just for sakes

Since my last post was a very dreary angsty one in the wake of the impending gloom and doom of the exams, I shall just write something to document how swell life has been POST exams! wheee!

Wednesday night was one of the best times of my life. It was also the most fun I've had in a long time. And the interesting thing was that through the course of the night, I hung out with my entire spectrum of friends in one setting! (except for val who is living it up in France). JC friends, different pockets of school friends. plus! rachael! who went clubbing! and drank a sip of lager at brewerkz. and then made a pui face after that and resolved not to touch alcohol ever again in her life unless it was water before and Jesus had turned it into wine. Anyway, it was a very pleasant mix of things. I just had so much fun and I am so happy now. Haha.



This is to prove that Rachael Leong Li Fen was at The Butter Factory for Poptart on 5th December 2007, Wednesday. Hurry go buy 4d.

Addendum

In the same vein, I really do not know WHY we have to know all the freaking regulations and procedures for MEETINGS and resignation of directors and removal of directors and how you must give 14 days notice of a special resolution for a private company and 21 days notice for a public company and how public companies can remove their directors by ordinary resolution at any time, notwithstanding anything in the memorandum and articles of association of the company and how entrenching provisions may be got around and what you must specify in circulars and how private companies can dispose of agms but the members can apply to request for one ANYWAY.

DON'T THEY HAVE LEGAL SECRETARIES FOR THAT!!

PFFT.

Law School Jokes - only, it's NOT a joke

The professor of a Contract Law class asked one of his better
students, "If you were to give someone an orange, how would you go about
it?"
The student replied, "Here's an orange."
The professor was
outraged. "No! No! Think like a lawyer!"
The student then replied, "Ok.
I will tell him - "I hereby give and convey to you all and singular, my
estate and interests, rights, claim, title and advantages of and in,
said orange, together with all its rind, juice, pulp and seeds, and all
rights and advantages with full power to bite, cut, freeze and otherwise
eat, the same, or give the same away with and without the pulp, juice,
rind and seeds, anything herein before and hereinafter or in any deed,
or deeds, instruments of whatever nature or kind whatsoever to the
contrary in anywise notwithstanding.

Multiply that by 2561 times and you get THE COMPANIES ACT.

the little things

Just got off the phone with Andrea who is finally back from Perth! It sounds a bit retarded but I actually missed her voice! Haha. Like after not talking to her in so long, I thought of PL again, for some reason. Like this image of the PL bus stop came into my mind when I was talking to her. So drama mama. Haha.

One friend back and one paper down. (:

I am one French friend and one Company exam away from true blue Christmas. (:

and it's the little things that make me happy. Like the welcomed grogginess when you first wake up that make you feel like you've rested really well the night before, looking forward to the reprieve of good meals in the day, singaporean -winter- with the cool breezes and all, makes things so much more christmas-ey, bogglific, little chats here and there, the anticipation of christmas, the anticipation of everyone coming home.

but the closer I get to christmas and the end of exams, the less illusory it seems and hence the less exciting. i think anticipation only sustains its adrenalin when the possibility is far-reaching. as it draws nearer and you can actually feel and envision it, it becomes not so exciting anymore.

so i think i should stop thinking about christmas and all my liberties that come with the cessation of exams. i should let it catch me by surprise when it comes.

live in the moment!

bye!

honesty

'Honesty has a beautiful and refreshing simplicity about it. No ulterior motives. No hidden meanings. An absence of hypocrisy, duplicity, political games, and verbal superficiality."

- Charles R. Swindoll

f.r.i.e.n.d.s.

I miss my friends. I really really really miss my friends.

All my best friends are overseas. I think I realized that when Andrea, the last of them, left in August for Aussie. See, Andrea is in Australia, I hardly see Fart cos she's too busy with her jigsaw puzzles and running her father's multi-billion dollar coffee shop and I'm too busy with school and church and the like. Then Val is in stupid strike-infested France. And my cousin is tucked away in the States and probably will hardly ever come back to Singapore cos her parents have relocated to Brussels. wth! Plus she hates Sg and the only friends she has here is. well... me. But I really miss her still.

I just miss going out and eating and being able to be comfortable and Happy with people you're comfortable and happy with. I miss being around people who understand you and whom you understand and Know, and don't have to second-guess at every turn about their half-baked friendships and motives and whatever. I miss just the no-frills friendships.

I just miss being around my genuine friends. Who are all in various parts of the globe. Away from me.

How tragic. Too bad. Too sad! I'll just have to wait till Christmas. Which is why, I Can't Wait. ((:

Come home one and all! Come home!

HELP

This is taking over my life.

Jumping against a sky

What's up with the trend of jumping in the air against a blue blue sky? Almost every compilation of pictures I see on blogs or facebook confirm got at least one picture of trigger happy jumping. And it cannot be against Any background. It Must be against some skyline of sorts. Like what? I don't get it. People actually take the effort to put timer everything and coordinate the whole jumping process and strive to create a picture of utter glee. It's so contrived! You actually have to plan on looking so ecstatically happy to take that one picture. How is that spontaneous and natural?

Once again, the imperceptible effects of advertisement on us. Tut tut.. I bet there was one (or maybe the ubiquitous presence of many) jump-for-joy picture(s) that just catapulted this silly notion into such a fad.

Contrived joy is the way to go! Celebrate it and jump as much as you can! (oh don't forget to take a picture of that while you're at it) (: Tahaha.

every man is an island

Today Reuben and I discovered how unnervingly similar we are in our approach towards friendships. We both don't place too much of an unnecessary premium on them.

Over the years, I've come to realize that I don't divulge much of my problems to my friends. What I do tell them is usually something that I have already resolved and even if I do say anything about on-going problems, it's not in a lamenting sort of way. I just say it more matter-of-factly so as not to invite any unwanted words of advice. It's not that I think lowly of my friends or anything. I just don't see the point in telling everyone everything when all they can tell you is some rubbish advice from their own personal experience. I'd rather someone point me to God. But so far, no one really does that. So I just don't say anything. And I usually self-deal.

Because of my recalcitrance, I think I have developed a more detached than normal attitude towards friendships. I love all my friends, I really do and I value and treasure all my friendships. I'm just not the sort that needs like nights on end to -emo- to my friends or to cry in front of them and seek their support. In fact, I don't think any one of my friends has ever seen me cry, save for one or two. Like the only time I shed a tear in sec school was when I thought Nu was going to die after eating 60 panadol pills at one go and being found foaming at the mouth on the road. Hur. I suppose when you share problems and expose weaknesses and vulnerabilities you grow this sort of dependence and reliance on people, both of which I have failed to develop. As a result, I don't rely, I don't depend, in fact, if times call for the worst of it, I do believe I can function without friends.

I think many people think that's a horrible thing and it's being terribly self-indulgent to think I am so damn self-sufficient and don't need anyone to survive. But that's not true. Because I need God to survive. And my family. Two things, both of which I already have and will always have.

So I think this awful detachment will serve me a lot of good in the future. Because the world is a lonely place. And everyone will fail you at some point or the other. So all you have at the end of the day is yourself, God and your family. And when things start getting lonely, I will be the only one left standing. muahahaha. (ok kidding)

Some parting words: Trust no one! Hahaha

Mount Pleasant

It's such a pleasant evening. The house is quiet and sparkling clean. I love it at this particular time of the day. No one is at home to mess it up and throw newspapers about or dump mail around or open 4 laptops all over, wires crisscrossing all over the place. It's just neat. The floors slide under your feet because the vacuum has sucked all other adherents up. And they shine like veneers because it's been mopped.

It's just the perfect time of the day. Everything is quiet, clean, peaceful. It's just me and Reuben at home and the maid pruning the plants outside. And I am feeling unusually happy reading about chthonic law. I am also inexplicably calm about the fact that clt is in less than 2 weeks and I just started reading yesterday.

But this is just such a beautiful tranquil piece of the day. I will it to last for as long as I can make it last.

Dichotomy

Last Friday, I attended my first ever Christian related event in law school. It was the Thio Li-Ann talk on minding the gap in the public square or something like that, organized by VCF. I have never attended any one of their prayer meetings, cell groups, gatherings, talks, workshops etc whatever.

When I entered the room, I was very surprised to see so many people there. I didn't know there were so many Christians in law school who would actually bother to come for these things. And it's so interesting cos once I saw them in a Christian setting, some how my impressions of everyone changed. People seem so different in Christian settings compared to secular settings like school. Suddenly everyone takes on this persona of joy gladness and unity - being glad to be unified in the Body of Christ. And everything they appear to be in school and in front of everyone else (all the personality traits, the loudness, the things that each individual is known for in school) takes a back seat to this immediate need to gel with the oneness that is the people of God. It's like there's a sudden unveiling of this uncanny commonality that you never knew existed.

Then the worship started and there was the preliminary strumming of the guitar. And guitar strumming and music immediately strike a chord in my heart and mind that relates me back to church. And then I realized how far away church seemed to me at that point, sitting there in the same seminar room where I had my moots. It was like this very weird and distant melding of church life and school life. Rather, my church self and my school self. And as I looked at everyone around, I started seeing their church selves and it seemed so weird because I'm not supposed to be seeing their church selves in school!

And I realized how much I compartmentalize my life. Church is church. And school is school. I am quite a different person in church than I am in school. Not that I suddenly adopt a different value system in school than I do in church. But in church, I am much more aware of politics, of being careful with what you say, of being sensible and politically correct (PC) like Josh, of being kind, loving, understanding, caring, empathizing. Church is paradoxically my minefield and my comfort at the same time.

But in school, I am generally what I would be without the influence of God in my life. Though when situations call for me to stand up or live by my system of values, I will. I don't think I am hypocritical. Because the essence of my true self is still present in both settings. I think I just fit into different skins. Yet it is amazing how vastly different I am in each setting.

I have yet to figure out how much of it is a good thing and how much of it is a bad thing.

Stained Glass

Is there anyone who's been there?
Are there any hands to raise?
Am I the only one who's traded,
In the altar for a stage?
The performance is convincing
We know every line by heart
Only when no one is watching
Can we really fall apart

But would it set me free
If I dared to let you see
The truth behind the person
You imagined me to be?
Would your arms be open?
Or would you walk away

Would the love of Jesus
Be enough to make you stay?

2008

I feel this uncanny urge to buy a 2008 schedule book. NOW. I don't know why but I feel that my schedule is spilling beyond this year and beyond December and I need to put it all down.

The year is soon coming to a close but not soon enough for the shops to start selling 2008 organizers. I feel like I'm done with this year. I want to live next year now. I think this is the consequence of planning too far ahead. All the stuff to do in December - exams, church musical, hang out with all the overseas friends, youth camp, holiday - feels done. November already feels over even though it's just starting on Thursday.

So I now need January and February when Sheng leaves and when I go for my annual pilgrimage to Bangkok and when exchange results come out. And when I start a whole new life. Time passes by so quickly.

Happy Birthday Mom!

Mom's birthday was last Friday. And her trickle of celebrations started off with a surprise birthday cake at her cell group! In the morning I asked her if her cell was going to celebrate her birthday for her. I thought, surely they must since she's their cell leader and her birthday was that day itself. But nooo... she said she didn't think so because she was the one usually organizing the birthday celebrations so when it comes to her birthday, she doubted if anyone would celebrate for her! OH no! So tragic! What kind of useless cell group is this! So I decided to do something about it and surprise her with a cake!

The most tragic thing is that when I was standing outside the house with the cake, everyone inside could see me and I was standing there like a clown, singing Happy Birthday so loudly and NOBODY came to open the gate for me. Everyone just stared like I was some extra-terrestial being! WTH!
Anyway, the flowers in mom's hand were delivered by my dad. Made her doubly happy.


Awfully chocolate cake. Thank God there's an outlet so near school. Made my life a lot easier. Except for the fact that I had no car and had to take a BUS from school to church in peak hour conditions with a CAKE. But I'm mighty proud of myself for saving money and not taking a cab. Cos on the bus, this kind Indian lady offered to hold on to my cake for me cos she was sitting down.


Mom - very pleasantly surprised.


Mom cutting her cake.




Mom cutting and serving her own cake (!!)


The cell group that -made it all happen-.


Well-eaten cake.


Then on Saturday, we surprised mom with a cupcake tier! I now think it's quite a retarded thing to do but it looked nice and was something different, for a change. I ordered it from thebakerwhocooks. 4 large nutella swirly cupcakes and 8 lemoney zest cupcakes for my 48 year old mother.


The tier before the cupcakes. It was supposed to be "english themed" but the only English thing I saw about it was the black lace details. The rest of it looked rather, Malay. Haha. But it was nice nonetheless.


The lemon cupcakes! With the ribbon tags "Happy Birthday Mom". The lemon cupcakes were damn amazing. The lemon curd inside is damn zesty and yummy! I loved it.


The nutella swirley cupcakes. the nutella... really the diabetes inducer. But Reuben loved it cos his staple food is nutella, not rice.


The lace detail.


Parents. Ok I realize how everything is yellow and green including the table cloth and this is really starting to look very Malay. NO offence! Just the colour theme. But, it's also quite apt because yellow, white and green were my parents' wedding colour theme! Haha.


And last night, we went for dinner at Hotel Rendezvous. With this, I think we have exhausted all the hotel buffets in Singapore. The food was so-so. I think I ate more dessert than food.


The general place. My camera takes really sucky dim-lighting photos.


Reuben


More Reuben.


My parents laughing at the cards we wrote for mom.


Laughing some More.


My dad is so retarded. When he realized I was snapping impromptu shots, he immediately said, "eh? you're taking pictures? eh quick take one for both of us". haha. There you goo..


The only dish worth taking a picture of - the durian mousse! I like durian. And this one was really good! And it had weird durian dollops lining the top! How ugly and weird!


And when we came home, she opened more presents. This is Sheng's present. He's also retarded. he asked me the night before if it's ok if he wrapped her present with NEWSPAPERS. I said, "you mean you don't have wrapping paper?" Sheng said, "yah i dont have". So I hesitatingly said, ok, you can wrap her present with freaking newspapers.


But it turned out to be pretty nice! He chose some garlic bread and model woman picture. But underneath, there were sooo many layers of ugly newspaper wrapping. Haha.


And in all his bookish-ness, he had to get her, a BOOK. Apt for her work.


Most of mom's gifts in total!


Happy birthday mom. I have the bestest mom ever.

Scruffy, scruffy, scruffy, scruffy scruffy

My life is reaching a point of insane busyness. There are:

mock trials
finding a witness for a mock trial
worrying that my dad will not catch his flight in time if he's my witness
church
CHURCH (church politics is really a BITCH. it is so draining and it is wasting all my time)
xmas musical at victoria theatre rehearsals and prep
cell group
cell Members (and their load of teenage angsty problems. I hate the teen years)
worship ministry
youth ministry
clt exam ?!
the rest of my exams maybe?
other little obligations for school
oh my mom's birthday which is Today
getting her cake
booking her restaurant
collecting the cupcake tier from freaking bedok
gary bell's tea which I am probably not going for
other relational stresses

shit there's just too many things to think about and do. Under each of those headings, little tiny contributory streams of subheadings flow. I wake up every morning with a start and my heart starts beating with all the things I have to do for the day. All the people I have to consider all the schedules I have to shift around. DAMN! I better pray more and talk less.

One Word

BUSY!

My dad blogs

I just realised that when you save a post as a draft and post it the next day, the posting date is the date when you first made the draft. I just posted the flamingo wedding and the date said Tuesday, 9th October. Then I was so happy for a moment cos I thought, oh today only Tuesday? Then no need to do property tutorial. Then I realised, shit no, it's Wednesday. tuh.

Anyway, my dad recently put up a post that was quite in line with what I was talking about a few posts ago.

read it

Good reminder for me, maybe you too.

Wedding in a Park

Over the weekend, I attended a wedding, at the Jurong Birdpark! Shit mann I don't think I've even been there before in my life. And it's situated at some mega ulu part of Singapore, like near Jurong Island where they conduct all the petrochemical jazz? wertt.

Anyway! Pictures!

Jurong Birdpark.


Mom and the flamingoes. She was dressed like one too.


The entire swamp of flamingoes that kindly formed the backdrop to the wedding.


Me and mom. I'm trying to emulate flamingo body language. Cool huh.


The flamingoes close up. Did you know that flamingoes' knees bend backwards when they walk? How cool is that? I spent such a long time observing them cos the wedding was so boring. They're quite fascinating, in that they're sooo damn skinny. Their ability to compress their necks and legs and everything is damn amazing.


Just some pictures of the interior


The wedding was set against a glass wall with the flamingoes in the immediate background.




I couldn't see the kiddies walking in cos everyone was standing so I decided to take a picture of the screen. Haha.


The flower girls


More of them.




My dad marrying them off.


Signing the legal stuff.


Anyway, weddings are really boring, especially when you don't really know the couple. So let's turn our attention to the food!
Look at the wedding cake!! Omg. This is the first wedding I've been to that allows you to eat the wedding cake. And it's BRIGHT ORANGE. Cool! It's like an orange chiffon cake with a chocolate centre. I ate 3 enormous pieces. Yum!


Laksa! I seem to be eating a lot of laksa these days. But this one was really good. Oh the wedding dinner was buffet style which is excellent cos you can eat all you want and you get to home home early. Compare this to sitting stiff-necked amid a bunch of people you don't even know, eating polite, docile portions of gross abalone or gigantore mushrooms with some gross spinach. eek!


The chocolates! Haha. Reuben and I hijacked all the chocolates cos we made it a point to try allll the different assortments. We took so many chocolates that all the kids were deprived of theirs! I kept hearing whiffs of complaints from kids about there not being any more chocolates. Haha. too bad, sorry! anyway you're a kid. all your teeth will fall out.


Till the next food post!

MORE Food!

Lunch at Vittles! Vittles is a relatively new restaurant along Sembawang Rd.


They have a popcorn corner. You can help yourself to free popcorn. Though I don't see the purpose of serving free popcorn when they don't screen movies. Maybe it has a psychological effect on customers, like oh this place got free things, ok next time I come and eat more. Haha.


But the popcorn wasn't very nice, quite lao hong (sp?) and yah, just lao hong.


But the tomato soup was really good! Yum!


And the nachos too! They come with cheese and beef salsa dips. The cheese was nice and thick and didn't taste like melted Cheesedale cheese of kraft or whatever. haha. I like!


Parmesan Coated Dory. A nice change from the usual battered or grilled dory fillets. Very nice!


Sirloin steak. The most unflattering photo of food I've ever seen in my life. Obviously I didn't take it.


Florida's Natural Juice strings!!!


Juice in a string! It's like drinking vitamins on the go! Omg, how much more ingenious can you get!
Pull the string...


And clip it out! haha. my most favourite snack of all time!


Lunch at Golden Mile Food centre.
This is the all-famous Belgian Chocolate desserts etc etc shop. Owned by a Belgian himself, the shop is the most high tech and posh hawker centre shop I have seen in my life. The store is wooden paneled, with mouth-watering pictures of dripping chocolate and chocolate encased fruit on the walls. You are given a recepit and a points card (which is electronically registered and not chopped like those normal ones you get from coffee bean or whatever) and they even have a facebook group. WTH!


But the fondue is rly good. Now you can have fondue whenever you want! No need to go eat Fullerton Chocolate buffet or any other hotel buffet for that matter, just for the fondue! The chocolate is imported straight from Belgium and it's just melted and served straight out like that, no milk, no sugar, no nothing. We ordered the Royal Fondue set.


It came with a whole plate of fruits; strawberries, honeydew, grapes and banana, marshmallows.


Two waffles.


The chocolate of course. And two scoops of gelato ice-cream.


YUM!