep touching up. In the end, I rushed for my lunch in the last 15mins and was almost late for lesson.

I actually told my group members to go for their lunch 1st while I continue to edit the scripts. One of them even offered to get me lunch because she was worried that I may not have time to eat. Hahaha. That's really nice.

School ends at 2pm today. I told myself to finish up the ICA by 2.30pm so that I can reach home by 3.30pm. In the end, I left school at 3.30pm instead. I think I am a perfectionist when I am really really tired and when I am really stressed out. Hahaha.

Well, going to have my well deserved sleep tonight so gonna sleep early. I pray all the best for the presentation tomorrow.

GOD IS GOOD. :)

Wanderlust 7 (Again! Hahaha!)

2006-01-25T09:39:00.000+08:00

Definition of "Wanderlust": a strong longing or an impulse to move around without a fixed course.

Once again I am blogging in school and I will tell you why.

Last week, I missed an important lesson and I had to come at 9am today to attend a make up lesson. I met my lecturer in school and she was asking me "Why I didn't turn up last week?"

Great... She told me last week to go for make up, "next Wednesday" which she meant the coming Wednesday. Haiz... Anyway, she said she will arrange a day to have a make up lesson with me personally another day.

So here I am, 9am in the morning. Suppose to come for an 1 hour make up lesson. My next lesson is only starting at 12pm. 3 hours...

I went to the North canteen to have my breakfast, went all the way to the Shopping Arcade to withdraw money from the ATM. Praise the Lord! My allowance had being banked in, so once again... I am "rich"! Hahaha.

Went to shop in the arcade a little, checked the price of the hair wax and decided that I can actually get it cheaper else where. Went to the bookshop to find some nursing textbooks but they were all out of stock. Oh wells. So where else to go but to the Computer Lab at the 5th floor.

By the way, I have just recieved some photos from Joanna, which was taken during the CHCSA Appreciation Dinner.

Photos taken with some of the Copers.

Yet another photo taken with some of the copers. We really took a lot of photos that night.

From the left: James, Me and Joanna. Joanna called the 2 of us the "suaning brothers" cuz we can really suan people. Hahaha.

A photo taken with ~~Pastor~~ Mr. Tan Ye Peng, Vice-President of CHCSA. He is the 3rd person from the left at the back row.

One big family of Copers, together with the elderly volunteers. Too bad some of the Copers who can't attend the dinner aren't in here. Nonetheless, it was still a great gathering of the volunteers under one roof. :)

Ok. Time to mug for my projects again. This Friday is the presentation. 2 more days!!! Stress!!! But Praise the Lord! GOD IS GOOD. :)

Fatigue rear its ugly head.

2006-01-23T18:53:00.000+08:00

I reached home late last night, slept late and woke up very early today because lessons starts at 8am. I felt I am playing drunken boxing in school the whole day, walking in a staggered manner once in a while. Worst, I keep dozing off in lecture. But despite of 'sleeping' in lecture, I still wrote down all the important points once again. Hahaha.

And despite of my fatigue, I suddenly thought of an interesting way to do one of the presentation... Which you will not to read it on my blog yet, not until the presentation is over. It is "industrial secret". Hahaha. GOD IS GOOD.

Here's some photos taken during the CHCSA appreciation dinner yesterday. All the different departments from the children outreach to the prison outreach were there. I am part of the elderly outreach department.

(The photos isn't too fantastic because my phone camera isn't meant to take pictures in dim lights. Oh wells... Hahaha.)

A performance by THE TRIOS! They had volunteered to perform in many outreach events too. They really had the crowd cheering for them during the dinner!

A drama put up by IMAGINE THEATRE. They had also volunteered to perform in many outreach events too. They really tickled everyone with their hilarious acting. Hahaha.

The Vice-President of CHCSA, MR. Tan Ye Peng giving his thanksgiving and vision speech. He really stayed true to his faith with once a while "Amens" and "Hallelujah" in between his speech. Hahaha. You should also see one of the department head, MR. Derek Dunn in the photo too. Hahaha.

The awards winners of all the best volunteers from different departments taking a group photo. The best volunteer of our department is VIVIAN!!! We are so proud of you!

Oh, just another rare shot of Hong Yun again. Hahaha. This fellow always run away from the camera because he said he had "photo-taking-phobia". It was interesting how he came to have this phobia.

It was when he was a boy, a friend wanted to take a photo of him. The friend stood really close and the moment the friend said, "1, 2, 3, CHEEZ!!!", water spray out from the lens. Not just any water but some smelly black water. When little Hong Yun got home, he was caned by mummy for dirtying the clothes.
From then on, Hong Yun never dared to have his photo taken again because he felt, "water will just spray out from the camera" anytime.
(The above story is totally fictitious. Any resemblance to anyone dead or alive or any event is purely a coincidence.)

A group photo with the COPERS. Not everyone's inside thou... still waiting for Joanna and Kelly to send me their photos. So... I am wait~ing. Hahaha.

Ok. Time to mug for my project. I pray that everything will go well with my 1st presentation this coming Friday.

GOD IS GOOD. :)

Wanderlust 6

2006-01-22T10:28:00.000+08:00

Definition of "Wanderlust": a strong longing for or an impulse to move around without a fixed course.

I am so terribly tired as I wake up this morning. As usual, no matter how tired I am, I will still get up at 830am lastest and I would not be able to sleep anymore.

I felt kinda daze in the morning and dun really feel like doing anything. I am thinking that today is my "Sabbath" and I shall so nothing. In the end, staring blankly at my computer made me decided to blog. Hahaha.

Wanderlust... As I was sitting in front of my computer, I saw myself in my imagination what I have always wanna do. I saw myself backpacking and travel to many different places.

I saw myself wearing a hat to block the midday sun. I was carrying a big bagpack and wearing a sturdy pair of boots. Sometimes I wore shorts, sometimes I wore a long pants. I was wearing sunglasses and holding on to a long wooden staff.

I figure I would be using that wooden staff as a walking-aid when I travel for long distance on foot. And perhaps also for self-defence.

I saw myself walking down beautiful streets, and also the crowded cities and even slums. No matter where I go, I am always walking, taking my time, mixing with the people and appreciating their culture and their colours. Perhaps, I would stop by orphanages and hospitals of third world countries to give a little helping hand or comfort as I travel.

So what I really need now is LOTS of money to do that. Hahaha. Thou I will travel by foot most of the time (I really love walking), the airfares and accomodation still need to be paid. PLUS! How could you really appreciates the culture if you have no money to enjoy their food! Hahaha.

The Chinese has a saying, that "Food is the pinnacle of culture." (Ming Yi Shi Wei Zhong).

And not forgetting, a real good digital camera. I would rather carry memory cards around then a bunch of bulky film rolls. :)

Lastly, a good travelling companion. I don't mind travelling alone but it would be more fun to travel with someone. "Two is better than one". :)

***

I woke up early yesterday, was really tired. COPE meeting early because we are bringing the elderly to visit all the food maunfacturing factories for Chinese New Year shopping.

We visited Bengawan Solo, Ken Ken Seafood, Kong Guang Dumplings and Fragrance BBQ Pork factories. The elderly and the COPERs really enjoyed themselves. I even bought Bar Kua (BBQ pork) and treated my CG members during service. Hahaha.

Here's some photos taken.

Irene also brought Kean along!!! This is a photo of Kean with Coper, Nam Yan. Kean's grown so much. Hehehe. The baby boy still remembers me thou. When I carry him and play with him once again, he was very familiar with me and laughed. Hahaha. I missed him so much. :)

The elderly enjoyed the shopping trip a lot. They sure bought a lot of stuff.

The Copers will not allow themeselves to lose out too. This is Kelly, queueing up to get her goodies. Things are really cheap at the factories. Hahaha.

A candid snapshot of Nam Yan as she tried out the pineapple tarts at Bengawan Solo. Look at her shocked expression! Hahaha.

Irene (not Ho) helping an elderly. At the end of the day, it was the passion to serve the elderly that brought every Copers into this wonderful ministry.

***

After ministry, I gotta rush home as I was helping Irene to carry a lot of things. I stepped home for only 30mins and I am out again to go for service at Expo.

I was really exhausted but still, it has become a good habit too really wanna seek the presence of God, go to church no matter how tired I am.

Praise and worship was good as usual, except that I was sitting by the side where the stairs is, so there's a lot of movement and it was pretty distracting. Then I was quite annoyed with a particular female usher who seems very panicky, she ran around, up and down and keep knocking into me. Haiz.

My headache wasn't helping much. I popped 2 panadols during service but it didn't seems to get better.

By the way, I also mangaed to complete the bible reading for the year 2005. Just when I though that I will buy and read the NLT version for the year 2006, the gift for the bible reading completion happened to be a NLT BIBLE! Praise the LORD! Hahaha. There was a choice between a Metal Bible or a Dual-Tone Bible. I picked the Dual-Tone as it would be more user-friendly to flip throught the pages. Both bible cost around $30++. What a gift. Hehehe.

Anyway, pastor Kong preached a really great message about the POWER OF CONFESSION.

To summarize the whole sermon,
There is power in the words we spoke. If we always speak negatively, then we will reap negative results. If we confess of positive things, then we can expect to achieve positive results. So, gotta think and speak more positively about myself and my situation because "all things happened for the good of those who love God." Amen!

Later, my CG decided not to go visit the RIVER ANG BAO since it was getting late. A blessing in disguise. Hehehe. I was still having a headache and the problem is, I will still go anyway to fellowship even if my headache don't go away. Hahaha. My wanderlust nature.

We decided to settle for dinner at Bedok instead. As we were boarding the MRT at Expo, something happened.

We were getting into the train and just when the train was moving off, Sharlyne suddenly screamed and we all turned to look. To our "horrors", we saw Xue Ting alone outside the train!!! We were like "HO NO!" but we started laughing. So bad hor.

What happened according to Ji Ji was that, she was talking to Xue Ting then the door suddenly closed. I was thinking, of all place to talk, they have to stand BETWEEN THE DOOR to talk. It was so funny that I kept calling Ji Ji a "Xian Hai Wang" ( master of sabotage) that night. Hahaha.

Hopefully I can get a real good rest one of these days. Hahaha. I will be going to Marine Parade in the evening for my COPE appreciation dinner.

Still wanna say God loves me and GOD IS GOOD. :)

Wanderlust 5

2006-01-20T10:11:00.000+08:00

Another definition of "Wanderlust": a strong longing for or an impulse to move around without a fixed course. (Webster Dictionary)
I think I prefer this definition to the previous ones.

Roam around in school again today, to get away from distractions and focus on the things I wanna do. Lots of reflection to be done by the end of this month.

Once again I am blogging in school. Why not? Since I am having break from 10am to 2pm. Later I will be meeting Eunice to bring Yixuan around for the NYP open house. If Yixuan really gonna study in NYP, that would means 3 of my members will be studying in NYP! We can start a NYP fellowship and prayer group already. Hahaha.

Another reason that I blog in school is so that I have more time to do other stuff at home. Do what? Pray and read my bible of course. Hahaha.

The CG sermon mentioned about evaluating the friends you are hanging out with. Brother Ming Jing challenged us to mix with companies that would challenge us to grow more intellectually and spiritually; with people who will talk about spiritual stuff.

So after cell goup, I went to fellowship and get to know my new members. On our way home, I was talking to Desmond and John of Brother Ming Jing's CG, not John the guitar mentor (I felt as if I am writing the New Testements) and we touched on the topic of bible reading and scripture memory.

Desmond and John don't just talk about memorizing scriptures, they talked about memorizing one whole BOOK! WOW!!! I thought that was awesome. The conversation really struck me that I am not as hungry as these two persons. In fact, I considered myself lukewarm ever since I stepped down from CG ministry. Man! Gotta challenged myself from today onwards. W372 is one fantasic CG! I'm gonna fellowship more with them and learn fom them. Such men and women of GOD! In a posiive way, I really feel like a grasshopper compare to them. Hahaha.

With God, all things are possible. I will rise up to become spiritual giant like them, soon enough. Hahaha. Amen! This is the first time I feel so spiritually challenged by any group of people. Thank God I can call these wonderful people my friends from today on.

I guess I have nothing to hide. I felt I have backsliden ever since I left CG ministry. I told no one about this and now, I am gonna tell the whole world because I'm gonna pick myself up again! Once again, I am excited to see what changes can God make in me.

I am gonna leave the old things behind.

I am gonna start all over again.

I am gonna make new friends who will truly challenge me and appreciate me.

I am gonna go to the next level in everything I do.

I am gonna love God more.

Good bye old bad habits. Good bye old mindsets. Good bye old friends. I shall say "Hello!" to Jesus once again!

Am I unreasonable? Am I heartless to so easily throw everything behind? Yes indeed! Man of faith can be truly unreasonable.

When people say it is impossible, I will say, "With God, all things are possible. "

When people say you should treasure your friends and what you have, I say, "I treasure my Father in Heaven more than anything in this world. I want to be loved by man but I will seek to please God more than pleasing man!"

When people say you shouldn't give up where you are after working so hard for it, I say, "My business is not of this world but to fulfill the purpose of what God has for me! Naked I came to this world, naked I shall return. Whom have I in heaven but GOD!"

If my friends are hindering me or not helping me to grow spiritually, I shall leave them and ask God to lead me to godly people.

If my ministry is causing me to lose focus in God, I will put away my ministry and repent before God.

If my lifestyle is distracting me from God's purpose, I will change it and aligne my habits with the will of God.

If I have any hidden sins in my life, I will confess it and forsake it every single day.

These I will confess and pray everyday until I am truly dead to all these distractions. The day will come when I will not just be confessing but I shall truly proclaim that, "It is no longer I who lives but God who lives in me!" Amen!

Seek first the His Kingdom and all His righteousness and all things shall be added on to you. Be it studies, work, friends or even a wife (hahaha), God will provide. My blessings are God's business. My business is to glorify Jesus. :)

GOD loves me indeed! GOD IS TREMEDOUSLY GOOD!

Wanderlust 4

2006-01-19T10:50:00.000+08:00

Definition of "Wanderlust": a strong desire to travel to different places.

I just realised that is this is the 103rd time I post on this blog, "The Mad One". Altogether, I had made a total of 138 post (including this one) on 3 blogs. I actually wanted to 'celebrate' my 100th post on "The Mad One" but kinda missed it. You can really lose count when you blog so often! So anyway...

Happy Belated 100th POST! Hahaha. (the 100th post is titled "Wanderlust 3" by the way.)

So once again I wandered around alone in school again. Don't really feel like talking to anyone for a period of time. Not that I am depressed but I am thinking and reflecting over a few matters. I am trying to review my past year and come out with the appropriate resolution for this year and thus, do not wish to be distracted with mundane conversations.

Anyway, I am also packing my own lunch these days (usually ham and cheese sandwich with wholemeal bread) so I wouldn't wanna go to the canteen with my classmates for lunch. They will just be staying there for the whole break most of the time, which I feel is quite a waste of time. Also, going to the canteen will tempt me to eat more, not gonna let wallet waste away and let my tummy grow.

I walked around a little before I end up in the Computer Lab at the 3rd floor (the one with the faster computers). The NYP open house starts today and many stalls were set up. Most of the stalls were the usual food and CCA stalls that will be there on any open house or special events. Nothing creative or new, just the usual hyped up fanfare.

At this point of time, something happened and disrupted my blogging. Below in blue is the "thoughts" that are going through my mind during te transition.
Argh!!! Why do they need to have lessons in this lab now. Sign... gotta go over to the E-learning Plaza and make do with all those sh**ty, slow, ancient computers.
Man... this computer is taking forever to start up... ok, now double-click on explorer... so slow too... I hope it don't hang... OK. Back in blogger.

Anyway, the stalls at the open house don't really interest me. I only wanted to go to the German Club stall to ~~"suan"~~ say "hi" to someone and perhaps, ~~create some trouble there like flip their tables~~ find out what's interesting about the club.

It appears that the stalls are still setting up so I don't get to see my friend there. Saw a few guided groups of people here for the open house. Most of them came in their secondary school uniforms (and it makes me wonder why.)

Come to think of it, I never attended any open house before because I think they will only try to show all the good stuff in an open house. It is until they start school then they realise the poly life is really ~~"hell"~~ not as easy as they think it is. Hahaha. What's more important is to know what is your real interest and what you really want in life. Don't ever choose a course just because most of your friends are choosing it or it sounds "interesting" (or the coordinators in the open house make the course or school sounds interesting for the matter of fact.)

So for sure, I will not be blogging again tonight. I will be going for the much awaited CG meeting at 7.30pm tonight!!! Yeah!!! It's at Marine Parade so I wouldn't be home anytime early. On top of that, lesson is starting at 8am tomorrow so I gonna sleep once I reach home. Not forgetting that I needa shower and pray too. :)

God loves me. GOD IS GOOD. :)

Some Photos Taken Over The Weekends

2006-01-18T19:03:00.000+08:00

I said I will not blog tonight in my previous post but... ~~My hands are just itching to blog~~ I just keep forgetting to upload these photos and since I now remember, I will upload them before I forget. These few photos are taken over the weekends.

On Saturday

My CG, or rather my zone, went to China Town after service once again.

China Town was so much crowded, probably because of the weekend.

It wasn't easy trying to stay together and squeeze through the crowd. Hahaha.

We finally reached somewhere near Outram Park MRT and decided to have roti prata for dinner.

A photo of Eunice. Another collection for my list of CG memebrs photos. Hahaha.
Never judge a book by it cover. She normally seem so quiet but she can really ~~"suan" people~~ make good conversation if you get to know her. She is a real ~~"tigeress"~~ fun person to hang around with.

On Sunday

We went back to Jurong West Church building again!!! To attend our last 2 lessons of Going On to Perfection bible study.

On the day itself, the Minister of Education and some MPs came to visit our church! The minister even addressed us before the bible study starts. :)

End of Story. for now* GOD IS GOOD. :)

Blogged in Ten Minutes

2006-01-18T11:47:00.000+08:00

With just 10mins before lesson starts, I will just be short with today's update. I foresee that I may not have much time to do other things tonight. Simply too busy with many things.

Finally I woke up without any headache today. Since Sunday, I have being having this headache all the way till yesterday. Thank God it's over. Hahaha.

It is kinda sad that Xueting and Eunice will not be able to make it for lunch after school today. Oh wells. Hahaha. Perhaps it was a blessing in disguise, I have more time to do something I need to complete by this week. Let's hope the three of us will be free anytime after I get my pay on 21st this month. Hahaha.

CG is now changed to Thursday. In other words, I gotta change my guitar lesson days; which is usually on Thursday. John was suggesting this Wednesday, which is today but I postphoned it since I am really tight with my schedule and physically tired this whole week. Guitar lesson will continue next Monday from next week onwards.

It was great praying and worshipping God before I came out today. I realised my worship has improved quite a lot from last week. Really gotta thank John for all the effort he made to teach me. I feel much better today, so thank God I don't feel moody like the past two days. Hahaha.

God loves me. GOD IS GOOD. :)

Wanderlust 3

2006-01-17T15:32:00.000+08:00

Defintion of "Wanderlust": A strong desire to travel to different places.

Wandered around in school alone today. Went up and down and finally decided to go to the computer lab at the 5th floor. Hahaha. Quite a nice place compared to the s**ty e-learing lab assigned to the nursing students on the 3rd floor. The computers here are much faster and there is always bound to have vacancies.

Lately, I kinda realised that I am setting up to fulfil the resolution I made at the end of last year, which is to score at least as As for every module for this semester. There was a dip in my results last semester and that really disappoint me.

I realised that it is because I had being entertaining my classmates and talking to them during lecture instead of listening to the lecture last semester. Once in a while, I will even skip lecture just because I am tired or I feel the lecture is going to be boring or if my friends decided not to attend the lecture. It is no one's fault that I didn't do as well as I wanted to.

Gotta repent cuz all these really don't glorify God...

Results for last semester were 2 Distinction, 3 B+, 1 B and 1 C+. It was shocking to see a C+ and no As at all! Ok, it is still good overall but it was really quite a big dip compare to previous semester. Gotta work harder and be more diligent from now onwards.

I no longer try to skip any lecture since the beginning of this semester. I don't even try to chat with any of my classmates during lectures. I focused on what the lecturers had to say and filled my lecture notes with a lot of extra informations. I can write a lot even in lectures that seems boring. Praise God that I no longer feel tempted to skip lectures with my friends.

Some of my friend commented that lecture is not important because we can get all those information in our textbooks. I realised by now that those people who buy the most textbooks and doesn't focus during lectures happened to be one of the lowest scoring students.

I agreed textbooks are important but attending those "boring" lectures and listening to the lecturers still prove to be more effective than trying to read the textbooks on our own. Sometimes, we have a Chinese slang that goes, "du si shu, du tao si" (translated as, reading dead book, read till you die. Paraphased, "reading books alone will ruin oneself.")

Yup Yup. So all in all, GOD IS GOOD. :)

Wanderlust 2

2006-01-16T20:07:00.000+08:00

Definition of "Wanderlust": a strong desire to travel to different places.

The bible study on the Tabernacle come to a close yesterday. It was really a good ending and it reminded me of many things about my walk with God.

I actually had a headache yesterday but I still decided to go fellowship at Bugis with my members after bible study. Hahaha. I really love to stay out. I am the kind who will never turn down an invitation for fellowship or shopping.

The ladies can really shop! They spend like 30 to 40mins in an optical shop and almost tried every spectacles! They also spend a lot of time in different fashion shops. Hahaha. It was really fun to shop with them. I love to shop! I love to give opinions. I love to try out things myself if the shop is selling man's wear. Hahaha.

Reason why I can shop and like to shop:
1. I am closer to my mum then my dad. Learnt to wait patiently as my mum shop like any other ladies.
2. As a nursing student, I learnt how to shop with girls and make shopping interesting.
3. I have a friend who is a fashion student and I learnt how to look out for the trend from her.
4. I like to admire beautiful things and is picky when it comes to spending my money.

As for the rest of the guys, they stood outside the shops whenever the ladies shop. As usual. Hahaha.

When I reached home, I was really suffering from much fatigue and headache. So much things to plan and so little sleep last week. I actually misread my timetable and thought lesson will start at 1pm the next day but in fact, it actually starts at 10am!

Anyway, I woke up at 8am, had a bad headache and fell into a deep sleep again. I woke up again at 930am and forced myself to wakeup. My classmates called and sms me as I was having my shower. Only then did i know I miss one of the most important lesson, the clinical skills lab. Argh!!!

I sms my classmates to explain to the lecturer that I was not feeling well. I went to school and search for my lecturer and explained that I was having a bad headache in the morning. Thank goodness that I always have a good track record so she didn't doubt me or give me a hard time. She simply just smiled, asked me to take a seat and process a lesson makeup form for me.

Later on, I attended lecture as usual but I was extremely quiet the whole day. It must have being scary to see a normally noisy Ben so quiet. Hahaha. I was really tired, with a bit of headache. Therefore, I decided that I will not wanna be distracted by other things but focus on the lectures. I can't believe I took down so much notes today despite the fact I am not feeling well. Hahaha.

So things still goes on pretty well despite I am not in my best of health. I only hope my fatigue will be over by tonight. GOD IS GOOD.

Wanderlust.

2006-01-15T01:02:00.000+08:00

Definition of "Wanderlust": a strong desire to travel to different places.

That's what I always feel about myself. I like to travel around. I like stay out late before going home, only to sleep and step out of the house again the next day. No matter how tired I am, I will never turn away an invitation to go out with my friends.

Why?

I love to talk, I love to fellowship. People who know me well, know that I love to hang around with people.

And with a great CG like W372, who wouldn't love to fellowship? Hahaha. We went to China Town again tonight. It was so crowded that we could hardly move! We didn't even bother to look around but only focused on finding our way out. Hahaha.

We end up eating roti prata at a shop near Outram MRT. Though we didn't shop as we intended to, fellowship was great throughout. Hahaha.

I got to know another 5 of my members more. Mei Hui, Desmond, Eunice, Yi Xuan and Summer. Hahaha. It was really nice talking to each and everyone of them. But I really enjoyed talking to Summer a lot. She's from Shanghai and came to Singapore about a year ago to study. I don't know why but I always like to talk to Indonesians and Chinese. Perhaps it was due to the fact that my Grandmother is Taiwanese and Grandfather is Indonesian. Hahaha. I tried to talk in "pure' mandarin with her and found that I could actually speak quite well without English or Singlish. Hahaha.

AND more importantly, I don't try to fake that strange Chinese accent many people will do so when speaking to someone from China. It is so irritating to hear Singaporeans fake accent when speaking to Americans, Britains, Japanese (Oh, reminds me of that horrible 'Japanese accent; Michelle tried to fake when interviewing Zhang Ziyi for Memoirs of a Geisha. Kudos to Zhang Ziyi for telling Michelle off for trying to insult Japanese.) Chinese natives and the like. Can't people just sound like who they are? Singaporeans.

Pastor really preach such a wonderful message today. Hahaha. I always like to summarize the whole sermon in my own words if you have realised by now, so I will do so again today. Hahaha.

To sum up:
God already predestined our purpose before even we were born. If we are willing to seek God's predestined purpose, we will find it and we will succeed in life. If we reject it, God will just raise another person up and fill him in with the purpose you rejected and you will be doom for failure.
(Reminds me that Pastor said before that God told him he was a "plan B" to pastor a megachurch like CHC.)

So don't ever lose sight of God and lose what God has install for you. Seek 1st the kingdom and all His righteousness, and all things shall be added on to you.

So I will be going to the Jurong building for The Tabernacle bible study tomorrow. After that, it will be all the way to Expo again for the Dog Exhibition. Hahaha.

By the way, one of my member, Eunice, is also studying in NYP. We will be going out for lunch this Wednesday with Xueting, one of our zone member. Hahaha. So easy to catch up with each other. :)

To end off once again, I will say what I always confess all the time. GOD IS GOOD! Hahaha.

Elective was relaxing but a little boring...

2006-01-13T21:01:00.000+08:00

Today was the 1st day I am having electives. I choosed Introduction to Clinical Trials for my elective and here's some good points about it.

1. this elective only have written test and no presentation.
Yeah!!! No need to meet up for tiring group discussion. With four presentation awaiting in hand, I already have enough.

2. this elective is interesting as it is about doing research on HUMAN SUBJECTS.
That's right, not animals, not lab test but testing on real humans. Of course we will not get to do it in the elective itself but it is good to know the ethics and principles behind human research.

But the downside of this elective is that, the lecture will be at least 2 hours and it can get a bit boring and dry. So what me and my friends did was to get some titbits during the break and snacked inside. We even decided that we are going to bring different snacks next week to picnic during lecture. Hahaha. Gotta make the best out of everything. :p

The other presentation discussions had being going on pretty well. My team members had contributed much and everyone was clear about what to do. I promised my team members that every meeting is going to be as short as possible as I never believe in LONG meetings but PRODUCTIVE meetings. Hahaha. I had stayed true to my words, for the past 3 meetings, it last only from 40mins to 1hr each time. And everytime, we are getting nearer to our completion at good speed.

God is Good. :)

Blame It on The Rain.

2006-01-11T21:07:00.000+08:00

Rain rain rain... Outdoor outing have to be cancelled. Half the time you have to get drench when you go out. Makes you wanna sleep the whole day. Yes, blame everything on the rain. Hahaha.

If you wanna plan any outings, better go check out the weather for the next few days at
http://www.theweathernetwork.com/weather/cities/intl/pages/SNXX0006.htm
it will show the weather forecast for the next four days. :p

I finally got this necklace that I wanted.

Doesn't it look so much like the international medical symbol? A cross with a serpent and a pair of wings on top. Anyway, this is the logo of Japanese anime Full Metal Alchemist. I got it at Comix Connection.

A little about yesterday...

I went to fellowship with my CG yesterday. Watch he movie, A Chinese Tall Story. It is a totally brainless movie; very funny but very dumb. Hahaha. Unless you have money to spend, you should watch other movies. But it could be worthwhile if all you wanna do is to laugh and think of nothing else later on.

You pay to laugh to watch this movie. Hahaha.

We went on to the Chinese New Year night market at China Town later. Here are some photos taken.

It was raining the whole of last night. At least it didn't dampen the mood of our outing. Hahaha. Fellowship had indeed gotten a lot better ever since the CG merge.

Which is why, even when things don't turn up as I expected, God always have a plan that is even higher then my own expectation.

So like I always say, God is Good. Thank God for everything. :)

Gotta RELAX!!!

2006-01-10T12:36:00.000+08:00

As I was saying in the previous post, I am so dead tired. Hahaha.

I actually wanted to blog last night but was just too tired. Didn't even went to check my mail, which by now should be flooding with the research articles my group members sent me. Argh!!! Hahaha.

Yesterday woke up with a headache and felt like I am falling sick with a cold. Was tempted not to go to school but I went anyway. School starts at 8am and ends 3pm. I almost wanted to skip the last 5 hours, which were all lectures and breaks but I didn't. Hahaha.

Felt very sleepy and almost doze off a few times but ended up flooding my lecture notes with all the extra info the lecturer gave. I think that was a miracle. Hahaha. The Lord is my strength. God is Good. Hahaha.

A lot really happened in class since lst week. The major thing was the seperation of people into 5 subgroups for one module, 6 subgroups for another module and 2 big subgroups for yet another module.

Everyone just wanna be with someone they think they can work with and kinda refused to work with the ones everyone dun like. In the end, some group have too many people, some group doesn't have enough and no one willing to make any internal adjustments. They question why must it be their group to make the adjustment. Then someone who was really unhappy went around to say that it is"not allowed" for 2 ENs ro be in the same team, making it as if I was the one who said it, which I didn't. In the end, everyone starts to grunt, "Unfair, unfair!" (Sounds like some chapter taken out of the Old Testements. Hahaha.)

The majority decided that it would be fairer if I group the people according to the class list. Which means the 1st 5 people in the list make up the first team and the next 5 people make up the 2nd team and so on, thus no one can choose who to work with and it is a supposingly "fair" system.

The fact of the matter is, there is no way to please everyone. One person was really unhappy that she was grouped together with 3 China students. (My own group also have 2 China students mah.) I mean what's wrong? My previous subgroup had 2 China students, Ming Jing and Jiangfeng. Both of them are very hardworking and find very relevent information for whatever presentation we were working on. They have no problem with their English except maybe their pronuciation. However, I never think of them as weaker than the rest, I simply rehearsh a little more with them for their oral presentation and get them to do what they are better at.

Everyone have their own strength and weaknesses. In the hospital, you can never choose who you want to work with. I am exceedingly disgusted at such prejudiced attitue. Don't you know the China students actually have much better attitude in their studies and score better grades then most people?

The thing is, if anyone think his group members are the worst, then you already lost the battle even before it began. You are just on your way to fulfill your own prophecy, to score the worst among other groups in your presentation. I pity no one except the China students who have to put up with such bias attitude of such people.

Anyway later I tried to explain to her, she shouted at me in front of everyone and walk away. Later she gave me the cold shoulder.

One guy in class said it was my fault and asked me not to speak too much. I was not angry or anything, I told him I did nothing wrong and I can't possibly please everyone. I am much more confident in myself ever since hearing what Joyce Meyer said. Hahaha.

Later on, I decided to clear out everything with the whole class, explain my stand in making the decision and clarify the things people said I said but I didn't say. I make it clear that it doesn't matter if a group have more Chinese, Malays, ENs or China students.

The person who had the 3 China students in her team then walked off and shouted, "My fault lah! My fault lah!" Sign.

Other than that, most people are satisfied (but not very happy) with the arrangement. They decided it is fair enough to do things this way. The guy who earlier said I was wrong later came to me and tell me he supported my idea anyway. Hahaha.

I thank God I never lost my temper through out this whole episode. I probably will be sprouting nonsense in the past but I just smiled and make little comments to anyone. No point getting angry with people who are not willing to be teach. Now that everything is 'settled', I wouldn't be bothered at how others think. If I do not stand firm now, I will lose my self-esteem and my words to the rest of the people. Gotta rise above the pressure. Gotta RELAX! Hahaha.

You know what, Joyce Meyer said that 10% of the people you meet will never like you. So true. Hahaha.

Currently, a few of us are planning an overseas outing from Feb27 to Mar1 during our 1 week break. Just to get away from all these internal politics and study stress. Hahaha. Most likely it will be Bangkok. We are gonna fly there on budget airline and stay in hostel to cut cost. Hahaha. Looking forward to it as I have yet to visit Thailand.

I will be going out with my CG today to watch the movie, A Chinese Tall Story. I like to call this movie "Alien vs. Ape (Monkey King Sun Wukong)" for obvious reasons. Hahaha. Gotta enjoy fellowship later!!!

All in all, God is Good. :)

No Longer I!

2006-01-08T21:36:00.000+08:00

Almost forgot. I gotta say
THANK YOU BRIONY FOR THE MERLOT!!!
I will slowly savour it. :)

To sum up what Dr. Joyce Meyer preached today, "It is no longer I who lives but Chirst who lives in me.

Take away poor self image, take away jealousy. Die to your own self, stop all the "what about me?" attitude. It was never about myself, but what God can do through me.

Important lesson learnt today:
The best gift a person can give to the people around to to have confidence and knowing who we are in Christ Jesus.

Gotta say that I am also a person who tend to dwell to much in guilt. Hahaha. But from now onwards, I shall confess everyday that "God Loves ME!!!"

This is one message that I really need to hear. Hehehe.

So so so tired today thou. But still, I had fun fellowship with people from MJ zone at the airport.

Not really sure what else to blog now. Perhaps my brain is shutting down. Dun wanna blog too much crap here. I shall blog more tomorrow. Perhaps, update Langundo again. I think I am addicted to Langundo. Hahaha.

Communication

2006-01-07T00:45:00.000+08:00

This taken from The Leadership Files.

COMMUNICATION

'But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another.' - Bible

Hi, I'm Phil PringleYou're going to love this;

People in a dark room want to turn the light on; they want to see where they can walk.

Communication in an organisation turns the light on for everyone.

People do not function well in the dark.

Absence of communication leaves people in the dark.

Fear, distrust, suspicion, gossip, and rumour all fester in this dark.

Trust, faith and security make an organisation healthy.

Communicate with people all the time.

Arrange systems of communication.

Use all the technology available to maintain open lines.

Any military strategist will tell you that an army without communications is a defeated army.

Turn on the light on in your families, your workplace, and your networks.

Communicate!

Isn't it so true? We see it today that,
Business failed cuz of lack of communication.
Marriage ended in divorce cuz of lack of communication.
Friends misunderstood each other cuz of lack of communication.

Communication is truly so important.

And I take this seriously.

Never take things for granted. Always communicate.

Reply the sms.

Pick up the phone call.

Don't lose your temper without warning.

No one can read another person's mind.

Unless you take an effort to communicate, who can understand?

Keeping quiet is cruel.

It keeps a person guessing.

Coldness can make a person go mad.

That's why the bible says, "The truth shall set you free."

SO COMMUNICATE. Don't lose whatever you hold dear, be it your studies, your career, your marriage or your friendship because of the lack of communication.

And don't lose God by not praying.

A revelation. God is Good. :)

Hmmm... Talk About Stress

2006-01-05T22:46:00.000+08:00

Let's talk about the new modules I will be taking this year.

One of the module requires the whole group to spilt into TWO subgroups only. Which means 14 people for each side for my class. Each subgroup given FIFTY MINUTES to present. And I am the leader who will be leading FOURTEEN people.

Talk about stress.

Another module doesn't need to break into any subgroups. Everyone is expected to do an INDIVIDUAL graded presentation. That's right. Go out there, prepare your own visual materials and make a speech and pray hard no one falls asleep.

Talk about stress.

I will be taking elective this year. All of us are gving the option to choose any elective we preferred, so long as there is still vacancy. Guess what? I am the only person in my whole group who choose this particular elective. Yup. I will be ALL ALONE, with one whole class of STRANGERS from other groups.

Talk about stress.

Anyway, looking on the bright side of life, maybe I will learn something out of it. Why? Cuz God is Good. Hahaha. :)

Here's a song that can express my feelings now.

RAIN DOWN by Delirious

Verse 1:
LOOKS LIKE TONIGHT, THE SKY IS HEAVY
FEELS LIKE THE WINDS ARE GONNA CHANGE
BENEATH MY FEET, THE EARTH IS READY
I KNOW ITS TIME, FOR HEAVEN’S RAIN
IT’S GONNA RAIN, YEAH YEAH

Pre-Chorus:
COS IT’S LIVING WATER WE DESIRE
TO FLOOD OUR HEARTS WITH HOLY FIRE

Chorus:
RAIN DOWN, ALL AROUND THE WORLD WE’RE SINGING
RAIN DOWN, CAN YOU HEAR THE EARTH IS SINGING
RAIN DOWN, MY HEART IS DRY BUT STILL I’M SINGING
RAIN DOWN, RAIN IT DOWN

Verse 2:
BACK TO THE START, MY HEART IS HEAVY
FEELS LIKE IT’S TIME, TO DREAM AGAIN
I SEE THE CLOUDS, AND YES I’M READY
TO DANCE UPON THIS BARREN LAND
HOPE IN MY HANDS, YEAH YEAH

Bridge:
DO NOT SHUT
DO NOT SHUT
DO NOT SHUT THE HEAVENS

BUT OPEN UP
OPEN UP
OPEN UP OUR HEARTS
RAIN DOWN, ALL AROUND THE WORLD WE’RE SINGING
RAIN DOWN

GIVE ME STRENGTH TO CROSS THE WATER
KEEP MY HEART UPON YOUR ALTAR, RAIN DOWN
GIVE ME STRENGTH TO CROSS THE WATER
KEEP MY FEET DON’T LET ME FALTER, RAIN DOWN

DO NOT SHUT THE HEAVENS
BUT OPEN UP OUR HEARTS
OPEN UP OUR HEARTS
DO NOT SHUT THE HEAVENS
BUT OPEN UP OUR HEARTS
OPEN UP OUR HEARTS

1st Day of School and Nothing to Do.

2006-01-03T17:03:00.000+08:00

Yup. Nothing to do. 1st lesson started at 1pm and ended at 1.50pm. After that was break all the way till 6pm. 5 LONG HOURS!

I reached school at around 12pm to get my lecture notes. I intended to withdraw cash from the ATM machine in school.

As usual, the ATM machine was a long queue. When it finally reached my turn (after 5 to 10 mins of waiting), the machine suddenly become "temporary out of service". What a way to start school.

I ended up having to wait till 1245pm for a friend to borrow cash. Anyway, praise God for friends like this and I managed to get all the lecture notes today. :) God is Good.

During that 5 hours break, I went out with a few classmates to Ang Mo Kio. Ate teochew porridge at the newly renovated S11. Then we walked aound before we went back to school at around 430pm.

So since there is nothing much to do, here I am blogging about what happened today, which nothing really much happened.

Can you feel the "boring" mood as you read this post? Hahaha.

Ok. Once I get home, I wanna continue with chapter 10 of Langundo. I wanna quickly reach that particular plot that I had in mind... :)

End of Holidays.

2006-01-02T22:30:00.000+08:00

So tomorrow is the start of my new semester. I wonder what's in stall for everyone in this new semester. I only pray, that I will be more focus in my study this semester, for the results that I had in the 1st semester were disappointing.

Not that I failed my modules or anything, but I believed I could have done better. I allowed myself to be distracted by too many things in the last semester. I have decided to put aside many things, and shoulder less burdens this year.

If anything I will concentrate on, it would be my studys and COPE ministry. Everything else will be secondary.

New year resolution. Get at least an A for all my modules in every semester. Lose weight.

Yes. LOSE WEIGHT!

That means:
1. eat only bread for breakfast every morning.
2. eat only half of what I usually eat or eat sandwich for lunch.
3. eat only half of what I usually eat for dinner.
4. allow only very light snacks in between.
5. no sugar laced drinks during meal times. limit sugared drinks to only one can per day.
(P.S. Doesn't this sounds like some 1200/1500 cal diabetic diet?)
6. exercise at least 3 times a week. jogging must be the main exercise everytime.
7. optional. get diet pills from pharmacy.
Target. lose at least 2kg every month.

Ok. enough with the slimming issue...

Another thing I would like to do, I would like to post at least one chapter every week for my Langundo story blog.

Then I went shopping with my mum for Chinese New Year Clothes today. My mum blessed me with clothes from Top Man, Samuel & Kevin and Converse. Thanks mum!!!

I happen to chance upon a cool wallet in Top Man. It's brown leather, with zip. What is more inportant, it has a coin compartment and it cost only $20! The only down side was that it lacks in the card compartment, only 5 slots. But still, it is a good buy. Maybe I will consider that over the Billabong wallet. Will put that on my wish-list.

All in all, God is Good. :)

A New Start.

2006-01-01T10:19:00.000+08:00

Just wanna say
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! hahaha.

If there is anyone special I wanna thank, I already did so in this post, <I Wanna Say Thank You...> Hahaha. (Did this earlier than you Cin. :p)

Anyway, I will just mention the names, with a few photos of the people who had made this year a great year for me. :)

And they are:

I will only put these photos up cuz
1. Not easy to put so many photos on blog due to the server.
2. Dun have your photos. (SORRY!!!)

So without photos a do, these people are,
Jasmine from N196, Irene from N196, Pastor Audrey, Brother Ming Jing, Abel, Jing Ying, John my guitar mentor, Vincent my COPE leader, Vivian my COPE leader, Lifeng, Chloe, Desmond, Maison, Eve, Ji Ji, Jenna, Szemin, Phui Yun, Feng Lin.
The rest of the people in MJ Zone, COPE, NYP, AH Ward 4, CDC Ward 71.
Not forgeting my mum and bro and the rest of my family members.
Not forgeting the most important person, Jesus Christ. :)

And the changes for the new year.

1. No more N196 but merge to form W372. A good change. :)
2. A new CGL, Brother Ming Jing.
3. A new zone!!! MJ ZONE!
4. Zone shifted to Saturday service from this weekend onwards. Briony's cg also going for Sat service from now onwards. Saw many other CG from AN zone attending too. (MJ zone is still under AN zone for now.)
5. CG day may also change.
6. A possible nothing-to-do Sundays from now onwards. Argh!!!
7. A new semester for year 2.

What a way to greet the new year. hahaha. God is Good.

Side issues, (The first things...)

The first creature I saw on a New Year's day morning, (around 1215AM), was "Xiao Qiang" aka cockroach. crawling around the void deck of my block.
The second creature I saw was another "Xiao Qiang". This time on the stairs that I am climbing up to my flat.
Looks like everyone just wanna stay awake to celebrate new year, (or simply there is a need to clean the block.)

The first thing I did when I reach home on a New Year's day morning (around 1220AM) was to shit in the toilet.
What used to be food last year, was shit this year.
Moral of the story:
"Don't hold on to your past, empty yourself to be ready for the future."

Cockroach and shit... I wonder what this year has in stall for me...

Narnia. I wanna get the books!!!

2005-12-29T18:53:00.000+08:00

I have watched Narnia with Abel (finally!) on Monday. It was a movie treat from Abel. I so much wanted to watch the movie. Thanks Abel!
It was such a great show! Can literally see the bible coming out of the whole story.

Or should I say it resembles the four Gospels to be more precise.

Ok, the obvious.
The witch = Satan.
Aslan the Lion = Jesus the King.
Aslan dying for the treachery of Edmund = Jesus dying on the cross for humanity.
Aslan coming back to life = Jesus' resurection.
Aslan killing the witch = Jesus defeating Satan.

How about,
Edmund betraying the righteous for sweets = Iscariot's betraying Jesus for 30 silver?
Lucy being the youngest and the most positive and believing = the childlike faith Jesus always talks about?
Aslan welcoming the treacherous Edmund into the camp and asking everyone not to bring out the past again = Jesus saving the adulteress and asking her not to sin again?
Susan and Lucy crying beside the dead Aslan = the mourning of the women when Jesus died on the cross?
Susan and Lucy being the first to see the resurected Aslan = the women being the first to see the resurected Jesus?
The four different personalities of the silblings and the different kind of tools given to them to fight one common battle = the church making up of people with different background and given different gift from God all gathering for one common purpose?
The splitting of the stone table signifying the breaking of tradition = the splitting of the veil in the temple?

Also, did anyone notice the character of Peter is so much like the biblical Apostle Peter? Someone who is a leader and also talk real big? And when given the responsibilty to lead the whole army, he found himself lacking confidence and need Aslan to keep encouraging him? Just like how Jesus have to keep reassuring Apostle Peter that he was called to lead the church. Read Gospel of John 21: 20-25.

There's definitely more shadows of the bible in The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. Anyway, after saying so much, I just wanna say,
I WANNA GET THE WHOLE SERIES OF THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA!!! Hahaha!
I shall just add that to my wishlist. :) God is Good.

Christmas 2005.

2005-12-27T08:49:00.000+08:00

Just wanna say a belated MERRY CHRISTMAS to everyone. Hahaha!

This year, celebrated Christmas with Brother Meng Chin's members who are really fun and outgoing. Having a CG merger isn't so bad after all. Later, I ended the day having a party at Briony's place together with Cinthia. Hahaha. Also wanna thank everyone who had blessed me something for Christmas and the whole year.

Time to update my wishlist. To date, I have:

1.) 8 new clothes since the past 3 months.
2.) 8 watches altogether.
3.) 2 pairs of leather shoes.
4.) 2 pairs of sandals.
5.) 2 pairs of running shoes.
6.) 1 pair of boots.
7.) 1 pair of leather sneakers.
8.) 1 large buckle belt.

Talk about vanities. Hahaha.

So what I do intend to get within a the next 3 months is...

1.) A new large buckle belt I saw at Bugis Village. Cost: $30++
2.) A leather Billabong wallet with coin compartment I saw recently at The Wallet Shop. Cost: $30++
3.) More new clothes! Cost: $64848465164984+++
p.s. I hope the things I saw don't go out of stock before I get them...

Reason:

1.) I can't be wearing the same belt all the time.
2.) My current wallet is falling apart. :'(
3.) I don't want people to guess what I will be wearing.

Talk about vanities. Hahaha.

So to cut the story short, let the photos do the talking.

Candlelight service on 18/12/2005.

Our 1st ever candlelight service in CHC!

My new CG, W372. :)

A photo I took during fellowship at Bugis Village. Have half the mind to get this watch for someone as a Christmas Gift. :p

Christmas Celebration! 25/12/2005

The stage props for the Chirstmas drama. (The drama ended with pyrotechnics! Cool!)

Kay taking photos with his digital camera. How I wish I have a digital camera too!

These are wounds you get for sitting next to a crazy member when playing crazy surf.

This is me and the crazy member, Peishan. Ok lah, she's a nice girl. Hahaha. 25th Dec happen to be her birthday too. :)

Sending Sjeting Off. 26/12/2005

The ITE team that is leaving for India for community work.
A photo I took with Sjeting before she board the plane. Going to miss her. :'( I will pray for her safety.

A dejected Kay on the way home on MRT, who will miss the punches and kicks of Sjeting. Don't worry, she will be back on the 10/01/2006. Hahaha.

All in all, the year end well. God is Good. :)

Langundo Up!!!

2005-12-24T02:22:00.000+08:00

Ok. As I had said I will wanna start writing a fiction story, I have done SO!!! Do visit and read Langundo. :) The story will keep getting updated weekly if possible. Each post will be a new chapter in the story.

As for today... Nothing much happens except that I went down to Orchard to get one more Christmas present at 11am. Never knew I would find a suitable present so fast thou. Since I have nothing else to do, I went to report for duty at CDC at 12.15pm!!! I was suppose to start work at 1pm. Hahaha.

My ward was haing a ward party today. So much nice food to eat! I indulged on the roast duck. Hahaha. Anyway, there was so much food that I need not even buy anything for lunch and dinner. Save money. :p

The staff nurse in charge today was pretty strict. Although she is not very senior and she only being working for about a year plus, she is very serious in her work and keep very close observation on us, the students. This kept me on my toes and it wasn't so boring after all. Hahaha.

Perhaps I can only work under stress. Or perhaps, I love to love what I am doing only when under pressure. ~~Or I kinda like being ordered around by young pretty nurses.~~ Anyway, I hope I do not fail anyone's expectation, especially the patient who look to us for treatment and comfort.

God is Good.

Runs for the 3rd day.

2005-12-22T23:03:00.000+08:00

Just when I thought everything is over, I shit 3 times today. Last 2 times watery. Argh!!! And the whole afternoon, my stomach's rumbling and growling. It's not painful, just slightly uncomfortable. When will this ever stop. Haiz...

Anyway, attachment at CDC is boring as usual. However, we were allowed to join a Christmas lunch party today. Ate turkey (believe it or not, this is the 1st time I actually get to cut a turket and eat it), Christmas pudding and many nice food. Yummy! Spent one whole hour at the party. Kinda nice way to pass time in a boring attachment. Hahaha.

I happened to read a book on infectious diseases in my ward today. It was such an informative book, the details of every disease was well presented and very straight to the point. I so wanted to get my hands on this book that I went to ask sister if I could get a copy of it. However, the book was published by MOH and only distributed to hospitals. Oh wells...

I happen to saw a very cool leather watch at City Chain, Novena Square today. The brand's SMASH and it cost $129. They are having an offer that if you get 2 watches, you will get an overall 30% discount off the total price!!! Since it is so long since I pampered myself, I went back after attachment at around 9.15pm and bought the watch plus another watch which I intended as a gift. Hehehe.

I decided that tomorrow before work, I gonna make one more last minute shopping at Orchard at around 11am. I am finally glad for once that CDC is near Orchard and there's a direct bus. Hahaha. God is Good. :)

If time (and brain) permits, I gonna start another blog soon. It will be a story that I so wanted to write. I have yet to think of the title but I have an idea what I wanna write already. So I will try to write every post chapter by chapter and I hope it will bring out some excitement among the readers. :)

Not so boring today. a small shock.

2005-12-21T23:38:00.000+08:00

Oh wells... attachment at CDC is still just as boring. But I am reaching out to my fellow students and one of them is considering to come for Christmas Service this Sunday!!!

Briony called and asked if there's bible study today. We were quite confused but I remembered the bible study teacher said there will not be bible study this week so I told her no.

However, Briony called again and said her CGL said there's bible study today!!! I was pretty shock and I quickly went to sms my leader to ask him. He later called and asked me who was the teacher who said there is no bible study this week... I hope I didn't get that teacher into trouble...

OK. Before bible study, I went to shop for Christmas gift on my own. Went on a shopping spree after I found out that I got my pay today. Hahaha. I also bought 2 new tees from Samuel & Kevin at 2 for $22! (One for myself and one for a friend.) Cheap cheap. Hahaha.

So sad thou, I couldn't find the long sleeve, laced collar maroon tee that I like at Plaza Singapura and Orchard Samuel & Kevin... It's selling at $24 after discount I think... I saw it at the Suntec Outlet last week but didn't have the money to get it. Hope it isn't out of stock... really wanna get a long sleeve tee cuz I already have a long of short sleeve tees. No time to shop for this week anymore. Oh wells...

After bible study, I went to shop with Briony to get more gifts for friends. Briony was on a beverage fast so I made sure we have something to drink before we leave for home.

Peishan also called me to ask about guitar lesson today. So happy that she is excited to learn guitar. Hahaha. Probably will meet her this Saturday to teach her. She just Got her first handphone last night, a LG G262!!! It cost $300++ with contract! It even have a 1.3 megapix camera. WOW! Hahaha. I still remember my first phone is a Nokia 3210. That's 6 years back I think. Hahaha. Also happen to find out her birthday is on the 25th DEC!!! A Christmas baby!

Later talked to Cinthia. She just came back from her camp and I was pretty happy to hear her again, thou she is a little tired. She shared quite a lot about her camp and it sounded pretty fun. Except for a few spoilers "Air" level students from Allied Health who think they very smart. All in all, I am glad she enjoyed herself in this camp. :)

As for me... still not feeling so well with my tummy. It seems ok this morning but it started to rumble in the afternoon. But I think I am better compare to yesterday. I only shit once today, with watery stools while I shited 4 times yesterday. God is good.

Dying of Boredom

2005-12-20T22:02:00.000+08:00

I wonder what did I eat. Had diarrhea the whole day. Was forced to take medication and thus have to end my 24 hours fast, but still, I manage a 12 hours fast. Hope I get better tomorrow.

Anyway, the posting to CDC is so BORING! There is literally nothing much to do, unlike the busy hospital. Most of the patients in CDC are pretty independent.

Since CDC is meant to isolate communicable dieases, most of the beds are also empty. (It will only be busy if there is an outbreak. The recent dengue outbreak is ending.) Me and another student literally spent 3/4 of our shift sitting around, chatting, reading case notes, reading the newspaper... and it is just so difficult to past time!!!

Ok. 1 and a half more weeks to go. Thank goodness we will only be attached to CDC for 2 weeks throughout the 3 years of our course.

By the way, I just undated BBC UNreal! yesterday. I also updated my wishlist on the sidebar. :)

Disappointment to Depression.

2005-12-19T21:07:00.000+08:00

Just wanna share what Pastor talked about on Sunday:

A person can progress from disappointment to distress to doubt to depression. I can literally see that in myself. It all happened for nearly one whole year before it progress to depression the past two weeks.

First of all, cell group wasn't doing well and I somehow thought I shouldn't say about such things nor concern to anyone because I thought that's wrong. I was in denial and spoke about cell group as if "everything's fine".

Finally, Two weeks ago, I told Irene everything and start to "discipline" my members. However, I kinda doubt if telling the truth will help, what if more members backslide?

I then become a jerk and start getting piss off at the slightlest "mistakes" my friends did. I wanna take the opportunity to say sorry once again to all whom I have offended over these past few months of my raging anger and distress.

So to say just last week, I seems to lose everything. My CG will merge and will no longer exist. My ministry as a CG guitarist will also cease... I lost the passion to serve in any minisrty, even to learn the guitar...

However, Pastor really preach a word in season into my life and I realise that even the man of God can fall into depression, much less I! So knowing that it is nothing to be ashamed of, I pick myself up once again and found God strengthening my spirit. God is good.

It turn out the merger wasn't so bad after all. The CG that we merge had very out-going members who love to fellowship. They are also very active in their spiritual life and reaching out to the lost. Perhaps, my members can finally have a new lease of life in their walk with God. God is good.

So with the new year, I am glad that I decided not to end the year with depression. (YES! I believe it is a decision to be happy.)

I pray and hope that a certain friend of mine may also overcome all the blues this friend have for this year. May this friend find joy once again in the fellowship with believers and a rekindled passion to serve God even more.

So to kick off the new year, I also did some tinking to my blog. Hahaha. The most obvious is the removal of comments and the addition of a CBox! Be sure to tag!!! Feel free to comment on any of my post on the CBox too. OR, you can simply tag for fun or to make reminders on the CBox. Dun limit yourself if God doesn't limit you. Hahaha.

About How I Feel Towards Nursing.

2005-12-15T23:12:00.000+08:00

I did a last office today for one of my patient. Saw him breathed his last before my very eyes.

It was a sad feeling, not because this patient had always being under my care, but just mourning for the loss of a human life.

As a nurse, we must always understand that, all patient has the potential to die. I am no longer surprise at anything anymore. Anything can happen. It is not about being dead to your emotional when something happen. It is about having your emotion under control so that it may not affect your work when you are feeling sad or angry.

Any Tom, Dick and Harry can clean shit after a patient or write reports. Anyone can take the body temperature or blood pressure when trained. Anyone can learn good communication skills or mix around with everyone. And I mean ANYONE can be a nurse.

However, only a person who value human lives can be a good nurse. Only someone who have emotions and know how to control it can be a good nurse.

That is also the reason why I am interested in palliative care. It is one thing to be optimistic about recovering. It is another thing... to know you are dying.

What are the thoughts that go thru a person's mind when he is dying? What are the pains he is suffering? How does the quality of life differ from a AIDs patient and a cancer patient? How does palliative care differ in taking care of young patient and to older patients? It is interesting isn't it? (Maybe for me. Hahaha.)

I have being "sleeping around"...

2005-12-14T23:36:00.000+08:00

I got a confession to make. I have being "sleeping around". In the bus, in the MRT, in the staff room in the hospital and even at the bus stop while waiting for the bus this whole week.

MAN!!! I am sooo tired!!! Hahaha.

Just today, I woke up a bit later just to catch a little more sleep. However, I end up not having time for breakfast.

I work like crazy in the hospital today and just when I thought I can go for my break at 10plus, something crop up and I got to attend to it. Almost got knocked out as I felt light-headed. Finally went for my break at 1140pm. I also twisted my right knee as I help to shift a patient. Ouch. To tired to postion myself properly.

After work, I met Cinthia and went to Ikea (It rhymes!) I was looking for fix-it-yourself shower screen to replace that damaged door in the master bedroom's bathroom. It's pretty affordable, I shall get it after discussing with my mum. Cinthia also bought a pack of straws for her dad, for one of those emergency cases.

Later, we went to eat at the Ikea restaurant. Ordered Swedish MEATBALLS! If you have yet to try it, you must go there and savor it! No wonder Pastor Kong loves the meatballs there! But I got to leave early for my bible study in town. Cinthia looked so sad, felt so bad for her.

BS is pretty good. Learnt about God's plan for the Churches. If you wanna find out more, PESTER your CGL to quickly finish up your BS and come to Authority For Believer. Hahaha.

Later, I went to shop with Briony for Christmas gift. We went all around City Hall and Suntec City. It is so fun yet so tiring!!! I hurt my heel (the left one) again... But I was laughing so heartily and it was great! Haven't being laughing so much for such a long time and it does feel good. Hahaha. But I was so so so tired I doze off in the MRT after talking to Sjeting on the phone.

As for Sjeting... Do pray for her. Her uncle who is very close to her passed away yesterday.

So something I learn.
Shopping is one great form of exercise. It keeps your brain active as you try to be creative with your purchase. It helps you burn calories with all the walking. No wonder ladies who shop a lot are so slim!!! (No wonder it is never "cheap" to lose weight. :P )

So... now my left heel hurts... and so is my right knee... and I feel like I will "die" on my bed soon. But I still enjoy myself today. :) God is Good.