Christmas 2006...

alrighties.... so what happened on Christmas weekend.... let's see.... beyond the mad rush to drop off presents at EDB and KPMG in the late night, and arranging to pass ppl their christmas gifts....

it first started on 22nd, Fri morning with a beautiful bouquet of roses ...
















then it was chillout with L&T folks back in EDB...

following that was a nice meal (note: more food!!) with gracie, qilei, liyi, kevin and qigen @ Village Heeren... intended to pick up some make-up from Shu-Umera but turns out that there wasn't 40% discount as expected so that will have to wait... and in between getting lost (me and gracie), we squeezed in some christmas shopping at Tangs as well...

by the time i got home... which was almost 12am... i realised that I was totally stuffed, spent and really needed rest!!

23rd Dec, Saturday

well... was suppose to be tour guide to cousins who were in town from Klang, but turns out that their other relative brought them to Sentosa and I had pretty much the whole day to myself... which was awesome... watched VCDs and just chill... love it!!

then headed out to meet cousins and one of their bf for Curse of the Golden Flower starring... u all know who.... @ the Cathay

the story was so-so... the acting, at least for Gong Li and Chow Yuan Fatt were good, i liked how the movie was directed... but it was a tad commercial and yeah... the dressing for the females leaves much to be desired... and one thing i must say.... SINGAPOREANS.... give poor Jay a break.... He is trying his best to act already... the whole cinema burst out laughing on at least 2 occasions when he had his emotional scenes....!!! heartless humans.... hai.....

intended to bring them for a drive round Singapore but inadvertently, they were tired and so decided to head home after the movie...

24rd Dec, Sunday
went for service and then met up with Fanny and Grace (friend from Cambodia) for a quick catch-up @ Plaza Singapura... which turned out to be a mini-shopping expedition as well and me and grace ended up buying the same top.... haha... one stone kill 2 birds... awesome!

then it was to SBC for the christmas celebration and to help out with the hair / make-up for the kids. am sure to miss the humans there.... here are some of the wacko bunch.... =)

Ah li... future hip-hop / breaker star.... (lucky me....)














Ah Han... future rapper / R&B artiste... (again... lucky me...)
















Ah qi... another future hip-hop / breaker star and beautiful Charmaine... gorgeous woman of God in the making....















who can forget the lovely trio... meiqi, zhaopei and zhiting... glorious, glorious, glorious!!!















and of coz... it is Princess lei's birthday and we all trotted down to Raffles the Plaza for the birthday bash... great room... great food (full turkey with stuffing and ham)... great prezzies... and of coz, great company.... it was an awesome way to count down to Christmas... we had like 2 bottles of champagne though i think the ladies barely finished 1 glass amongst all of us... haha!!


25th Dec, Monday.... CHRISTMAS DAY!!
I did... NOTHING.... and that was absolutely spectacular!!

actually.... i slept like tons the whole day.... which was fantabulous!!

went for a run in the morning... cooled down, showered and slept again till abt 5ish... and then had a nice home-cooked meal topped with home-made tang-yuen (glutinous rice dumplings... a sweet dessert). the day ended with a pleasant 2-hr+ conversation... and then it was to zzzz-land again....

this is just GREAT!!

will blog the dampening event separately.... by and large... it was a great holiday!

What's up recently

So... i haven't really blogged for the past month.... Few interesting things that happened...

1) Garden in my Heart performance at Indoor Stadium on the 24th of November. Had a chance to dance with super "zai" dancers from korea, japan and australia... really rewarding experience though I initially really wanted to pull out...











Row 1, L to R: Danny (director of Odyssey Dance Theatre, a.k.a choreographer), Kim Sung Han (director of the Korean dance co. that the Korean dancers are from), Sung-Ho (Korean dancer based in America but not part of this production... ), Rabian (one of the 4 part-time, Singaporean dancers), (Korean male dancer that got replaced by Te-Sug (background of next pic)

Row 2: Moi..., Jung-Hee / Charlotte (Korean dancer, former principal dancer for Korean ballet co...), Jennifer and Michelle ( 2 beautiful Korean dancers and super hot!!! =) Paul (Australian dancer born in Singapore!!)

Row 3: Peisi (Singaporean part-time dancer #3), Megumi (Japanese dancer... not part of this production), Shou-yi (Singaporean part-time dancer #4), Takeshi (Japanese dancer... ), Malaysian dancer whose name escape me now (he wasn't part of this performance)

Don't be fooled by their stage presence... these are a wacko bunch!!
Te-suk in background... ah si, jung-hee, moi, takeshi and the always entertaining... Paul....














2) Ran the half-marathon and managed to finish within my targeted time of 2.5 hrs.... http://www.singaporemarathon.com/en/race/results/index.asp









3) Had an awesome dance musical... Jesus Takes the Wheel.... on the 15th and 16th of December at NUS' University Cultural Centre. it's with Queenstown Baptist Church and they were raising funds for Club Rainbow... Thanks all who came to support the musical...

Everyone involved in the production....














Jazz n Hip-hop outfits .... posing with our teddies....














Angel and Par-de-deux outfits.....















4) went carolling in KPMG... we spent the whole of 18th Dec morning floor by floor to spread the Vitamin L around in the firm.... think we sang beautifully and looked absolutely glorious!!





























My goodness.... more pics n blog to come!!

On Driving...

So for the most part of the past week... I got to have the car to myself since everyone was out of town for holidays in my family... and I must really say... Driving is really a very UNHOLY thing!!! my goodness i can totally understand how ppl get frustrated and get their patience tested big time on the road... and plus it was raining quite a bit the past week and really singaporean drivers become quite spazz on the road when it pours... =P

kind of became the airport chaeffeur too since family members and friend left and came back at different times so i think i made like 5 -6 trips to and fro the airport in the past week....

the long and short of driving experience is this..... while i acknowledge the convenience of having car and the joy of giving ppl rides and ability to worship God in the car... i now have more reasons beyond financial not to get a car... here goes:

1) obviously more expensive to upkeep a car then it is to take cabs or for that matter... call cabs each time i need to get around....

2) I don't get that extra sleep or time reading / thinking abt God on the bus to work... (worship is differennt from reading and meditating on the Word)

3) I have to fight for parking lots or pay lots for parking in CBD...

4) I definitely do not need to be fined TWICE for forgetting to put stoopid cashcard in reader before entering ERP zone... i mean... it's a real Art and Skill to avoid the ERP places and remember the times.... I mean I couldn't possibly simply stop in the middle of the road to find the cash card and put it in right?

5) my flesh won't be so alive.... i can be more at peace....

6) LESS stress....

but nonetheless, I am thankful that I had the car coz rehearsals and performances for Jesus Takes The Wheel ended rather late and it was good to have the car to get home speedily to bed....!!

GOODness of GOD...

GOD is GOOD all the time, His breath... the Holy Spirit is what sustains creation, truly... "If He should gather to Himself His Spirit and His breath, All flesh would perish together, And man would return to dust."

As finite beings, we humans tend to associate God's goodness to the tangible, physical realm and when trials come and life gets challenging, it is quite human for us to question whether there's a good God, or in fact, if there's a God at all... hence the age-old charge against Christianity, "If GOD is so GOOD, why is there so much evil?" Nopes... this is not a theological blog entry... but if u r interested abt this... I would be more than happy to share with u over a nice meal / drink... =)

The above was to set the stage right... that GOD is GOOD all the time, He never changes, despite what our feelings may seem to suggest in reaction to our circumstances...

but there are times when He really blesses in tangible ways and u just feel super, mighty loved... like in the past week...

Been wanting to get a phone for the past 2 months... here's the expanded, uncut version.... =)

first, i thought i could get an upgrade when contract was 21mths, but the promotional upgrade price for the phone that I wanted was only available for no existing contract, i.e., after 24 mths... so i had to wait.

then when the promotion finally was for 21mths upgrade from abt 2-3 weeks ago and i didn't have to wait anymore, i somehow wasn't able to make time to go to the handphone shop... until... I received a mail over the weekend from m1 that gave me $100 off my next hp purchase for being a loyal customer!!!

YEAH GOD!! now... i understood the delay... super excited and went to the shop last evening after work... the phone that i intended to get, Nokia 6280, was the cheapest phone around with the functionalities that I like. it was going for $138 and with the discount... I only had to pay $38... or do I? hahaha...

I finally got served and at the counter... the lady started to ramble something about my existing price plan... blar blar blar... I was just hoping she would get done with it coz I was already late for my appointment with Meijing.... and then the next thing I heard really got my attention... "why don't u get the 6288 instead, since it will also be free"....

I was like.... "WHAT??"... ok, it came out more as "what do you mean?" =)

"oh, u are on a higher talk plan, and for your upgrade, you get an additional $100 off your handset. Since the 6288 is going for $198, with the $200 subsidy, it will still be free."

The cool me of coz calmly replied, "Sure, why not."

Cool? yeah rite, my spirit was just so pumped and it just couldn't contain the praises for God... I mean... when He wanna bless u, u know He never holds back... He truly is a God of abundance...

well, for those that may be technologically challenged.... hahahha... u know i still love u yeah? the 6288 is like an upgraded version of 6280 with more memory and software enhancements...

and to top it off, since I was already completely blown away, I forgot that they were also giving away a hp photo printer with the purchase....

SO here's the deal my friends... He blessed my socks off...
1) I got a better phone then I expected;
2) got a free printer thrown in; and
3) paid $0 for everything!!!




















moral of the story...

it pays to obey the voice of God... He writes a new law on our hearts, it's His Spirit communicating with ours and in that obedience, we enjoy the fulness of life... it's not a "coz I obeyed God, so He blesses me; if I don't, He punish me" type of transaction with Him, His rules were made to bless us in the first place... when we choose, note it's OUR choice, not to follow Him, we choose to step out of the abundant life that He is calling us to and we live with the consequences of our actions. But when we follow Him, we know for sure that the Faithful One has promised that there will be life, and life abundant.

It's like when u were young and ur daddy says "don't play with matchsticks ok?" and you were too young to comprehend the consequences of setting off a fire. You can either choose to obey ur dad out of your love and respect, out of your relationship with him or not obey since it's a rule that you couldn't understand the "why" and u really just wanna play with matchsticks.

He didn't bless me coz I was super good or spiritual or out of favoritism... He is GOOD all the time and wants to bless each and everyone of us... the invitation has always been given that when we choose to walk with Him in obedience, we are choosing to walk in the fulness of life that He has prepared and called us to... coz only the Creator knows what's the best for us...

the only glitch to the whole story... the stoopid slider thingie on my phone seems a little wobbly... should I go ask for an exchange or is the phone just like that... hmmm....

but WHO CARES?? that's a small glitch and...

"my God is a great, big, God and a great, big, God is my God..."
.... "na na na.... na na na...."....

=)