Life/Death

Today has been interesting. In one day, I mourned the death of someone at a good church member's father's funeral... followed by celebrating the life at a 21st birthday of a dear friend of mine.

It's weird that both clash on the same day and yet are polar opposites of each other.

Another thing that struck me today was the difference in a Christian funeral vs a Non Christian funeral. the people were sad and crying but i realized in a non Christian funeral, they wail and howl... for they see it as an end... a hopeless end to a beautiful life they cherished and loved.... Christians see it as a next-phase in life... now their loved one has left them but is with Christ... and they have hope that one day, they too will join in that chorus.

it pricked me at times today and i felt very emotional despite not knowing the deceased at all... just seeing Ricky holding the fort so strongly while Stella was uncontrollably crying was very very painful. i dun cry coz of the person but coz of the pain they are going thru... and many times today i had to catch myself and purposefully fill it with other thots before i got lost in sorrow as well.

tough.

Nonetheless, pensive day. Thank god for also the time i could spend with family.. and later on, friends. :)

happy 21st Tricia :) so glad i could celebrate it with u in Spore.

Ask me Anything

Hey, check out that cute form on the right of the blog... you can ask me any random qn and i'll answer it... if i feel like it. :) if not, here's the link tee hee... i blame laura for this. :)

Leopard Preen

Today Hannah and I went to town with a theme.... To Snap Pics of People in Leopard Preeeeeen.

Here's our successful day. :)

Trenchies from UniQlo

I want... should I? the first is $150... and the 2nd is $80 i think...
urhhhhhh

These few days...

I would say that easily this year is going to be a year of big decisions... It’s weird to think that the same time next year, I no longer will be a student [God willing] and I’ll actually either be working in Singapore or Melbourne. It may seem quite a simple natural progression but actually to think about it, all these years of my life, the next step in life would have been the next phase of school. Whether it be Kindy to Primary or Primary to Secondary. Even Secondary to Poly would not be that big a jump as the next year would be.

I always joke about how the only escape from work is either death or retirement and it kinda scares me to think that it’s going to be that way till I stop working at maybe the age of what? 60? Eeps!!! Haha... but it’s an exciting phase I suppose. Something I’ll only need to worry about next year I guess, now it’s jus to build up good networks, work well and place myself in a place that would benefit my job hunting in the near future.

On other things, my friend in Melb just got attached and I know u’re reading this... it took u long enuf. Finally we can label you guys as a couple and not be awkward about the relationship you guys have. I thank the Lord for making His path and decision clear to the both of you and I pray that as you guys journey down this path of self realisation and complimentary realisation, I pray the Lord will keep you close to Him first and foremost and each other later. That with your new relationship, you’ll be able to mimic and imitate the love of the Lord in this aspect of your life. Congrats to Jeero and Josh, may He guide you in your future decisions alone and together and as you be with each other, may He always guard you against temptation and that you remain accountable especially in this aspect of life.

These few days have been spent working for intercruise [1 day a week for 9.5 hours when a cruise comes in] and meeting up with friends. The more I meet up with people, the more I feel like I shouldn’t find a 2nd job and just use the limited 1.5months I have left on this island to meet up with friends and to pray for them and their situations. It’s very very heartwarming to see that the love of God isn’t bound by distance nor time and though I have failed tremendously in keeping up to date with people’s lives here in Singapore, everyone has been so forgiving and generous with their forgiveness and love that it really sometimes makes me ashamed to think back on how I stopped checking up on them online and through emails. Especially embarrassed when I know how easy it is to keep up to date with people thru technology these days.

Friends have always been a big important part of my life for a long time and to hear their genuine words of love, concern and encouragement, it lifts my heart and gets me through yet another day knowing that there can be no other reason why God would send such friends into your life. So to my friends who I love very dearly, thank you for making this boy always feel welcome and for always treating him with such love and trust that I can share in just that small portion of your life and I pray that I will not forget to and not stop in praying for you and what you guys are going through.

I’m actually sitting on an MRT train now blogging and I’m passing by Kembangan as I type this. I just love the fact that I’m finally blogging again and that I only would blog when I have no internet or nothing else to do. Sighhh what has my blog become? Haha... but at least I’m trying. Lolz. Going to meet up with a dude who’s selling me this board/card game called Saboteur... yay! Then we can play it when we’re in Melb. Hehe. Oh that reminds me, I gotta go uniqlo soon to shop for winter-ish stuff coz I think they’ve got nice stuff for sale there. Hehe.

Yep, that’s about it for now, if I don’t stop, this post is going to be super long and no one likes to read a long post. So here’s where I stop. Thank God for everything so far. It’s been a great 2009 and I look forward to God being close and me leaning on Him much more and experiencing and enjoying Him in 2010. :) Praise the Lord and God bless.

110110 Fishing

Today was fun... took the car out for the day [yes i DO love it when i dun need to rush home with the car or take public transport coz i dun have the car] and picked up matt and hannah for lunch and fishing at east coast park.

Drove to bayshore, picked the both of them up then headed to this place called 'Vista Bistro' for their set lunch. The promo is basically $11.80++ for free flow [buffet style] of soup, starters like salads and dessert... then u order one main course. :) the food was alright only... i thot the portions were REALLY not worth it... like i won't go there again... but it was worth a try... ambience was quite insipid too... as was the food... haha oops. :) but yeh, company was good...

so after lunch, we drove back to bayshore. Hannah went to get Ashley [her dog] and Matt went to get his fishing gear and we took a walk to bedok jetty.... left the car at bayshore coz free parking. :) So we got there and started fishing and basically, to cut it all short... i caught 4 fish. but 1 of them slipped off the hook before i got the line over the jetty railing so he managed to escape... so i'd say 3 fish in total today... pretty proud of myself and it was a fun day la.. it is very rewarding when the fish bite the jig and u feel that tingly sensation down the line... wah shiok. :)

thanks for the great day... i really enjoyed myself! No kite flying... but it's ok. there's always another day. :)

MIA

I'm so sorry for being so away from this blog... haven't been bothered to update it although i check it everyday for tags and all. :) i will update it soon but here's a fast recap before i fly off to work at harbour front...

cameron highland trip with churchies was great. christmas was low key but still meaningful. yf camp was a real blessing, sumthing i almost didn't get to experience. watchnight was reflective, shared testimony coz i couldn't keep from praising Him. first few days of jan have been spent with loved ones trying to fly kites and eat steamboats and work. :)

phew. be back soon.

<3 my desktop

I love my desktop pic... thanks matt.

soon.

i will blog. trust me. let me get settled down first... then tasmania blogging.. and back to spore blogging. soon soon. :)

for now....

CONGRATS TO EUNICE AND DOM!! HAPPY MARRIAGE!! haha that's so weird to say. :)

Bye Melb, Hello Spore

Leaving tml for my flight to Spore... i'll be back to melb on the 25th of Feb. :)

yay... finally get to eat spore food... and i SO need to catch up on the lives of the shalom youth... it's been too long. weird... it's only been 5 months since? :)

Tasmania Trip Day 1 cont.

So yep, after collecting our car from the airport, we drove to Port Arthur where we got to take a short cruise ride around Port Arthur's Historic site. After that, we walked around the ruins and took loads of pictures with the penitentiary and other areas of Port Arthur.. It was pretty neat seeing all of the cells and where the convicts stayed in...

Once done, we headed towards Hobart to check into our Motel. It was cool coz the motel reminded me alot of 'My name is Earl'... The standard american motel.. Apparently it even had a trampoline... But we didn't manage to remember that fact when we came back at night to use it. Haha. :)

We headed to Franklin Wharf for dinner and instead of eating at Flippers which my mum suggested... We went to this place jus near it which the brochure called 'Arguablly the Best fish n chips in Hobart'... It's a restaurant called Fish Frenzy...
*hannah thinks it was so-so only*
anyway... Back to blogging... I had the Mixed Fish which was 3 pieces of fish with chips... Can't remember what the 3 fish were but 1 was the soft kind (which i like) and 2 which are the tough kind...

But overall, i liked it and was very glad that we had fish n chips... U know how i love it. Haha. :) yep then we headed back to crash coz it was a pretty tiring day...

And that concludes Day 1 of our tassie trip... Keep tuned in for day 2.
*hannah says keep watching this space*

To be... Yeh, continued... U got it.

Tasmania Trip Day 1

So i know it's gonna be a pain to blog bout the tassie trip so i'm gonna blog as i'm road tripping around. Haven't had much time to jus relax and thus i've already gone thru 2 days without blogging... So here goes. :)

Woke up on the 1st of Dec at 5am.. Had to give Hannah, Phyllis and Lois wake up calls at 5.30, 5.45 and 6am respectively... Since everything was already packed, i jus made myself a cup of milo and got ready to leave... Ren Haw (OCF friend) came by College Square to pick me up and when i was running out to his car from my lobby, my baggage bag strap snapped and the plastic broke... I was like... WHAT THE SHEEEET... Haiz. Haha but never mind, still can be carries by the handles... So we drove to pick Lois and Hannah and Phyllis up before we rendezvous-ed with the other car (driven by Charles) and headed to the airport.

Once we got there and thanked the OCFers fervently, we headed to load our luggages onto the plane. And then that's when Hannah told me she was car sick from the ride and needed to puke... NOT sumthing u wanna hear jus before a road trip... :s she says it's coz of the medicine she ate... Anyways, she puked and since then, hasn't gotten car sick since. Yay. Thank God.

Anyway, we got bumped to the front of the aircraft due to our large numbers and apparently the weight distribution needed us to be in front... So we got on and lifted off for Hobart international airport.

Once we reached Hobart, we got off the plane and literally walked down steps to the tarmac floor. First time i've done that... Get off the airplane and directly be on tarmac... Like air force one where they have a ladder from the airplane door to the floor.

Yep then we check out of the airport, get our rented cars and find out instead of a Rav 4, we are given a Nissan X-Trail. Davin and I are both quite disappointed coz we were looking forward to driving a Rav4. Anyways, we find our car in the lot and after initial inspection, we realize the car we got is DAMN cool. It's got a big boot space, it's white, powerful and commanding. But the best feature of it all is that it has a SUN ROOF! Awesome rite? We can either push the sunroof cover back or switch on the button and the sunroof retracts back letting u stand out of the roof. It was SO awesome, we were going crazy when we found out... All dancing in the car and all. Haha matt and kenrick's car was a pretty sad comparison to ours... Theirs was jus a normal sedan. :s

To be continued....

tramming

stupid aussie kids suddenly got on the tram and noise level jus sky rocketted.

Gahhhh

whether the weather will wither away

went to yarra valley yesterday with dad mum and aunties and got to drive a bit. Glad coz i need to get the feel of the wheel back in me again before tasmania otherwise i'd be driving with very little confidence...

but when dad was driving there was this sudden freak sandstorm that jus blew into the valley and out. It was amazingly cool and awfully scary... We were sitting there in the car jus picking up speed from a short stop and then suddenly (i mean really suddenly) the sand a bit far off started swirling and lifting off the ground. It started getting more and more and the swirl became bigger and wider and suddenly there was sand swirling everywhere and engulfing everything. It was so cool. the wind was blowing everything up (except trees, cows and our car) but it was sending twigs and leaves and sand all up in the air like some tornado. The cool thing was that u could see the swirl getting bigger and nearer till it enveloped the car and it literally went blank... All u saw outside the window was sand. Couldn't see past 5 metres of the car and u were like in the eye of the tornado... Awesome. So it blew that way for a good 5 mins or so and cars started pulling to the side of the road...

Then jus as quickly as it came, it left... The wind swept the sand past the road and it jus travelled away like a gloom of iminent doom. It reminded me of the Angel of the Lord passing over the houses of the egyptians and israelites... Then it was gone...

So cool. I've got a video of it. I'll post it up soon. :)

Cool experience and thank God no one got hurt.

Whee

EXAMS ARE DONE.... finally. now it's time to heck school till march and enjoy myself... next up.. Tasmania trip... BOOYAH!

Last Paper

Wow...here i sit... 10 minutes before i leave home for my last exam paper as a year 2...

and i feel so unprepared... haha maybe it's the generalization of this subject... or maybe it's the fact that this subject isn't a memorize information kind of subject... or maybe it's coz it's the last paper..

but i know i'm looking forward to getting it done and settled asap. :) then i'm free to not think about school till march 2010... :)

Aye, God, I'm so in need of You today. hahaha yeh... that was me last nite... pleading... lolz...

Ciaoz people!

Studying in Law Library

This is Uni Life... This is what happens when students camp themselves in the Law Library and study for a paper due tml... 

And this is what happens when u have an essay due tomolo. :) lolz.

Love is like playing the piano

Taken from here

Thanks Joash. i think it's really true.

Hawt....

taken from here

the heat here is bugging me... and everyone else..

GUHHHHHH i want to wear jumpers again and worry about whether i would have enuf layers... and wear my winter coat and feel like my eyebrows are singeing off when Crown Casino's fireshow goes up in the air.

heat, heat, go away, come again another day [when i'm not in melb].... :)

blah. one exam down. 2 to go.

mummy's here

yay... So mum messaged to say she's touched down safely in melb... So i take my essay and walk off to sch... Oh gosh it's a hot day...

Never mind that, i submit my essay and decide instead of tramming down to meet my mum at lygon-victoria, i'll take a nice slow stroll....

So i reach lygon-victoria and i call her and oh my gosh, she's STILL clearing customs... That means it's prob another 45 mins till she's here at least... Gahhh. So i asked her to ring me when she gets on the starbus and then i'll know it'll take roughly half an hour to come to the city... Sigh. The long long wait. And then we'll walk up lygon in this heat. thankfully everything, almost everything, is sheltered. :)

But thank and praise God that she arrived safely. Yay. Now jus to get her here and back home and then i'll have mummy with me for a week before she goes to tassie. :)

Yay. Hehe

~ Joel Tan ~
--- Sent from my E63 ---