Central Forum.

Blogging from Central Forum where there is this “Green Carnival” thing going on. There was a singing competition and some of the contestants sang their chinese songs quite well. I made it past 2 hours each of sociology and vietnamese tutorials today. Just want to rest and consolidate my thoughts.

Sitting down here on the steps of the forum and seeing people moving around made me realised how I haven’t properly sat down by myself and just relaxed for quite some time. Danielle was sitting at the forum and we chatted about work and laughed at her dress sense today for a while. : )

I shall promise myself that after the end of my exams, I give myself some time-out to sit down at a cafe of my choice and properly enjoy my book while watching people move and engage in their business, and be content with the fact that I’m finally living life at my own time and pace.

Shelter and Grace.

I ended my day with a lonely double mushroom swiss burger at Wheellock’s burger king. JLPT 3 prep course started today and there were only 6 out of 9 people in this class. Leon San, Eng San and Edwin weren’t around today. The class went into ‘extra time’ as usual, making it 3 hours and 20 minutes. It is no joke going through 50 grammar structures and 40 adverbs in such a sitting.

Inevitably, I was super stoned after the lessons. Prisellia San caught me as I was walking out of the Lido building and I didn’t even notice her waving at me. A lot of thoughts were running through my mind after the lesson, not least about the upcoming exams.

But today felt really different. As in I felt really really tired right now, but I don’t feel down and out. Which is like so amazing considering that after such an absolutely enervating day when I understood perhaps only 65% of the lesson max. Perhaps it was the way I started my day that gave me so much strength to see through the rest of the hours.

I woke up early today, did QT and started my day off at 9am with the prayer group for Arts VCF. There was Liz, Joanna, Daniel, ‘Chi Kun’ and me. We gave thanks for each other and we prayed for strength to see through this exam season among many things.

After which I had my Vietnamese tutorial and then lunched with Shu Han, Jade and their friend before heading to Gleneagles for my once a year appointment.

I love the interior of ‘ophthalmologist consultants’. It is very cosy. And I got to see Dr Pauline Cheong again. She has such a thick file on me now. Apparently I’m losing a bit of my 3D vision. Haha. I better go and catch one of those 3D shows before I lose it completely….

Anyway, after that, I mugged (and napped) Japanese for a while at Wisma’s Starbucks before going for my JLPT prep course. Thank God I have no school tomorrow. So I’m going to give myself a good hot shower now, give praise to the Lord, take a good nap, wake up fresh for another day of work. Kamikaze till the finals. For His Glory.

Hebrews 12 has been very touching and inspiring. And perhaps one of the reasons I’m typing this with a sane mind after such an enervating day.

An Emo Night.

I didn’t know what got over me today. I had such a craving for 宫宝 frog porridge that I took the car and drove over at 1am in the morning and ate there by myself. Before that, I took a roundabout to my buddy’s house, where it stood dark and empty, even though I knew they moved out a week ago. But it is just that me and my buddy spent quite a lot of good times over there, and I missed him quite a bit.

Eating alone felt so surreal. I enjoyed the food, but on my previous visit, I sat there too alone, imagining my two buddies beside me. When I was sharing with Phoebe last Friday at the Arts Canteen over the best soups, I thought of asking WC out to eat at the famous Salted Duck soup in AMK, only to realise a spilt second later the mistake that I made.

Kao wrote me a long email on how he is adapting over at Oxford. We had to adapt our philosophical discussions and musings about our personal life into words and sans the wonderful range of verbal and nuance facial and body expressions that we share. It is nothing that the lucidity of our pens can compensate for.

Kwang Yew, Erjie and Zihao too. I think it is a bit hard to adjust when so many great pals of mine all leave at the same time. Everytime I read a comment or an email sent by them, the words will automatically enunciate in their own individual manner inside my head. 

That said, I made quite a few good friends from school so far. Thang, Khoa and Trung, my Vietnamese neighbours, course mates and of course the VCFers, who appeared everywhere last Thursday night when I was alone to keep me company all the way till the bus reached my home.

At there are also the some great pals who remained. Like the guys in my JC class (though they keep me worrying), the remainders of the Angkor What! gang, Adeline, just to name a few. Not to mention YQ and WR in church, even though we are all busy with our lives.

But these times are good moments for reflections and consolidations. And to learn to trust in the Lord even more, for we never could learn to trust enough. To be freed of our obligations so that we can view ourselves with new perspectives and learn how to improve myself and start clearing all the jobs that the Lord has tasked me to accomplish.

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Mom is overseas again, so I planned to have a good dinner with Dad. Mom and Jie always have good teas and dinners by themselves, so I thought there is no reason why Dad and I cannot do the same. We went to Sapporo Miharu Ramen restaurant at Gallery Hotel near Boat Quay that area. We both had superb Miso Ramen with tangy noodles and steaming hot fragrant soup with the works. Dad loves his sauces and the corn! He loves them juicy and chewy.

 

After dinner, I suggested we take a little walk. We had a discussion on the Singapore skyline, and Dad was sharing with me his experiences in the States where he saw the Chicago skyline. It was the place where many many architects got their inspirations from.

It was nice to see such nice artwork adorning one of our bridges. Dad said this picture of him is very nice. : ) taken with my 1 month old W580i. : ) After the walk, we drove to Borders where I bought the biography “On the Road to Kandahar” by Jason Burke. I always wanted an insight into the Islamic world, and this book is a good start. Got a 30% coupon, used my 10% off entitlement from my Borders card, and utilised the rest of the money from the gift card given to me by Huiqing laoshi and Su Ai for my 21st. In the end, I paid $14 for a $45 dollars book. And Dad kindly foot the bill too. It was a nice evening spent with Dad.

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A picture of Mom taken two weeks ago when we were celebrating her birthday. I love her look here. : ) She has been such a dear this week to me. She’ll be visiting Jie in Japan in November and they will travel in the country! Ah.. It is just before the start of my exams… Sigh. But I think my Mom deserves the break. : )

Yubao Laoshi finally left us for another church after 2 years in AGPC. Missing her presence quite a bit. She 栽培 me and gave me a lot of freedom to make my own decisions so I can grow. Not seeing her conduct the choir, and also not being her translator when she preaches will take some getting use to.

Godsis! The light of my life. When I see her enjoying the sport that I used to love, and being vice-captain too, gives me immense pride at her growth. Though she gets me a bit nostalgic at times when I looked back at my playing days with the oval shaped ball.

Watching the final between South Africa and England now. One hell of a passionate game with an electrifying crowd. The English is leading a nation’s hopes on by giving them something to cheer about after their recent sporting failures, while the Springboks team had helped reunited a country that used to be divided by apartheid. The team’s best winger Bryan Habana is a black, who also happens to be the top try scorer for South Africa and in this tournament so far. With the black South African president Thabo Mbeki watching in the stands.

Love, passion, courage, spirit, brotherhood, intelligence, teamwork, skills, creativity, speed, sportsmanship, strength, blood, tears, nerves, all full blooded. Every single thing that I love about life is in this game.

The people that I mentioned above and some more, are reminders of why am I relentless in my drive to become a better man, a man who is after God’s heart.

Fellowship Teachings & The Remains of the Day.

I went for my first FT (Fellowship Teachings) today. This is a once a month event where VCFers of all faculties will congregate together to listen to an eternal speaker. I was able to attend because my tuition kids had their entrance exams today, so lessons were postponed.

Today’s speaker is a certain Dr Chua Hao Chuang from OMF. He is a full-time missionary serving with his Japanese wife in Japan. He gave what I think was one of the most enriching lectures on ‘Holistic Mission’ that I’ve heard this year.

Salvation is by faith alone. True salvation is evidenced by deeds. In short, his point is that without social action, the good news is hardly credible. Without the good news, social action becomes merely humanistic.

How about offering yourself to somebody for a day who cannot pay back? Preach the gospel. When necessary, use words.

A part of his teachings today taught me the need to ask for grace and wisdom to know our season, to balance the tensions that I face in my life from school and my faith. I guess it is summed up quite succinctly when he said that we yearn not to be a student who is a christian, but a christian who is a student. 

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Last Sunday was pretty well-spent. I had a difficult translation in service which God brought me through. I was translating for the teacher of my Sunday school teacher who is a Reverend. Haha… Dean of Chinese theology at SBC. God has been giving me more challenging tasks lately, and I feel that each time I go through it, I emerged even stronger in my faith in God and also confidence on my abilities.

The message was also very good. It reminded me why I have to continue to arm myself with theological knowledge. Three good messages in the space of a week is rarer than seeing a blue moon. : ) Which makes me feel quite excited about the AnnTic camp this December, when like-minded schoolmates and I congregate together to unravel the mysteries of the bible with the help of a fantastic speaker. : )

Then it was back to PGP in the evening with Thang helping me in my preparation for major Vietnamese Test on Monday. His unselfishness touched me a lot. I hope I did everybody who helped me justice in the test.

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I watched Lust|Caution last Saturday. I understood why the show was censored – the NC16 version was pretty intense already. The show was pretty good though. I love the storyline and the great acting. Sometimes you really say more by saying less.

My friend and I bought the tickets at the wrong timing although we were both pretty sure we both CILCKED on the right timing on the touch-screen (and we only discovered half-way through our dinner); climbed a few stories before finding the car in the carpark (reminded me of the ’accidents’ that will happen when I’m with Disong).

That said, I also haven’t really so totally relaxed and enjoyed in such a while ever since both Disong and Weichao left for London. This is a feeling I can get used to.

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It is about slightly less than two months to the start of exams, and there are posters around PGP reminding the occupants to keep watch of the ’silent hours’ timings so that people can study for their exams. I think if I stay in hall, I would never get the same type of environment. Timely reminder.

Time to exercise some self-discipline in the build-up to the exams now. Officially banned myself from Saturday night soccer, ’soccernet’ and a host of computer/internet related activities. I have some history that I need to make right, and I’m prepared to make the sacrifices to achieve them.

Like what dad said to me recently, if you think you are not the smartest around, you got to work doubly hard to make up.

Humour Relief.

New school semester:

At the first week:

At the second week:

Before the mid-term test:

During the mid-term test:

After the mid-term test:

Before the final exam:

Once know the final exam schedule:

7 days before final exam:

6 days before final exam:

5 days before final exam:

4 days before final exam:

3 days before final exam:

2 days before final exam:

1 day before final exam:

A night before final exam:

1 hour before final exam:

During the final exam:

Once walk out from the exam hall:

After the final exam, during the holiday:

Beating Austerity.

A little bit of effort from us individually can go a long way in social action, and perhaps in ways unimaginable, affect somebody’s way of life.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7028159.stm

There are times when we look at certain people in the streets and wonder why did they choose the paths that they did. We think that their decision to do what they want to with their life is final, and we leave them as it is. Until the ones who are in a privileged position stop assuming the traits of humanity and make a difference, we’ll find people responding to these help, hoping to make a difference to themselves – and each feed off each other’s energy.

Why do the fireflies die so fast?

I just watched the saddest movie of my life that made me wept. Grave of the Fireflies. No amount of academia can aroused me to hate wars more than what this anime has demonstrated to me.

No wars can ever ever ever be fully justified.

our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate, but that we are powerful beyond measure.

It is not about shrinking so that people will not feel shy around you, but to shine as children. It’s not just me, it is all of us. And as we shine, we give people permission to do the same. Till we are liberated from our own fears. And our presence automatically liberates others.

Gentlemen, we reach that goal. Let’s play ball.

Just because you deserve this doesn’t mean they are going to give it to you. You have to fight for it and make it yours.

What you have achieved is more than the win lose column. what you have achieved is the victory over that ever elusive thing within.

しるし

I just have to re-post this song again by Mr.Children. Was sharing with Charmine during service last Sunday on why this song is one of my all time favourite. We both agree that the Japanese language makes English a poor cousin in the language world. : )

Rescue is the constant pattern of God’s activity.

Throughout the ages, there is always a lament from God, which is, ‘Why won’t you choose me?’

God waits to be wanted.