Shawn & Hui Ling

We have moved our blog

2008-10-19T19:41:00.002+08:00

Our new add is at http://genesis222.wordpress.com/
Please update your links!
PS: Design of the blog is still far from completion. Pls bear with it in the meantime =P

A funny photo

2008-08-26T13:59:00.006+08:00

I was just browsing thru' my photos and found a funny photo.

Aliens, the New Invincibles Heroes or the Masked Women?

Haha it's me, Audrey and Heli. Can you all spot who's who? We didn't mean to "act seh" and were actually struggling not to laugh so that there wouldn't be any facial lines. We're not supposed to move our facial muscles when we have face masks on right?

Hubby had gone night fishing and wouldn't be home till late at night so I went to 'tou kao' them. Thank you sisters for always being there for me whenever I'm left alone at home. Thank you uncle Larry and auntie Agnes for being so gracious with ur home and for bearing with our late-night trysts too. =)

Back

2008-08-23T13:09:00.000+08:00

I felt my lower back muscles today. So? It's something to cheer about! Why?

Yesterday at the gym, hubby asked me to do the lats machine. If I remember the name of the monster correctly. It's this contraption that has two rubber pulleys with handles at the end. You sit on the machine, hold the handles with your arms stretched out and pull your arms back till your elbows are in line with your back. This was supposed to work my back muscles but I couldn't feel a single thing from my back. All I felt was my tricep muscles groaning but back muscles? Nope.

So I kept asking hubby whether I was doing the machine the right way. It's supposed to be a back machine but I can only feel my arms. Hubby looked at my technique and told me not to worry. I was doing the right thing and the reason I couldn’t feel anything on my back was that my back muscles was too small.

Last night I carried Shernise (Nd Quek's goddaughter) for a while and I felt my back! Wow carrying children is hard work. Limiin says her arms ache after carrying Zia for a while. When he's bigger and wants to be carried upright all the time, the strain will be on the back.

I remember asking hubby why am I working on my back? No one's gonna see my back. If I am still competing in latin dance, then back muscles would be good cos our costumes are mostly bareback but hai, I’m way past that stage liao. But I've found a reason to work on my back. Then next time can be super mom. Carry bb with one hand and shop with the other hand. Haha.

What we did on Saturday

2008-08-18T15:53:00.012+08:00

It's Saturday 5pm and I'm typing this blog at Kranji Reservoir. This is the place we used to go when we were dating and it's one of my favourite fishing places cos it brings us back to nature, it's clean and it doesn't have any fishy smells. The weather feels particularly good after the rain with no scorching sun, the air is refreshing and there's even a chilly breeze blowing constantly.

Hubby fishing at Kranji Reservoir

These are the things lao gong brought for fishing.

Fishing rod, reel and pouch with all his fishing accessories.

These are the things I brought.

LSBC Fun Day mat, water bottle, laptop, bible, favourite writing materials, sunblock, Elle magazine and a Christian book. Some other things that I brought but left in the car after lao gong hinted," You really want to bring ar?" LOVE notebook for personal reflections and dolphin notebook for bible study.

"You going fishing or what?" Haha I also say. But this is to ensure that I don't get bored. And it feels good to blog and read here in the fresh air surrounded by beautiful greenery and the clear waters of the reservoir. I never know how long I may have to stay here.

An earthworm hubby dug from the earth.

Waaaaa so clever like that also can. Haha but honestly I'm really amazed at the variety of things hubby can do. I was very protected as a young girl and never got to explore the nature much so everything I know about the wild is the Night Safari, food chains and food webs. I didn't know you can just take a twig from the ground, dig the earth beneath the grass and tada! out comes an earthworm to be used as a bait for fishing!

See the man over there? Something quite funny happened to him. I'll try to describe what happened as vividly as possible.

He was here before we came and didn't seem to catch any fish. As we were each minding our own business, a big bird came swooping onto the surface of the waters and took flight with something in its claw. While me and hubby were still exclaiming at how fast the bird was, this man's rod started shaking and he raced towards it, probably thinking that he had caught a fish. As he started reeling in his line, the line started coming up of the water from the other end.

The fish the bird caught was the man's bait! Instead of catching a fish, the man had his bait stolen by a big white bird. It was a live fish that the man paid for with his own money! It's pretty comical when you watch the whole scene unfold in front of you and you realise bit by bit what has happened. We didn't dare laugh blatantly but even the man's friend couldn't help smiling.

On a final note, I want to thank God for the beautiful places that He has created. God, you are amazing. Love ya Papa.

Nails

2008-08-16T13:16:00.002+08:00

Lao gong hasn't did my nails for quite a while. That day Wendy said," Hey I can see your toe nails for the first time!" Haha

Beige and red patterns on dark blue base

The blue is a very dark metallic blue from Face Shop. Thank U hubby!

Follow Up on "How to Make Big Money"

2008-08-16T12:36:00.005+08:00

Around 2 days after I posted my entry titled "How to make Big Money" which is about inventing an automatic cleaner that can clean the whole house for you, I found something that looks almost like it.

It doesn't make alot of noise when in use and cleans very well but it's big and bulky. Another huge disadvantage is that it doesn't operate as and when I want it to. I guess it's the best for me until I find my dream machine.

My Automatic Cleaning Machine Substitute

Lao gong I don't mean to joke about you. Just wanna say thank you for the clean windows. I thank God we stay on the first floor else I'll be very worried for you whenever you venture out to clean them so thoroughly. Thank you for cleaning not only the cobwebbed windows you saw in the living room but also for continuing with the job the next next day to clean the windows in the study room. Most of all, thank you for leaving me out of this noble job. I love you lao gong! Hugggs!!!

FOP 2008

2008-08-07T01:05:00.010+08:00

We nearly missed this year's FOP, until we ended up at Indoor Stadium after a stroll along Kallang River after a heavy steamboat dinner on Sat. As we were walking along the bridge, we heard snippets of the song Hosanna. Hillsong is here???

So we made last min arrangements and gathered those who might be free to go together on Sunday.

We met at 330pm, went for super early dinner at Old Airport Road before queueing for seats.

Queueing before the doors were opened

Fooling around while queueing

Yeah doors are opened!!!

An attempt at a candid shot

Sister's rebonded hair

Jingfang's new haircut, fresh from the oven

Where did the ladies go? To the ladies' of course

The admission cost

Thank God we paid our dues. We found summon letters on some of the cars near us.

How was FOP itself?

One word. Awesome. Yes the sound system, great singers and great music contributed to the atmosphere and upped the excitment everyone felt, but there was something that sets a worship concert apart from any other concerts. We were not exalting any ordinary human with a good voice or musical abilities. We were worshipping the Creator of the World, the Creator of us, the Lord and Redeemer of our Souls. Though the voices of the Hillsong team and the music they played was great, I think what sounds the most beautiful to God is the voices of His people singing as one unto Him, giving Him glory and expressing their love for Him.

I had a great time worshiping with Parachute and the Hillsong team. God, thank you for giving Your own Son to reconcile us back to you, for calling us to be your worshipers in spirit and in truth and for giving us the privilege to be called your child. I love you Lord.

How to make Big Money

2008-08-06T18:39:00.003+08:00

Yesterday hubby commented that there were cobwebs on our windows so we proceeded to springclean our house. I decided to be a good helper and proceeded to work on our bedroom.

These are things I did.
1) Wipe our bedside table and the walls beside our window.
2) Remove curtains
3) Remove bedsheet
4) Wash bedsheet and curtains
5) Hang back the curtains
6) Put on new bedsheets for my bed
7) Change quilt cover and pillow case
8) Fold a mountain of clothes
9) Hang the rest and pack them all in the cupboard

This took up the WHOLE of my afternoon! I felt so tired after that and yet the house is still far from clean.

Sometimes I envy Limiin for having a maid. Her house is soooo clean. Everything is dust-free, everything smells nice, there's no mountain of clothes to be washed, to be folded or to be hung up. Yet I'm not willing to sacrifice our privacy and 2-person-plus-2-dogs world to have an additional stranger in the house (though the cleanliness will be A-star).

If there's a machine that can clean every part of the house automatically, I'll surely buy it. Anyone who invents such a machine sure earn big money. From me, prob my mum, prob Miin, and prob most mummys.

Hong Kong 2nd - 4th Jul

2008-08-04T05:25:00.006+08:00

Presenting a photojournal of our second holiday in Hong Kong...

Maximum leg room How does the Caucasian endure the flight???

Our first and prob the only time taking Jetstar

Not that I rather spend more but I read an article on ST about some airfares being cheaper or only slightly higher than budget airfares during promos if you factor in the airport tax which is higher for budget airlines. Plus you don't get food, not even plain water (unless you pay) and for the amount (or lack) of leg room in the plane, I'd rather pay slightly more.

This time we booked the hotel and air tix on our own so we don't have anyone to pick us up. We bought a tourist card that allows you unlimited rides on the MTR for 3 days and 2-way travel from the airport via the airport express train to the city. Generally a good experience, the train was fast, seats were very comfortable, but you got to lug your baggages from the MTR all the way, by foot to the hotel.

The view from the airport express

Signboard that tells you how far you are from the next stop

We're reaching.....

For this trip, my itinerary included a long list of food recommended by foodies and I was quite excited about trying out the food that I had read so much about. (source: http://www.hktourismboard.com/seasia/snackguide/intro.html)

Our first food stop: YUNG KEE RESTAURANT

Best 'petan' I've ever tasted

This place was recommended for its roast goose but we found it so-so only. The roast goose we stumbled upon during our first trip was better but we can't remember whether we had it at near our hotel or somewhere near Ladies' Market and cos it's one of those restaurants we "stumbled" upon when we were 'dying of hunger', we didn't notice the name or address of the restaurant. We saw people at the table in front of us eating petan and the petan looked extremely delectable so we ordered a portion of it and it was reaaaaaaaallly good. I've never tasted petan like this before.
Then we went to the world's longest outdoor escalator that was built to ease traffic congestion.

The escalator is 800m long but there are breaks in between to allow you to get off. We were bored after the first stretch and quickly got off it.

Sights taken from the escalator

The apartment blocks look so oooooold...i feel so fortunate to live in Singapore...

Tea break was at Law Fu Kee (sounds like Lau Fu Zi hoh)

The boss came to take our order but I was busy reading my research findings to determine what dish to order so we told him to take our order later. He left us alone but not before giving us a dirty look and a frustrated sigh. Then my humorous hubby said I should have pointed to the poster stuck right in the middle of the shop.

Do you see the mini fan above the table?

The boutiques at Central...

I didn't buy anything from the boutiques...not even from the malls (except HnM)...I stuck to value-for-money buys at street markets throughout the whole trip cos my philosophy is: the point of going to HK to shop is not just for great looking clothes, which we also can find in Singapore (if you know where to go) but to find great looking clothes with great prices.

Omigosh!!!!

That's close to S$4m...

The $40m apartments behind the billboard (the small buildings on the topmost part of the photo)

View from Victoria's Peak

Supper: UNDER BRIDGE SPICY CRAB

A dish recommended by a warm & friendly uncle waiter from the restaurant

Signature Typhoon Shelter Spicy Crab

The crabs are imported from Southeast Asia, each weighing at least six katis. Once customers have made their choice, the crab is slaughtered and stir-fried with Japanese dried scallops, dried sole fish, cardamom, gingko nuts and spices like minced garlic and dried chillies. The spiciness can be adjusted to the customer’s taste. (source: http://www.hktourismboard.com/seasia/snackguide/intro.html)

Verdict: Finger-licking good

Salt & Pepper Mantis Shrimps

The shrimps are about the length of an arm but only one to two thirds of its parts can be eaten. These shrimps cost $25 each (if I remember correctly). Verdict: Worth every single cent and clamouring for more. Never tasted anything like this before. Ever.

Total bill for these 3 dishes: S$116

This is our most expensive meal not just during this trip, but thru'out all our honeymoons but it was...worth every single cent. Every dish was e.x.c.e.l.l.e.n.t.

Day 2
Breakfast: Lan Fong Yuen

Silk stocking tea (Si Wah Nai Cha)

Pork Chop Bun

We felt that the tea was so-so but the pork chop bun I tell you...the buns were well toasted with butter and the pork chop was well marinated...me and hubby chomped down a total of 3 of these...very satisfying breakfast!

Repulse Bay Beach: One of the 41 beaches in Hong Kong. This beach is supposedly one of the most popular beach there. The ride up the winding roads was fun, the scenery and billion-dollar bungalows were awesome but the sand was big and coarse, the waters was worse than East Coast. So, go for the scenery and experience but not if you're looking for white sandy beaches with fine sand and beautiful clear waters.

Some of the apartments right in front of the beach

We, the beach, the hills and the apartments

The scary ride down the hill

It was scary cos the roads were precarious and narrow but the drivers sped like nobody's business. Even when there were oncoming vehicles, they could maneuvere out of the way almost miraculously. If this was Singapore, sure kena fined like mad.

Old vs New

Somewhere in Central or Sheung Wan.

This photo was taken from one of the pillars in an MTR station. Without the model of course. The moment I saw it, I thought of Heli who I address as mei. So I thought it was the perfect backdrop for a poster for her. Doesn't it look like the advertisement for one of Jack Neo's movie? Mei ah, the part-time barista, detective and stand-in for liang popo.

My fav snack: Smelly beancurd

Our worst dinner: Claypot rice

The oyster cake from the same store that nearly saved the day

Day 3

Olympic torch?

Nah...just fooling around outside our hotel room

Breakfast at our fav dim sum restaurant

Table with drawer

Most of the eateries there have such tables. A clever invention indeed...

Yan Wo Soy Bean Shop (Hubby's fav eatery)

Dou Hua

Pan-fried toufu with fish paste. Unforgettable....

Pre-wrapped bouquets at Flower Street

That's slightly less than S$10. No wonder HK-ers can afford to be romantic every other day...

King of Melons

Roast goose: One of our fav dish

Waffle balls

Thank U lao gong for sacrificing your mekong catfish in BKK and for bringing me on this trip. Most of the time, the sun was blazing hot and the humidity was almost stifling, yet you trudged the streets with me every single day to scour for pretty clothes and bags with me. We went sight-seeing and shopped till my heels felt like there was hundred of mini soldiers hammering at them relentlessly and I know you must have felt worse cos your thighs were aching from your workout at the gym before we left for HK. I really appreciate you for all these things. Most imptly, thank God for providing for our honeymoons, for bringing us there and back safely and for all the things that we've enjoyed there. Even for the yucky claypot. At least I've gone for "HK's claypot pilgrimage" and tasted what they term as 'fragrant'.

Confessions

2008-08-04T05:00:00.003+08:00

For the sake of my loyal readers, I must make a confession.

I have not updated my blog for sooo long (despite the fact that my photos have all been uploaded into blogger) is because I have an affair with something else, and have dumped blogger (for the time being).

The one who commited 'adultery' with me was...Forensic Heroes II (HK drama). For 2 weeks, my routine has been:
1) Gym or Piano lesson or Miscellaneous stuff depending on what day it is, what time I woke up, and how lazy I feel.
2) Lunch
3) Head back to home
4) Give the dogs their cuddles
5) QT
6) Prepare for the day's lessons
7) Bathe n wash hair
8) Rush out (from my bedroom, not of my house) and teach tuition with my hair dripping wet most of the time
Tuition
Tuition
Tuition
9) Go out with hubby again for dinner
10) Come home
11) Feed the dogs and bring them out
12) Clear up my work for the day/ Practise piano
13) Bathe
By then it's 11am. Rush to watch our drama before we break our bedtime rules again

We have 3 more VCDs to go. I'm quite keen to embark on the bible study program led by Bishop Moses Tay after reading an article he wrote on the FOP mag. The article was quite insightful and I'm eager to learn more from him. The last time I was a student was 5 years ago. If I do sign up for it, I hope I wouldn't fall asleep when I go for the tutorials.

Back from Hong Kong

2008-07-11T16:01:00.005+08:00

Victoria's Peak

I'm back from Hong Kong. Some short updates before I lag in my entries again. This was a good trip but...we ended up being mroe tired than the first one. Hubby says it's because now I know the place better and I have some old shopping places to vist PLUS some new ones to go to. I didn't realise that we were squeezing in alot of places until the last day when he mentioned that his legs were aching badly and this trip seemed more tiring than the previous one. Sigh...poor hubby...really must change my way of planning the itinerary...

The summer sales was so so only. The really nice items are usually not on sale and the street markets also do not participate in the summer sales so...verdict is, it doesn't matter whether it's the sales period or not...just go when the weather is good. This time round the weather was like in Singapore except that we don't drive, take the MTR everywhere and most of the time we shop at street markets under the sweltering heat so you can imagine...

We ate alot more this time...every meal was good except for one that murdered our appetite for supper. According to the reviews I read, this was supposed to be the pilgrimage every claypot eater should go to but hmm, I guess our tastebuds differed from the Hong Kongers for claypot rice.

The highlight of this trip was Victoria's Peak! The skies were clear so we got a good view and it was really breathtaking. Wished we had brought a tripod there. And the houses on the hills...I think the Kar Shing guy stays there.

Some of the buildings are actually residential buildings...ooh to live in one like that...

The houses on the hills

Gotta run for tuition. Will post more photos another day!

HK here we come!

2008-07-01T00:57:00.003+08:00

We're leaving our house tmr at 4am to catch the 640am flight to Hong Kong and will be coming back on 4 July 815pm.

Actually this was supposed to be a BKK trip during the year end for hubby to go catch Mekong catfish but he decided to sacrifice his holiday destination for my dream holiday destination. Ever since we came back from Hong Kong, I have been longing to go back there and enjoy the long dim sum breakfast, walk on the busy streets, see the sights at Victoria Peak, eat the Roast Goose and Smelly beancurd etc etc.

Then hubby saw a promo on Jetstar of 50% discount on its air tickets so he asked me to seize the offer and book the tix there and then. We decided that since we were going back to Hong Kong, we might as well go while they are having their summer sales. So we brought forward our year end holiday to July.

Thank U hubby!!! This time round we're more well informed and better prepared for the trip. We've also decided not to squeeze too many places into our itinerary so that there wouldn't be the stress of running around trying to do too many things. Hee looking forward to the trip. I think many of you must be thinking I'm crazy for going again so soon but I really thank God for this blessing. Hong Kong here we come!!!

Rejoice for God is good!

2008-06-25T04:08:00.002+08:00

During the church camp and for a period after that, I was on spiritual high. All the worries that always nagged at me no longer seem to matter anymore. I was able to give all my problems to God and trust that He will take care of them. All this because my focus wasn’t on earning more money or some other worldly concern but on maintaining the closeness and the joy of experiencing God. But few days later, the usual emotions of day-to-day living started to seep in. Though I wasn’t back to square one, life doesn’t seem as victorious as it felt during the camp and the few days after. I felt worries and burdens tightening around my heart forcing out the sense of euphoria and victory I felt in my life few days ago. Mornings didn’t seem to be something to look forward to as opening my eyes meant opening them to a day of repetitive work and facing problems that have to be solved. I asked God why? There must be something to be learnt and maintained during the church camp. And God spoke.

James 1:11
For the sun comes up with a scorching heat and parches the grass; its flower falls off and its beauty fades away. Even so will the rich man wither and die in the midst of his pursuits.

Actually the basic principle in life to be happy is to live for God. If we were to live for any of these things; career, family, money, pleasure, we will never be always joyful. I mean these things do matter to us but what I mean is, if these are our main focus in life, we will never be happy. The only way to be happy is to live for God. Whatever position we are at in life, whether we have this or that, whether we don’t have this or that, we should have the basic understanding that it is natural for us to be joyful. For we have the greatest gift of all, Jesus Christ.

Why then are we still not able to rejoice? We are so quick to be negative and slow to recognize the blessings in our life. When was the last time we felt immense gratitude for what He has already given us? Contrast this with ‘when was the last time we feel depressed about the lack of something that we yearn for but has not been given to us?’

If we live for God, it wouldn’t be so difficult to be joyful. If the purpose of our life is to glorify God, is to be His messenger of good news, His servant to be a source of blessing to others, our eyes will not be turned inwards to our own lives and we automatically stop seeing how pathetic we are because we don’t have this or that. Conversely, as we continuously share of His goodness to people around us, singing His praises, glorifying His name and sharing the gospel, we are constantly reminded of the blessings He has given to us. As we share the gospel, we are reminded once again of how we were slaves to sin and dead in our transgressions and the amount of love and grace God has on us to sacrifice His one and only Son to suffer and die for us on the cross so that we can be glorified and redeemed. When we are able to do that, there is really then nothing to be sad about but lots to rejoice about.

Romans 12:2
Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

If we do not follow the pattern of this world, but are transformed in our mind - that every breath we take is to live for God, then we will be able to test and gain experience and evidence of what His will is. His good, pleasing and perfect will. We no longer share with people by empty words that mean nothing when we say that becoming a Christian is the best thing that can happen to us, but we can say it with conviction and really mean it with our hearts.

Matthew 6:33
But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

God also reassured me that whatever I’m concerned about, He is also concerned about. But I really need to realign my focus in life. Otherwise, I cannot genuinely claim to be a follower of Christ. I cannot genuinely claim to live for Christ when my emotions are still governed by my problems and worries. As I align my focus back to God, He can then mold me to Christ likeness, and all the other things will be given. Solutions will just come automatically by inspiration. I really don’t need to fret or to let matters hog my mind because as I look to Him, He will give me the best.

My mind is still undergoing the renewal process. I need to constantly remind myself that to live is to live for Him, and nothing else. I can’t fully understand yet, that’s why I keep falling back. But by faith I cling on and meditate on His words, that one day I will truly understand and be transformed. As I meditate on all that God has spoken to me in answer to that one question, I can truly feel it in my heart; God really is good!

Church camp '08

2008-06-25T03:48:00.010+08:00

I'm back from church camp. And I'm blogging. Finally. Late as usual. But better than never! Some photos to share just a fraction of how much I've enjoyed myself at this year's church camp. So sad the next combined church camp is going to be 2 years from now. Ah!!! I really really really hope it's gonna be at Times Square again. I still enjoy the ultra big hotel room with it's living area, bedroom, mini kitchen and mega toilet, the shopping, the street food, the Starbucks, the everything and everything.

At Foot Master

Clockwise from top left corner : Before our fish-foot experience, fishes feasting on Andy Quek's feet, hubby and me getting our feet washed so that we wouldn't poison the fishes too badly with our dirty feet.

Foot Reflexology after that My hubby, the sacrifical husband cum masseuse

Wendy's Cell, gathered here...below the Wendy poster...

Pearlyn piggy-backing me.

I was so worried that her bones would break! Look at how skinny her arms and legs are!

Me n hubby in our hotel room

Char Kway Tiao and Haams...Sedap.....

SIA gal very very happy with her haam

Family photo of our cell @ Supper!!!

Home Sweet Home!!!

Overworked hubby

2008-06-08T01:25:00.004+08:00

We got our Subaru Impreza a few days ago. Finally. Since then, hubby has been trying to get used to the car and driving me around.

Today we went NTU. So happy. Graduated almost 5 years ago and have been wanting to go back there but it's like almost on another island. Now got car, everywhere also can go. NTU not only brings back memories of my school days but also brings back memories of when we first got together. We went to visit the places where I spent most of my time dancing and studying, visited my hostel and went to all the canteens that we gorged at.

Many things in NTU has changed. New blocks have sprung up, others are undergoing renovation, and sad to say, many of our favourite food stalls are no longer around. But the school has still retained most of its culture and "feel". Canteen 2, famous for having the best food in NTU is still the best canteen but most of the food stalls have changed. Now most of the food stalls are some famous food from different places. Hubby tried the chicken rice from (forgot what place) and I tried the Western food from Old Airport Road. Feels so good to eat sirloin steak at $4 and iced milk tea at $0.60. Really enjoyed myself in this trip down memory lane.

Canteen 2

Us with our 'Old Airport' Western food

After dinner at 6 plus, hubby said," Bi, can we go home? I'm really tired and I miss home." Felt so tickled and touched at the same time when I heard it. Hubby is still relatively new in driving and being on the road so much has drained him of his energy, yet he is still so willing to drive me wherever I want to go to make me happy. Thank you hubby. And thank you God for the car. After we came home, hubby washed the car while I sat inside and played hp games to accompany him, then watched 'My Girl'. Definitely a fun and relaxing weekend =)

Hong Kong 3D2N Free and Easy

2008-05-25T23:28:00.040+08:00

Sin-HK 0640am Changi Airport Terminal 3

Our 1st time taking such an early flight. An exciting experience that we both looked forward to. We woke up at 3am, brushed our teeth, changed, and after patting the dogs and explaining to them that we would be away for 3 days, we left the house at 4am. (Actually I didn't sleep the whole night. Partly because while doing the final research on Hong Kong, I got so excited I couldn't sleep. The other reason was because I had just received a pressie from hubby that made me unable to sleep too. )

The Present without a Reason

Actually Andy Quek wanted to get his babe Pearlyn a Gucci for her birthday. So we went along with them to the Gucci boutique in Taka after church on Sunday. Me and hubby acted as their bags carrier and gave our two cents worth to Ms Pea for her choice of her Gucci. Itchy me went to try this bag and that bag and took a liking to this one. Hubby noticed how much I liked this sling bag so he got one for me a few days later as a surprise gift. Thank you hubby!!!

Sunrise

Reminds me of our Geography textbook

Another photo on the Sunrise

Sea of clouds

Finally we arrived in Hong Kong at around 1030am. But we waited till 12plus before the travel agent sent us to the hotel cos we had to wait for another family that wasn't out yet. It was a long wait that dampened our spirits abit cos we didn't come to Hong Kong to sit around the airport and do nothing for almost 2 hours and the inital euphoria of starting our holiday early in the morning was dissipating. (Next time we will book our own tix, book our own hotel and take the MTR from the airport to the hotel ourselves.)

Finally on the road

I love the hills, mountains and the vast ocean (or sea?) in Hong Kong. It's something we'll never see in Singapore except maybe Bukit Gombak, which falls far behind in comparison.

In the coach

While taking this photo, we were very curious as to what the temperature in Hong Kong was like. For almost 3 hours, we had been sitting in air-conditioned places and had not felt what the outdoor temperature was like, though I had read that it's actually the hot and humid season now.

After we reached our hotel (Largos, former Mayfair Garden), the first stop was of course, food! My book from Lonely Planet wrote alot about Korean food, Jap, food etc but did not write on the coffee houses in Hong Kong or the every day food that Hong Kongers ate so we didn't really know what to eat or where to go. Oh yes back to the weather. God is good! Though we're supposed to be in the "bad months", our first though as we walked on the streets was, "Is that the air-cond blowing from inside the electronic shop?" It was like having an air conditioner everywhere we went but it wasn't shivering cold. Excellent!

A common cafe along the rows of shophouses

Looks so Hong Kong right? The boss muttered a long string of phrase to us in Cantonese and we gave him a blur look. My grasp of Hong Kong is limited to karaoke songs while hubby's understanding is better but you just got to speak slooowly. So we replied in Chinese and asked him for recommendations. Hubby had Hainanese chicken rice while I had Suan La Mian (Sour and Spicy noodles) both of which was good but forgettable. However, we discovered our first favourite drink there, iced coffee. It tastes very different from the ones we have in Singapore, slightly caramelish and very fragrant.

A street in Kowloon

There's so many of everything in Hong Kong. Including people. This was a Wednesday afternoon along a common street yet there's still so many people walking around. The buzz makes one feel excited but it's also a high stress place. Everything's done very quickly, people walk pretty quickly. They even fall quickly and climb up quickly. During our 3 day stay, we had already seen 3 people falling down, one of which was knocked down by a cab.

Goldfish street, Flower Street and Bird Street clockwise from top left: goldfish street, bags of grasshoppers for birds, flower street and bird street

After food, the next stop is shopping! The first day's itinerary was to conquer all the street markets starting from Tung Choi St. I read about the flower markets and bird markets and since it was nearby, we went to take a look at those streets. Hong Kong really has alot of everything. At flower street, there was bouquets of flowers shop after shop followed by potted flowers and then potted plants. Each bouquet of flowers had around 12 stalks flowers with all the other fillers and it only cost around S$10. A pity we didn't take photos of those bouquets. We'll definitely go there again the next time we visit Hong Kong and I'm determined to endure the hostile faces of the shopkeepers and snap a photo of those bouquets.

A quick snap as we passed by the sunflowers

Shy Macaw along Bird Street

The itinerary for our first night was to visit the Tsim Sha Tsui Promenade for the view along Victoria Harbour, catch the Symphony of Lights and on the way take a look at the Avenue of Stars. (The Symphony of Lights is a daily light show from 8 - 820pm involving some 20 buildings on the Hong Kong skyline.) Along the way, we asked a hotel recept for directions and was told that there might not be a Symphony of Lights as it was supposedly suspended for 3 days in lieu of the Sichuan Earthquake. Nevertheless, we said our prayers and charged (walked) all the way from Jordan to Tsim Sha Tsui. God didn't disappoint us. The night we were there, the light show was resumed!

The view didn't disappoint but it could have been better if not for the fog.

A Short Segment of the Show

We met a group of cyclists just outside the viewing platform at the Promenade. Maybe it was a campaign for the Sichuan Earthquake?

Exhilarated after catching the show and taking in the mesmerising view Avenue of Stars

Actually there wasn't anything much there. Just statues and tributes of the celebrities in Hong Kong. Throughout our stay, we kept dreaming of seeing our favourite stars in person, Andy Lau for us, Michelle Reis...but no. We only saw a couple busy kissing among hundreds of people along the Promenade. They were smooching away like some scene in a NC-16 movie. Ewwww...

After Tsim Sha Tsui, I was too tired to walk back to Yau Ma Tei so we took the MTR. It's super convenient in Hong Kong. Everywhere you go, just catch the MTR, (our version of MRT) and even if you get lost, just hop onto the MTR to go to where ever you want to go.

Xu Liu Shan

The mango dessert at this famous dessert shop is pretty expensive. We shared a bowl first to 'test waters' and never came back here again. Not that it wasn't good. It just wasn't good enough to stop us from trying the desserts at other dessert shops. Next was Ladies' Market and Temple St Market. We were too busy shopping and the streets were so chock full of people I didn't bother to take anymore photos. Didn't buy alot of stuff too. Designs were so-so and prices weren't that low. Just wanted to make wise purchases and not waste money on things that I wouldn't wear or use for long.

After that we ate again! We had supper along Temple St after shopping and that was around 12 plus. My lack of sleep was making me woozy by then.

Had a very good night's sleep after watching a Cantonese drama serial in our hotel room and woke up to a morning of Dim Sum. We asked the hotel staff for recommendations and when we said," Is there any good Tim Sum restaurants around?" He looked at us with a blur look. After a few more attempts by us, he then said, "Oh you mean Dim Sum!" What's the diff between Tim Sum and DDDDDim Sum???

Initially I was disappointed that this restaurant didn't have waitresses pushing carts of bamboo baskets of dim sum around. Instead, the waitresses just take your orders and serve you wjatever you order. But when I tasted the porridge and Shrimp Rice Roll, I was transformed to Crystal Jade in Singapore. Not that I ever tried the Dim Sum there but I guess it would have tasted something like this. And the whole meal cost us less than S$20 for 2 of us. Few hours later I was already thinking of my dim sum breakfast the next morning.

The main itinerary for Day 2 was Ocean Park. I wanted to take the cable car ride and see the Pandas. The tix were quite expensive but it already includes all the rides and shows there so we can't complain much. When we reached Ocean Park, it was raining quite heavily. Hubby didn't want me to be disappointed and bout an expensive Ocean Park umbrella for S$16 but the rain stopped shortly. Thank God. But we didn't regret buying the brolly. It's a souvenir that helps bring back memories of Ocean Park for us and how God just answered every prayer in our holiday.

Escalators in Ocean Park

Ocean Park is built on a hilly plot of land so there are lots of steep slopes which translates to loooong escalators. Even the escalator ride for us was fun.

Stingray Pool

I had my first touch of these batlike water creatures. Their skin feels very slimy, soft and firm but I had fun doing that after screaming a few times initally. I asked hubby not to kill the stingrays next time he goes fishing. I've sort of developed a liking for these animals after the encounter with them.

hubby, me and an eagle in the background

Me with the ferris wheel and other rides in the background

Aquarium, Hong Kong's equivalent to Singapore's Underwater World

Jellyfish World

The long awaited cable car ride!

Ying Ying n Lele

Can you spot the different characteristics of the 2 pandas? The first one prefers to pull the stalks through his mouth and collects a bunch of shoots before he starts to munch on them while the 2nd one just chomps down the shoots one by one.

After that we had roasted goose for lunch. Like what Stacia described in her blog, it was as though the goose had bee marinated for a year. Ooooh I'm so glad we tried this dish here. It just tastes so heavenly and the best duck stall here can't beat that.

Outside an electronics store in Kowloon

This pretty dog caught the attention of many passers-by cos he just sat near the entrance of the store like an ornament with a Samsung lanyard around his neck. So cute!

Our one and only western meal

We had dinner at a western restaurant on Day 2 cos we were so tired and wanted to enjoy dinner with a nice ambience. The food was good, but nothing compared to the roasted goose and dim sum. We had borsch soup, a gigantic pork knuckle and sirloin steak that tasted a bit like beef satay. The soup, bread and prok knuckle was good and it only set us back S$26 so 2 thumbs up to this restaurant!

Day 1 night and day 2's shopping was much more fruitful. We even bought a big oil painting for S$73 to hang in our tv room.

Day 3 was spent in a frenzy of shopping and revisiting some shops. We ended the holiday with our last serving of half a goose and our last cup of iced coffee.

While checking in for our flight back to Singapore, I was feelings super exhausted from lack of sleep accumulated over 3 nights, including the night I didn't sleep after receiving my present so I didn't really bother to ask for a window seat. I regretted it after I took my seat in the plane but was comforted by the thought that at least I've had the experience of NOT having a window seat for the first time.

While flipping through the United Airlines mag, hubby pointed out to me a pair of earrings that I wanted to buy at the Temple Street Market. I jokingly told him, "Ya lo...very nice right, but my hubby say that one is imitation cannot buy." It didn't occur to me hubby would take that remark seriously until later on when I came back to my seat from the ladies, I saw hubby speaking to an air stewardess. I asked him what he was asking her for and he said nothing. That caught my attention cos usually hubby will just tell me exactly what he had said. I mean he can't have said nothing to the air stewardess right?

Hubby then said he wanted to go to the Gents and stayed there for quite a while. I then saw an air stewardess running along the aisle on the other side of the plane with a S$10 note in her hand. Now that was really perculiar and I thought, "Oh no. Is he going to buy me the real thing and pay a few hundred for sterling silver???" I quickly flipped through the mag to check out the price of the earrings which I forgot later on cos when hubby returned to his seat, he told me the queue was very long and after a long while, he didn't pass me any surprise present or anything. I thought it must have been me thinking too much into things and told hubby everything and he laughed at me so I thought it MUST really have been my imagination.

At home while I was in our room doing my own things, hubby suddenly came to me with a green box wrapped with a chocolate ribbon. Tears rolled down my eyes as he told me how his heart fell when I commented that the raindrop earrings was very nice but I didn't get it. He apologised for his negligence regarding a matter years ago and how he's making an effort to be extra nice to me not because he wants to make up for it but just because he wants to be extra nice to me.

Though this was an extravagant gift, it's a reflection of the love my God has for me and the love He has passed on to hubby for me. I know it wasn't natural for hubby to be romantic and how much embarassment he had to go through to whisper to the air stewardess and involve the whole crew in his secret (he didn't have the exact amount and the online mall doesn't give you change for your purchases . The air stewardesses, knowing that it was a surprise a man had for his wife wanted to help him so they went all out to change money for him. That's why there was an air stewardess running down the aisle with a S$10 note in her hand.)

Dorfman Sterling Raindrop Earrings

Though this pair of earrings are not made of precious metal, they will always be my most precious pair of earrings. Thank you God. Thank you hubby!

23 March 2008 - Our Baptism

2008-05-25T21:30:00.003+08:00

23 March 2008 marks a very special event in our lives. It's Easter Day, the day Jesus resurrected 3 days after His death and crucifixion, and it's also the day that my parents, sister me and hubby were all baptised together!

I thank God so much for the salvation of all 5 of us. We did not come from Christian families, and all of us had our own history of worshipping idols, yet God by His grace opened our eyes to recognise Him as our Creator and our God. With God, life has become an exciting journey of being molded by Him, an exhilarating trip of taking little steps of faith and obedience and seeing the results that provides blessings money can't buy. Thru' these 5 years of my journey with God, I've gotten to see more and more of his love and grace, of how He's always right, even when the things He say at times seem downright weird. At the end of the day I can't help but marvel at how deep His wisdom is in knowing that things would turn out a certain way. Yes many times I forget that He was the one who created the magnificent canyons, the beautiful sunset, the breathtaking views atop a mountain...many times these are just head knowledge and I take it for granted...

I also thank Him for how much He has changed me....though i'm far from being perfect, I know I am so much happier because He has changed my attitude, not because He has changed my circumstances. I thank God for how I no longer need to struggle and strive, but I can rely on my Father to take care and provide for me. I don't need to defend myself, because He is my Defender. All I have to do is to enjoy the work He has given me, to constantly be thankful of all that He has given me, and to continue to let His words come alive in me.

Few days ago, hubby said this to me, "It's no use setting an agenda and reading your bible everyday faithfully if the words doesn't change you. His words are supposed to be life, but if you just read them and forget about them, they are just words." I realise that yes, I've been reading faithfully but I have not allowed His words to change my heart. Alot of times I change my actions or my words but I insist on thinking the same way I used to think about certain things that I'm opinionated about. Hubby went on further to say that when we try to change by our human efforts, we'll end up very tired and results would be minimal. We should take more time to meditate on God's Word and to reflect on ourselves. It's very tiring and at times difficult to admit that alot of times, the reasons behind our unhappiness is actually ourselves. So must really take time to pray and reflect and dig deep within ourselves what is really wrong. Is it a fear, a selfishness or disbelief that causes us to think a certain way, act a certain way and end up feeling a certain way. After identifying the root, then it's time to meditate on God's Word and keep on praying. Then He will answers ALL our questions by the gentle voice of the Holy Spirit and we will find the answer. For He says, Ask and you will receive. Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened to you. The key is will, not might. Ahhh our God is an awesome God!!!!

During our Hong Kong trip, i had a personal encounter with God when my hubby fellout with me. I thank God that this time my hubby's heart was hardened against me and he didn't relent and give in to me. That was when I was desperate and ran to God. That was when I heard God's voice and understood what was best for me. These days I feel much lighter and happier. Even the way I play my piano has changed.

Though God is still far from being done with me, I just want to publicly thank Him and give Him all the glory. When I blamed Him and turned away from Him, Jesus was saddened but He never turned away from me. When I gave up trying to change, He never gave up trying to talk sense into me. Theres's still alot more exciting things from God that I've yet to understand and receive from Him. But i'm excited and looking forward to what is to come!

Happy 'Birthday' to us all!

Thank you everyone who was there to witness our baptism. Thank you for your love, your prayers, the flowers and other gifts that you have blessed us with!

Update 3

2008-05-15T01:56:00.009+08:00

1) Hubby bought me a new toy. A Canon Ixus 75. Now i can take pictures with my beautiful camera!

2) Hubby bought me another new toy. A portable photo printer. Now I can print photos while on holiday, in any size I want, and even print photos in collage or with text and edits in it. Hee!

These are some photos we took with my new toy.

Haha i feel so blessed.... =)

3) I bought hubby a new toy, the O2 Zinc pda phone. I dropped hubby's Palm Treo and the LCD screen cracked. Hubby dropped it so many times and nothing happened. Don't know why I had to spoil the most expensive component when I dropped it. We still prefer the Palm but it cost almost the same to repair it and to buy a new phone.

4) While shopping for a new phone for hubby, I fell for pda phones. I was never a fan of handheld organizers and had always preferred the traditional pen and paper but somehow the pda thingy rubbed off me and I fell for the Palm Centro. I had to squash the urge to buy the phone without contract. It's one thing to receive pressies and another to ask for things. And it's a big waste of money to buy phones at retail prices. So yes, I just have to admire hubby's O2 zinc for now. Wo ren!!!!! Hubby if you're reading this, pls don't buy the Palm Centro for me hoh. It's really a waste of money. Besides, a better phone may come up when your contract expires =)

Update 2

2008-05-15T01:16:00.017+08:00

We had our Canon Camera repaired before we went Bintan and I found some old photos in it. Today I happened to take a picture of Ah Boy and noticed that he was in the same adorable position he favored as a puppy, except now he has grown from cute to charming.

Ah boy at 3 months old

Look at all the puffy baby hair he has.

Ah boy now at 5 years old

Ugly Teenager boy and puppy Mei

Ah mei's 1st batch of babies

Puppy Ger

An older Ger but still with a puppy look

This is me and my boyfriend-turned-hubby taken 3 years ago

Abba Father, I thank you for all the beautiful memories, my adoring husband, and the 2 beautiful doggies we have now. Thank U for everything!!!!

Updates 1

2008-05-15T00:55:00.004+08:00

I've thought about it. One way to come round the problem is to speed up the process by NOT trying to chronologicalise everything. Esp when there's just too many updates to fill in. I shall just randomly update anything that comes to my mind.

1) Hubby passed his driving last Tuesday! It was really by grace and a confirmation from God that we can buy car cos

A) Hubby didn't go for many driving lessons after the first time he failed. He basically just went for 2 the week before and another one on the day of his exam.
B) This is the 2nd time hubby took the driving exam.
C) The 1st time hubby failed, we knew that everything is by grace. Before the exam, you're supposed to draw lots to 'pick' ur tester. Hubby kena the Mr. Strictest of the Strictest. Meaning he's reputed for not passing anyone. Since drawing lots was something that people did in the bible, we know in our hearts that God was the one who gave hubby Mr Strictest of the Strictest.
D) This time round hubby din pick Mr Strictest of the Strictest. FIY, another girl picked him and yes, he failed her too. This was her 3rd attempt, and it so happened that her 1st attempt she picked him too. Which means he has failed her twice. Hai...
E) During the exam, the tester was very blunt with my hubby. Kept criticising his driving, passing many negative comments. At one point, he asked hubby why was he driving so slowly?! But hubby drove slowly cos Mr. Strictest of the Strictest criticised him for driving too fast. At another point, he even criticised hubby so badly and said that the student taking the driving lessons down the road was driving better than him (my hubby). This made hubby so demoralised that he turned into the wrong lane. Which spurred on another slew of criticism from the tester again.
F) When the tester sat down to calculate the demerit points hubby got, hubby could see that he was actually striking off some of the things that he wanted to penalise hubby for.
G) Finally hubby got 18 points. The passing point is 20 points. Anything above that means you fail.
H) Mr. Tester then handed hubby his 'report card'. Hubby saw a tick at the pass box and a cross at the fail box. He was so stunned he asked Mr. Tester," Does this mean I passed?" It was truly favor from God that resulted in favor from men. Mr. Tester turned out to be a daddy figure in the disguise of a fierce policeman. He scolded hubby somemore, then smiled at him before saying," Drive carefully yah!"
God is so awesome when He works in our lives!

2) So with this confirmation from God, we booked our Subaru Impreza last Friday =) We should be getting it sometime next week. Ah I can't wait!

3) I have been extremely busy and overworked these past few weeks due to my students' mid year exams. Next week is my official one week break. I won't even have piano lessons next week. Yeah!

4) During my one week break, we're going Hongkong for 3 days! I wanted 4 but we couldn't bear to leave the dogs alone for too long and anyway, we're flying off early in the morning and coming back late in the evening so ok, not so bad.

5) I'm now busy with my piano lessons, which is getting harder and harder =( and trying to finish up my lonely planet on Hongkong to get the best out of our trip. I realised the zoo in Hongkong is free. So different from Singapore. And it's not a substandard zoo according to Lonely Planet. It has erm dunno how many varieties of bla bla bla and bla bla bla. Forgive me I have never been good at remembering terms and stats. I just highlight and remember briefly that if possible we can visit the zoo.

Ok these are the top 5 things I can remember now. Photo updates coming up!

"If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him." John 7: 37-38

Arghhh

2008-05-15T00:53:00.002+08:00

Half an hour after connecting my Sony Ercisson to my pc, my pc turned its back on me and hung. I couldn't even stay connected to blog. Hai...I think I should get used to blogging without photos now and then.

I'm back!

2008-05-14T23:41:00.003+08:00

Hehe so paiseh. I've been missing in action MIA for more than a month. I just realised that my last posting was 3 April, 1 month 11 days as of today. So many things to update. I realise one problem is that i have this almost obssesive instinct to upload photos to accompany every post and sometimes my pc hangs when i transfer photos from my camera or hp to it so everything becomes very leh che..ok not at excuse. i must still find a way to come round it!

Ai Xin nails by hubbyDark red base with beige flowers on the thumbs and dotted patterns on the fingers

Speech n Drama Class

2008-04-03T02:08:00.004+08:00

Sometime last year, the Engs started a speech and drama class. Our very first participant was Ah ger, and her role was Casper the Friendly Ghost-Dog. Below is a video of her in class.

As you can see in the video, towards the end, ah boy was jealous at the attention she was getting as the one and only lead actress and tried to get rid of her from the class. Haha

God our Amazing Creator

2008-03-29T02:46:00.003+08:00

Saw this video from Joanna's friendster and just had to put it up here.

Valentine's Day

2008-03-22T23:50:00.005+08:00

This is the second year we're spending Valentine's Day as a married couple. A week before that, I've already started badgering my hubby. I told him I didn't want him to waste any money on overpriced flowers. So he asked me ,

"Ok , no presents?"

Being a girl, I'm not 100% practical so I went,

"Erm but you can get something small. I don't need expensive presents, just something to know that you care about me more as a wife than as a girlfriend."

On the day itself, he went to Cold Storage as was his usual practice to buy the ingredients for cooking a nice steak for us.

He came home with 2 innocent looking bags of groceries and I didn't suspect anything. The thing is both of us have freelance jobs so we see each other alot at home which means that it's very difficult for him to do anything in secret at home.

After dinner, hubby gave me 2 presents.

Flowers, which I secretly hoped for but would definitely not pay an exorbitant price for and a notebook, both prepared while I was giving tuition.

He came up with another advantage of living on ground floor-->The hubby can sneak flowers through the window into the master bedroom even though the wife is in the living room, where she has full view of her hubby the moment he walks into the house.

Here's my home-wrapped roses, lavender and some flowers that are white but turn purple when in full bloom.

He got everything from Cold Storage and cut off all the thorns on the rose stems so that I wouldn't cut myself =P

Precious moment notebook with crystals and our photo.

Thank you lao gong, for all your efforts at caring for me and for thinking of all kinds of ideas just to bring a smile on my face.

I love you lao gong, and I really thank God for you =)

Birthday Celebrations (By special request from Cynthia)

2008-03-22T21:12:00.010+08:00

Last week was a flurry of birthday celebrations for us, and 3 of them came from our home cell.
Starting with Joel, whose birthday is on 9 March...

We had dinner at Hard Rock Cafe...

2 slices of ice cream cake from us and an ice dream dessert on the house for the birthday boy

Happily digging into his cakes

Joel and Mel

Cynthia and Bryan's Celebrations

We had dinner at Pasta Mania, one of Cynthia's favourite restaurant, followed by Karaoke at our place...

Jingfang feeling so at home in our tv room

Birthday Pals, Bryan(7 March) and Cynthia (19 March)

And the rest of us who were present. Shawn is behind the camera

Happy birthday all you lovely people...may God bless u abundantly and may He satisfy your hearts' desires!

Our CNY Bintan Trip

2008-03-07T23:46:00.012+08:00

When you're on a holiday, you're just in the mood to take pictures. Even if it's a cab ride in Singapore to the ferry terminal.

At the ferry terminal waiting for our ferry

Last year, we didn't go to the terminal particularly early and ended with 'bad' seats so we decided to go earlier this year and grab some good seats. For some reason, they changed the name of our ferry and many of the passengers seemed to know it except us and a few others. Our ferry was supposed to be at 1030am and at 1020am, me and hubby were wondering whether our ferry was late.

The gate had already opened but because we weren't aware of the change, we just kept sitting there, thinking that we were going to get good seats. At 1030am while I was on the way out from the ladies, I heard 'Eng Kee Wee' and I thought maybe I heard wrongly. Then I heard 'Tan Hui Ling' and I started running to hubby and we had to rush with our bags and all for the last call. Oh man. So much for getting good seats. We ended up in the open-air upper deck and we had to endure 2.5 hrs of the wind whipping in our faces and the glare of the sun and I didn't have my sunglasses with me. Haha quite funny. We had planned to watch a nice movie on our laptop but the sound of the wind was too great and we could only manage probably half an hour's sleep. Haha...

Our 'Alfresco' Seats

We finally reached the harbour

It was very nice to see familiar faces the moment we reached the harbour at Tanjung Pinang. The guide from the resort recognised us from our previous trip and readily agreed to bring us to buy firecrackers. Last year we bought our firecrackers from the resort which was more expensive and of fewer variety.

Firecrackers stall

The entrance of the farm resort we stayed at last year

Driving to our beach resort

Direct sea view from our room

We stayed on the 2nd level, 2nd unit from the right

It was low tide when we reached so we explored the beach and the resort.

Thousands of mini crabs during low tide

Don't they look like aliens. Me and hubby would just spot the troopers from far and run into them to watch how they scatter and run into their holes. Actually the 1st day was hubby running to them and me screaming as he dragged me along.

Lunch was...

Ikan bilis fried rice

Sambal kangkong which tastes different from the ones we have in Singapore. I prefer our local version...

and tom yum kung...

which was also different from the authentic Thai style. I think it was Indonesian style, and I prefer the authentic Thai ones.

Homemade lemon tea

Moral of the story: When you're in another country, order their local food. It would usually taste nicer, like the Indonesian Ikan bilis fried rice.

Dinner was...

Indonesian fried kampung chicken which we liked

Fried cap chai, which was also good...

and calamari rings (pic unavail). We learnt our lesson from the lunch we ordered.

After dinner it was firecracker time!

NB: Some of the videos were taken horizontally and I can't rotate them the other way. Sorry!

Flying Firecracker
I forgot the name of this firecracker but it sort of flies up once it's ignited.

In my hurry to fling away the ignited cracker, I didn't 'aim' properly and the firecracker ended up flying into the water. You can even hear the "doop".

Colourful Chrysanthemum

This is all I have for this firecracker. It sort of spins like a mad cracker but I find that it looks more like an insect than a chrysanthemum. Then again they can't call it colourful insect right...

Dinosaur Eggs

This is one of my favourite but it's not those spectacular kind. I was so tempted to bring some back since it looks so much like chocolates but the man of the house said No.....

Triple Report Rocket

Twisty Kicks

Each cracker lets out 8 shots. The wind was so strong you can see the sparks being blown off.

Hubby says that firecrackers are dangerous as you don't know when one might be faulty and it may explode in 4s, like what happened to Achmed instead of a few seconds so it's better not to go too near the cracker when lighting it. So it's not good to use a lighter, which is short and very flammable. So what did we use? Joss stick.

Me: Where are we going to get joss sticks here?

LG: There's an altar over there.

Me: What? You want to use the idol's joss sticks?

LG: Why not?

And he procceeded to 'kop' the idol's joss stick.

Me: Hey don't you have to pray or something? Moreover we're living by the sea....(I was reminded of the water ghost shows I watched when I was young)

LG: We have God with us. The spirits are more afraid of us than we are of them.

Actually I agree with him. The spirits only have as much power as you believe in them. But it was spooky going so near to the altar and seeing your hubby put his hand right in to get the joss sticks.

Below is a video of a firecracker lighted up by other merrymakers. It was also sold at the stall we bought ours but the cracker looked so huge hubby said better not. Dangerous. But after seeing how others used it, we're gonna try it ourselves next year.

We were standing about 3 metres away from the other group so when the crackers shot up, it landed right above us which was very scary. It sounded so near to us and the sparks looked like they were falling on us. We ended up trying to escape from underneath all that sparks, scuttling backwards and looking out for rocks while taking a video all at the same time.

Knowing that there's nothing much to do at the resort except relax at the beach, we rented 5 movies (a package) from EzyVideo to bring along to the resort. We stayed up watching movies and woke up so late the next morning we missed the breakfast.

Brunch @ Tropicana Restaurant

We were too hungry and half-asleep to take pictures of our food...

Dinner was...

Mixed vege soup Very tasty...

Cereal Prawns so-so

and Gong gong

The sambal balachan was different from the ones we have in Singapore and yes, I prefer the Singapore kind.

Low tide. Notice how far off we are from shore.

This is the hot spot for firecrackers.

We get a good view from our room on the left. Even before we went for dinner while catching our evening movie, merrymakers were already starting to light their firecrackers.

The bridge connecting the Sun Moon Restaurant to the resort.

Back View of the Sun Moon Restaurant

We usually have our lunch and dinner there while breakfast is at the Tropicana Restaurant at the reception area.

The benches outside for Alfresco dining

Another part of the resort behind the Sun Moon Restaurant

This year the water wasn't as clear due to the post monsoon period...but it was still beautiful, at least to me...

Preparation to go snorkeling

Lao gong braided my hair for me so that it wouldn't get all tangled up when we go snorkeling. But in the end we didn't snorkel cos the post-monsoon waters were too murky to see clearly so we went to the white sands beach instead.

White Sands beach We had to take the speedboat out as it was on a separate island from the resort.

Big waves

We ended our holiday with a sumptuous lunch aat the Sun Moon Restuarant.

Watermelon juice

$4 beer

Live crabs

Sambal kangkong again

Large calamari rings

A final 15mins by the beach

Lanterns decorating the streets of Tanjung Pinang for Chinese New Year

Final verdict: I felt very well rested after the trip and would definitely go back again.

Total damage: $388 package for 2 + $147 for food & all other expenses

Feel so blessed

2008-02-21T01:26:00.002+08:00

Lao gong made me egg mayo sandwich for supper. I was so touched that he took the extra effort to cut baby tomatoes to add into the sandwich even though he's sick. So sweet....

Finally conducted my first latin dance class after so many years.

I gotta go write mei's autograph then I can update my blog more.

Stay tuned for bintan pictures!

A Brand New Look

2008-01-31T01:15:00.000+08:00

Another overdue assignment. A new blog look for the new year! Took me almost two hours to fine tune it!

A long overdue random post

2008-01-29T22:23:00.000+08:00

What does this look like to you?

A normal stone?

Nope. It's a piece of my wall =(

Last year, as a "year-end bonus" for me, we bought a karaoke set. Finally! I had been waiting for a set for very long already cos I like to sing but hubby doesn't like so I cannot always drag him to kbox. The next day, hubby had to drill a hole into the wall to fix the brackets and the speaker on the topmost portion of our wall so that our small tv room wouldn't look so cramped. As the speaker was quite heavy, hubby decided to be more kiasu and drill a deeper hole into the wall.

As he drilled the hole using the electric driller, there was a sudden pok! sound and I went out to look and there on the floor was a few pieces of my beige wall from the other side, which is our study room! Ah bi drilled the hole so deep that the entire drill bit went into the wall!

I ran into our study room and saw a big gaping hole on the topmost part of the wall. But hubby fixed it up the next day with cement. Now there's no hole but a white patch over that area (cos we haven't bought beige paint to paint over it. When I saw what he did, I thought to myself, " Waaaaaa so hero...everything also know...from hanging speakers on the wall to fixing a hole in the wall."

Our secondhand BMB speakers

Our 1sthand Amplifier Mixer (Looks quite pro eh =P)

If you're reading this and are also interested to get one, can ask me for more details. We got ours at a very good deal cos we only bought a 1sthand amp mixer but 2ndhand speakers. Haha!

Happy birthday Wei Quan!

2008-01-25T10:34:00.000+08:00

Last Saturday we went for our church's leaders' retreat at Sofitel JB. We were supposed to reach the airport at 9 plus to welcome quan back from Vietnam as part of his birthday celebration. We took Wendy and Mel's car, who were also trying to get home fast I guess but we ended up being later than late.

On the way out to the main expressway from the Kelong where we had our dinner, we lost our way and drove in circles for a while. When we finally got out and arrived in Singapore, it was already about close to 10pm. A few minutes after we said, "Yeahh we're finally out", we heard a loud pik piak! and the car kind of went lopsided for a while.

We had run over a big plank with nails and Mel's ture had puntured. Arghhh so we became later than late. It was pretty scary cos the cars were zooming so fast past us and the triangle sign we had placed a few metres away looked so small. While replacing the car tyre, another car ran into the same plank and yes, got a punctured tyre as well. It was a Muslim family and there was 4 ladies and only 1 guy so after changing our tyre, the guys on our side went over the help them. My bladder was then tighter than tight already.

So it was a very eventful journey out of Sofitel but thank God we didn't meet any robbers or something worse than a puntured tyre. Because we were late, we missed the best part - the welcoming for him at the arrival gates.

We're waiting for our Star!

See how happy they all looked. We're the Wei Quan fan club for the day so we were all dressed in pink. Except my hubby who didn't have time to change.

The celebrity

We had the complete fan club set- balloons with customised name, 'banners', garland, and even party string, which was quickly stowed away upon a stern glance from the police. Audrey and Heli made all the banners while Miin prepared the other 'props'.

See how happy the couple looks

Happy birthday Quan! It has been a great joy and blessing for us to know you and share God's word together during cell group. You have been an inspiration with your passion for God. Keep the fire burning in you and may God bless you, Miin and your families abundantly!

Baby Jack Russell

2008-01-24T12:30:00.000+08:00

An update on the growth and development of the Christmas baby Jack Russell.

Newborn

His fur instead of being pure white looks yellowish. That's probably blood and the amniotic fluid that the mother will take a few days to thoroughly clean off.

Breastfeeding lessons

At birth, the pup doesn't know the existence of milk in the mother's nipples. That's hubby squeezing the milk out from ah mei's nipples and bringing baby to the milk to encourage him to suckle.

Success The pup learns to latch on to his mum's nipples. See his little tongue =)

Me n Pup

His eyes and ears are still closed. So he's probably blind and deaf at this moment.

2 weeks old

His ears have opened but not his eyes. You can see his fur is thoroughly dry and clean now.

Vampire (Jiang Shi) sleeping

They sleep alot at this stage.

In deeeeeep sleep

Proud mummy Baby is drinking milk again.

4 weeks old

See how much he has grown!

I'm falling.... Asleep

This is ah qiang our good friend who's also the owner, trying to coax baby to eat solid food. As you can see, the food wasn't very appealing to the pup who's fallen asleep.

Me, Mei and ah mei's baby haha

See how chubby his limbs are

Exploring

With mummy

Oh please give me some milk again

I can pose off as 101 Dalmatians

He's very chubby because as the only pup in this litter, he gets the milk from all 10 nipples. Technically only 6. The front 4 nipples are well, mm not very fruitful.

Fallen asleep again

And again

His fat tummy and crossed legs (kiau ka) makes me laugh

Lao gong was saying that baby's eyes looked blue and was worried that baby may be blind in one eye or both. There's a high possibility of defect cos this baby was born out of a dog and her own son. If baby can't find a new owner, she will have to be sent to Malaysia, where there's someone who wants to adopt him.

We're worried for baby as the conditions in Malaysia are not as good as singapore and the possiblity of baby being blind further complicates matters. We can't find anyone who wants a jack russell to date and we're at a dilemma whether to take him in ourselves. He was indeed a miracle baby who survived half an hour in a burst water bag and seeing him reminds me of how God answered our desperate prayers in the cab that night. But I already got 2 big dogs on my own how am I going to manage them with a hyperactive Jack Russell who may not even be easily toilet trained?

Oh help us God.

Long Overdue Post

2008-01-15T01:38:00.000+08:00

Oh dear. i realise my blog posts these days always seem to be overdue. Haha will try to catch up on it.

This post is about our birthdays 2007. Mine falls on 5 Dec while my hubby is 5 days younger than me. His is on 10 Dec.

Our home cell's Dinner invitation to us

We were invited for a combo bday celebration to a restaurant of our choice and I chose....Sushi Tei!

Handmade Card from Mel

Doughnuts version of Birthday Cake
2 cakes from Four Leaves to represent 10 years each and six doughnuts to represent 1 year each. Aren't they creative...

Us being made to blow the candles from a distance

Half of the food
By the time the other half arrived, I was too busy eating to take pics of the rest of the food.

Choco and Coffee Balls in our mouths

Choco and Coffee Balls in their mouths

Special thanks to Mel and Ah Yun. They specially went to queue at the restaurant half an hour earlier to queue for a seat as Sushi Tei doesn't take reservations. Plus we were late for half an hour which means they waited a total of 1 hr for us!!!

Special thanks to my dear sis Yun also for having planned this whole event and coordinating everyone's busy schedules.

And to the rest of the cell who came, thank you for adjusting your schedules and taking time out to celebrate our birthdays with us.

To the rest who weren't able to come, thanks for all your well wishes and thoughts =)

3rd Dec- My Sec Sch Best Friend came to celebrate my birthday with me.

Da-baoed my favourite food over to my place

Chilli crab, fried kangkong and some special chicken. The carbos were for my hubby.

A handmade card from her

She secretly brought a photo printer and after taking a photo with me, she made me stay in the room while she printed the photo and slotted it into the card. Ain't that sweet =)

Ya we were sec sch husband and wife. I forgot how we formed that relationship though. But we're definitely not lesbians. It was just an establishment to show how close we were.

4 Dec Hubby brought me out

Seafood Dinner

With mussels, oysters, fish, prawns, calamari and I forgot what else

And I had a surprise waiting for me at home

I was pretty tired when we reached home but lao gong insisted on going to Cheers to get a drink and I was starting to throw a tantrum wondering why he was behaving so out of sorts. I mean he can just get a drink when we reached home why did he have to go a round about way to Cheers to get a drink?

When we were outside our house, I heard a birthday song playing but I didn't realise it was coming from the house. I didn't even realise it was a birthday song and thought it was just some Christmas ringtone from my neighbour's phone.

When lao gong opened the door, I saw on the platform a birthday cake and I was wondering who placed the cake there. I thought it was some surprise from lao gong. Then there was a lot of noise and next thing I know, I was attacked with party strings.

And there was...Audrey and Heli. Haha they made so much noise I thought there was..... well, more people.

And they gave me trick candles that can't be blown out...

Our Party, complete with Party hats and Masks

They felt that the surprise party was really small so they bought some party props to create the atmosphere.

Thank you Heli and Audrey. This was the first time in my life someone went to such extents to plan a surprise for me (besides our Home Cell). Really touched by your gestures. I had a really memorable 26th birthday!

Thank you lao gong too for bearing with my whines when you had to play along with the whole ploy and act like you didn't know anything the whole day!

10 Dec - Lao Gong's Bday

Hog's Breath @ Vivocity

He was genuinely surprised. Halfway thru the ploy was nearly exposed. We were supposed to reach at a time arranged between me and mei but lao gong suddenly wanted to look at watches. In order not to look suspicious, I just went along with his desires. So we were late from there.

After that when we got to the 4th level, I couldn't find the restaurant cos it was like hidden in a corner, which made us even more late. Heli (mei) then called us and asked whether we were reaching. When lao gong asked me who it was I had to say that it was someone from the restaurant and that if we don't hurry they were going to let go of my reservation. And he actually believed it. I thought that was a very lame lie but well....

Happy Family

Haha actually the kids are once again 'borrowed' from Wen and Mel our cell leaders. Wish we have a pair like that ahahaha

Our church cell

Special thanks to Heli who helped me coordinate the whole event.

A great thank you too to those who went just come back from Rain Camp on the same day. You all must have been so tired especially the camp committee and yet you made the effort to honor us with your presence.

And to everyone else who attended, a big thank you for making the evening a special one for hubby!

Thank you God for blessing us with these great friends!

Our Christmas Celebrations

2007-12-26T01:52:00.000+08:00

This entry outlines the celebrations we had for Christmas this year. Be warned, it's gonna be a long one. Just uploading the photos took me 3 days. And filling in the content took me more than 2 hours.

15 Dec 2007: Christmas Block Party for the Residents at Blk 958 Hougang

Every year during this period, our church has an event called Christmas Parties Everywhere where cell groups will hold block parties for the blocks in Hougang that each cell group has 'adopted' throughout the year to bless.

Me and Carolin as 'Angels' to give out candies

When we tried on our angel halos, Wanhui commented,"Carol looks like an Egyptian princess". One of our friends then asked her, " What about Hui Ling?" She gave me one look, did a quick mental review of me and said," Well this princess too tanned. Don't look like Egyptian princess." Sigh...I've never been fair. Even as a baby. My mum told me I was very yellow so they had to put me out under the sun. There's a name for this condition I think, forgot what it's called.

Anyway, I felt quite weird when I walked out as one of the 'angels'. Wasn't used to it and the kids looked pretty surprised. Maybe they didn't know what to make out of this tanned angel. I mean angels are supposed to be white right, not brown. Haha but it was a fun experience for me, and Carol I think.

19 Dec 2007: Christmas Actually @ Santorini Restaurant VivoCity

Me and the witty icebreaker MC for the night

Me and Lao Gong

I look so erm, mature here. Anyway, our church booked this nice restaurant at Vivocity for our Youth & Young Adults Christmas celebration. Some of us invited friends over and together, we celebrated the true meaning of Christmas.

Parting Shot

23 Dec 2007 1am

Ah mei (Our former Jack Russell) - The proud mother of one

Spot the puppy at the extreme bottom of this photo

Some background info: Ah mei is called ah mei becos she was supposed to be Ah boy's baby sister. No resemblance to Heli in any way.

We gave her and her son Lilo, from her previous litter, to a good friend cos we couldn't manage 4 dogs - Ah boy, ah ger, ah mei and Lilo. Though Lilo has matured, and takes his male animal instincts out on ah mei, she had never allowed him to have his way. However, there was an accident one day and something unfortunate happened. Our dear friend Ah qiang was so angry with Lilo that he brought him to the vet to become a eunuch.

Though Ah qiang saw the accident, he didn't know ah mei was pregnant as she didn't gain much weight. Until the day ah mei went into labour did he realise that she was indeed pregnant. The last time ah mei went into labour, lao gong was the one who delivered her babies and the first puppy died as the water bag broke in her womb. When the baby was finally delivered, she refused to believe that it was dead and kept on licking the water from its nose and mouth, trying to revive it. It was very heart-wrenching to watch and it's amazing what a mother's love can do. Though she had two other beautiful babies, she still wanted to keep the 1stborn with her.

Anyway, Ah qiang finally realised she was pregnant when she started panting heavily and pulling all the cloth she could find into her bed. When he called us at around 1130pm, lao gong was still busy and very sleepily wrapping the christmas presents we were supposed to give the next day. I was entertaining him by singing karaoke to him in our tv room. Lao gong gave ah qiang as much tips as he could from his experience as a previous doggie midwife.

One hour later, he called again to tell us that water was coming out from ah mei's womb. From previous experience, we knew that it meant that the water bag had broken and the puppy was in danger if ah mei still could not deliver it soon. After putting down the phone, we stood dazed for 3 secs, made the decision to rush to woodlands and locked up the house in record time. We ran to the main road, me in my pyjamas shorts and lao gong also in half sleep attire to look for a cab.

There wasn't much we could do except to keep praying in the cab. During ah mei's 1st childbirth, the puppy came out in less than 15mins after the water bag broke but it had already suffocated. The ride took us half an hour and we just kept praying for God to keep this puppy. We didn't want to see ah mei devastated again.

The moment we alighted below ah qiang's flat, he rang us to tell us that the puppy had finally been delivered and it was alive! How the puppy survived for 30mins in the womb without the water in the water bag is truly a miracle! What's more is that there was only 1 pup in this litter, a rare occurrence and if God hadn't saved this pup, it would have been a worse experience for ah mei cos she wouldn't have any pups to love and take her attention away from her lost one.

Puppy's 1st feed

Another miracle about this puppy is that ah mei, Lilo and Lilo's father are all brown but this miracle puppy is black.

As small as a hamster

23 Dec 2007 Surprise Birthday Celebration for Mei (Heli)

Photo extracted from the web. We reached home at 5am, woke up at 8am for 1st service, staged an act and pretend that I had forgotten mei's bday and had nothing special in mind for her except to have a Christmas eve eve lunch from 11am till 2pm. By the time we had the bday lunch for her, I was half gone and had forgotten to take pictures of the celebration. Oh gosh!

Went for Swan Lake, a ballet by SDT at Esplanade, a treat from my godma Sandy (not Sally but my sec sch friend)

24 Dec 2007 Christmas Eve Countdown Party at our House

Homecooked Christmas eve dinner with the home cell

Quite a few people were missing. Cynthia went batam with her family, Jingfang to Korea and Shanghai with family, Joel is behind the camera taking this picture, Bryan is home hosting the party for his family, Jiesi was late cos she had to keep her mother company and Jianwei was working.

We were pretty tired from the partying and sudden labor of Ah mei (not Heli but the Jack Russell), and being out the whole of the prvious day after having 3 hours' of sleep so we prepared a simple 3-course dinner of beef spaghetti, cream broccoli and nuggets.

It was the first time I stepped into the kitchen to cook with hubby. He told everyone that they're so honoured to taste my once-in-a-year cooking. Actually I cooked because I sort of knew what to do for western food. But I must admit hubby did all the difficult things for me. The can opening, washing, cutting and frying. But hey I cooked the spaghetti and cream broccoli.

Anyway, it was the first time we really cooked together and we enjoyed the whole process of it. We laughed as we cooked, made jokes, tasted the food together and fed the dogs raw tomatoes, broccoli and yes spaghetti. They thought it was skinny biscuits. I didn't know cooking together could be so much fun. It's now my recommended activity for couples.

We just couldn't get enough of the chocolate fondueWe bought this fondue set on offer at Carrefour and it was our first time using it. We thought that one pack of chocolate would be enough but we were proved wrong.

We celebrated Ah Yun's bday (Actual date 27 Dec) too

Ah yun was really quite surprised cos it was the first time we gave her such an early celebration. We were so busy this year and her actual date had already been scheduled for a family bday dinner so we had to bring the celebration forward. Staying on the 1st floor has lots of advantages. One of them being that Joel could sneak the doughnuts in through the kitchen window while Yun was in the living room oblivious to our scheme the whole time.

Doughtnut cutting Ceremony

With ah boy looking on longingly...

Doggie Christmas Eve dinner

Look at him drooling...

Merry Christmas!!!

What are we so happy for? We're celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ, who came to earth over two thousand years ago to give salvation to man. We're now living in A.D. 2008, A.D. being Anno Domini, the latin word for 'in the year of our Lord', which means the number of years after Christ was born. Jesus is not a myth or a legend, He's a historical character and Christmas is so significant that it's the most celebrated event in the world yet many people do not even know why are they celebrating Christmas for or why it's an even bigger event that the new year countdown.

25 December Christmas Morning Fishing

Marley the Stray

Though I'm a stray, I know how to take food directly from people's hands without biting them. I have a big head, a round body and short legs. That's why I look so cute. Many people who come here to fish feed me with good food, especially on Christmas. I get to eat Christmas ham, cheese, crackers, bread, egg mayo sandwich and just about anything and everything these people from LSBC eat.

What bored, self-respecting, non-fishing ladies do

Take lots of pictures

The very happy fishermen from our church

The final Christmas Party

Christmas celebration at the Wan's

We played games with paper plate scorecards,

Came with matching couple wear,
Me and lao gong

Our turquoise-themed hosts

The engaged couple with their DIY couple wear,

And lastly.....the winning team!
the Tan's in their matching angel n devil (trying to turn over a new leaf according to Sally, evidenced by the wings growing on her back) wear.

Had a great feast of Shabu Shabu steamboat

With sparkling juice

Homemade Passionfruit freeze

Beautiful table settings with seating arrangements

Exchanged presents under (alright nearby) their skinny but very beautiful Christmas tree

Played games with torturous forfeits The girls relentlessly stuffing as many marshmallows into my mouth as possible. I didn't get the worst part. I was supposed to transfer everything into hubby's mouth who's supposed to eat up everything.

Had chocolate fondue
and lost our tooth as a result

Becoming...

Ah mahs...

Exchanged costumes with the winning pair

Check out Pea and her unwilling err.... elf

Check out my matching hair...

Our beloved hostess with her matching walls

A big thank you to the Wans who were such wonderful hosts, giving themselves selflessly to serve us great food, think of funny games and organising the whole event. We had an unforgettable Christmas. Thank God for binding us together as brothers and sisters!

A big thank you to everyone who's spent this year's Christmas with us. You have played a part in making this year's Christmas so enjoyable one way or another. And the biggest thank you to God. Though this has been the busiest and most tiring December ever, at the end of it, we had lots of great friends and meaningful activities.

All glory and praise to our beloved Lord Jesus, who is the very reason why we celebrate Christmas!

Rain Camp

2007-12-19T01:53:00.000+08:00

It has been so long since I last updated my blog. Been so busy with all the activities. Think this is my busiest December ever! Rain camp was held on the 8-10 December. It's actually our church's youth camp but this year, the camp was supposed to be a multi-generational camp and we as young adults were strongly encouraged to go.

I very reluctantly agreed to go and it has been my first outdoor camp (not counting church camp which is held in a beautiful hotel and is more like a holiday) after 10 years! Me and lao gong were asked to lead the youth groups but due to lack of manpower, we were to lead separate groups. I felt so sad when I heard the news but it's a privilege to serve God so we went ahead with it. Initially I felt very lost without lao gong beside me for me to rely on (we were separated thru'out the camp cos our responsibility was toward our own individual group to faciliate, lead and mentor them) and lao gong felt very lost without me to remind him of all the nitty gritties that he always forgets.

Thank God we each were given assistants to help us and i must say i had a very enthusiastic helper who helped me out alot. Same goes for lao gong. By the end of the first day I was dead tired by all the physical activities and looking after the kids but Kenneth, my assistant very willingly did my head counts, chased after missing children for me and some of the girls willingly washed my plates when I couldn't get up anymore and took drinks for me. By the 2nd day, i wasn't feeling so bad and actually bonded with my group and started enjoying myself.

My group Rinan (Old English Word for 'Rain')

Kenneth Soh is right behind me. His hair very long hoh. On my left is Noah and he really provided us with lots of laughter with his funny antics during the camp.

My girls and Lala's Girls

Lala is on my left. She's the assistant leader (aka leader cos her leader was away most of the time). We shared the same bunk and it was such a joy for me. We did our sharing together on the beds and had lots of fun rolling around on our beds and sharing God's Word at the same time!

Fishing Trip

2007-12-14T01:48:00.000+08:00

Last month lao gong went for an offshore fishing trip with some of the men from our church. As with his other fishing trips, there's always a story to tell.

The guys met at 830am and started fishing at about 10am. By 1plus, my ah bi still hasn't caught anything. By 3 plus, ah bi still hasn't caught anything yet. So me as the wife and the helper prayed to God, "God please let my ah bi catch something. You're a God who promises us abundant blessings and if you will just say the word, the fishes will come."

Many miles away at the waters off Ubin, lao gong prayed to God, "God I still haven't caught anything yet. I have faith in you and I know you like to do things that are impossible. Though there's not supposed to be big fishes here, I claim that you're a God that gives us more than what we ask for. So i'm gonna hook a super big bait to get a super big catch."

The fishing theory is that if the fishes available is small, you cannot use big baits cos the fishes will just nibble the meat but not get hooked up. So the size of the baits used has to be proportionate to the size of the catch expected.

After the prayer and the act of faith, lao gong cast his rod and within less than a minute, lao gong hooked up a big stingray. He fought the stinbgray for quite a while and when he finally weighed it, the stingray weighed a hefty 10kg. It doesn't look 10kg but it's that heavy cos it's a super thick stingray.

And yes our cell group and some other church members had a stingray feast that night =D

The fishing team

Ben, Andy Teo, Linus, Melvin (our pastor), Andy Tan and hubby

Ben's Baby Shark They threw it back in (alive) cos it's too small to cook shark's fin

The Last Minute Catch

Aftermath of the fishing trip

For two weeks, the floor in my house was filled with skin from my hubby's back and body. Eeeeeee

Final words: Thank you Jesus for the miraculous catch. Though the boatman said that there weren't big fishes , yet you brought a 10-kg stingray to us and provided us with such fresh tender stingray for supper. Thank you Lord!!!!

Muscle Chef [con't]

2007-11-28T01:00:00.000+08:00

It is every mum's wish to see their daughter happily married. I like to share with my mum how well my hubby treats me and how he pampers me because I want her to share in my joy too. As I was telling her how good hubby is at steamed fish, my sis brought up one of my latest blog entry titled muscle chef.

She was saying that the entry was quite funny and as she read it, she became very curious on how the steamed fish looked since the preparation already looked so pretty. And she couldn't find it. And she kept scrolling down hoping to see a pic of how the final product looked but was disappointed that I didn't post a photo of the final product.

Today I was craving for lao gong's steamed fish again so this time so lao gong went to the supermarket and bought a red grouper, which is supposed to be very good for steamed fish. And I resolved to take a photo for my baby sis Ah Yun to see.

Presenting my lao gong's restaurant standard steamed red grouper....

And it was very tasty...... =D

Little Luxuries of Life

2007-11-24T14:51:00.000+08:00

Luxury:

1) Something inessential but conducive to pleasure and comfort.
2) Something expensive or hard to obtain.
3) Sumptuous living or surroundings: lives in luxury.
Extracted from American Heritage dictionary

My personal definition of a luxury is No 1 and 3. To me, a luxury doesn't have to be expensive. But it requires a heart of gratitude that is able to appreciate and enjoy the little things in life.

Some of my little luxuries of 2007

Luxury No.1: Capturing cute moments of our beloved dogs

Ah boy looking out of the window

He's so tall!!!

Ah Ger Holding on to the Toilet Roll Toy I gave Her

She always has that expression when she's naughty.

Ah boy play-fighting with His Ger
He's not fierce at all! It's just part of their play.

Ah Ger with her 'Are you angry with me?' look

Ah Boy Eating his Favourite CornP/S This time he didn't swallow the corn cob. He almost did though in his enthusiasm to get the whole thing.

Luxury No. 2: Enjoying my Favourite Cup of Tea /Coffee with Hubby

Kopi-O with a Biscotti

We were actually at Olio Dome. Looks like the cups from my house hor.

My Favouritest Teh-Gor
This was a gift from QuanMiin. Our deepest thanks to them. We drank countless cups of Earl Grey and even served guests of 4 with this pretty little device. The filter is actually made of a small glass cup with slits to enable water to pass thru. With this, we can enjoy earl grey brewed from tea leaves rather than tea bags.

Chinese Tea with Mooncakes
We started eating our mooncakes a month before mooncake festival.

Luxury No. 3 : Taking photos of unusual things

Nanas Galore

This was taken at R.K. House coffee Shop near Chomp Chomp. Yea R.K. house is the place where the pork (no pork) incident supposedly took place.

Luxury No.4 : Enjoying the outdoors while lao gong fishes and listening to his exciting fishing stories

Yea I've (finally) come round to the fishing issue. It was only recently, when lao gong went for an offshore fishing trip that I realised I no longer felt unhappy when he went fishing. (I can hear Limin cheering for me =P) Think after being married for slightly more than a year, we've come to a deeper understanding of each other. All credit to God who's the One who has sustained our marriage and the love between us as husband and wife.

Luxury No.5 : Collecting & Reading Christian books

This collection was given to me by my 'Angel' last year when our previous cell played the 'Angel Mortal' Game. The angel later on became our mei mei =)

Here comes my two Greatest Luxuries...

Greatest Luxury No. 1

Fellowship and Quiet Time with God and His Word

Sometimes I don't appreciate the time where I really sit down at His feet and listen to Him and learn from Him. But I realise that my happiest moments are when I can feel Him by my side, holding my hand, guiding me, talking to me. God is indeed amazing. Sometimes I find it so incomprehensible why someone as awesome as Him can love us ordinary human beings so much. Thank you God for your love and your awesome blessings upon our lives =D

Great Luxury No. 2

Being married to my lao gong =D

Though we have our storms and crises, this has been one of the best years of my life. The time spent with you, laughing, doing simple things together, doing complicated things with you, being pampered by you, being lectured by you, your sometimes almost unbearable nagging, working together with you, learning how to respect you, just being close to you...

Having so many beloved people celebrating our union together with us...I can't imagine life without you now...Your wisdom, Your strength, Your gentleness, and Your love...Thank God for giving me such a wonderful man...

Lao gong the Muscle Chef

2007-11-21T23:45:00.000+08:00

Last night lao gong asked me what I wanted for dinner and I answered "Steamed Fish!" so we went NTUC to buy the ingredients. Lao gong used to be the sole distributor for Moderne which sells pure white cutlery to restaurants and hotels. Through that job, he came into contact with many top chefs and he became inspired to put even more effort into preparing his meals for me.

Even the food preparation looks so pretty

But there's one thing I think lao gong is definitely different from the top chefs. Maybe due to him being the muscle man.

He uses the "kan neu de cai dao lai cie cai" which means using the knife for chopping beef to cut vegetables. I found it so amusing I begged him to let me take a shot of it haha.

Nails Update- Christmas Edition II

2007-11-21T23:37:00.000+08:00

Purple nails with Glitter and Gold Tips

Doesn't the colours remind you of ornaments hanging on a Christmas tree? Actually it wasn't intentional. One day while shopping in Ang Mo Kio, I spotted this O2skin booth. Apparently it's the cosmetic line under Bioskin. Saw this deep purple that I liked and with blessings from Lao Gong i bought this nail polish. We just thought gold would go well with this purple =)

Thank you lao gong =D

Nails Update- Christmas Edition

2007-11-13T00:09:00.000+08:00

To go along with the Christmas theme, lao gong chose a green shade for my nails. He did some colour experimentation and mixed a silverish blue with light green to get the final glittery turquoise green.

The 1st shade of Silvery Blue

The second shade of Green

For those interested to know, the darker colour has to go on 1st to act as the base for the lighter shade. With a darker shade as the base, the green looks more "solid" and the silver adds on the glitter. The lighter shade cannot be painted first because when the darker shade goes over it, you wouldn't be able to see the lighter colour at all as the darker shade completely covers over the light base.

Final Artwork

To complete the Christmas theme, lao gong added on bits of glitter in varying sizes in french manicure style.

As I write this blog post and reflect on how lao gong painstakingly takes the effort to do my nails as often as he can, I feel very blessed to be given a hubby who's so sweet to me. The extra effort of taking out pieces of glitter from the nail polish took a long time to do and even I became sleepy watching him do it.

Thank you lao gong. Sometimes I throw tantrums and forget how much you actually love me and even say hurtful things when we quarrel. Thank you for always forgiving me and loving me. I thank God for that very 1st phonecall five Christmases ago that started everything. That was my best Christmas present ever. Love you lao gong =)

The Different Stages of Being Blow-Dried

2007-11-12T20:14:00.000+08:00

Hi I'm ah boy as many of you fondly call me. Today I'm presenting to you the different phases of myself being blow-dried.

My 1st ShotAin't I photogenic?

I'm getting tired only after a few minutes of being made to sit and stay. I wanted so badly to go after my ah ger who suddenly looks super appealing to me after having her heat. Dad jokingly tells mum that I almost got electrocuted sitting in front of the socket.

Yucks I hate it when Dad shakes me so hard. Feels like my whole skin is gonna drop off!

Slouching in a corner as Daddy blows me unrelentlessly

Finally it's over

18-Year Old Hui Ling

2007-11-01T01:05:00.001+08:00

Recently I 've been getting paranoid about looking older. Especially after I permed my hair.
About 2 years ago, when I was 24, a pastor at our former church WEFC asked me, "Are you taking your 'O' Levels this year?"

A few months back, before I permed my hair, we met an auntie in church and she saw us playing so she smiled and asked in Hokkien,"You all good friends hah?"

We told her we were husband and wife and she went,
"Huh?!?! I thought you were 18 years old!"

It makes sense that I should look 18 this year since I look 16 two years ago.

After I permed my hair, no one told me such nice things anymore =(

About a week ago, Audrey sent me a picture we took during last year's Christmas. Upon looking at the photo, I mentally compared myself to how I look then and now and felt once again that

Yup, I've grown older.

Christmas 2006

Today I went to the gym with lao gong and assisted him in training a small group of senior aunties. About 50+ in age. An extract of the conversation

Auntie no. 1: "Your wife ar?"

Auntie No. 2: "You just married is it?"

Auntie No.3: "She looks like a Secondary School student."

Hehe I'm so happy. Thank God perming hair didn't make me look much older.

Psalm 103:1,5

Praise the LORD, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name...

who satisfies your desires with good things

so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.

Potato Update

2007-10-31T01:10:00.000+08:00

Remember me and lao gong like potatoes? Last week we were down with throat virus and for me I had throat + stomach virus so we felt very sick. Whole day no appetite but will be hungry at night.

So on Friday me and lao gong decided we were sick of resting at home so we went out and did some preparations for our supper that night.

Our Homecooked Supper

Seafood mushroom soup with Focaccia Bread and Garlic Mashed Potato

We fought over which mushroom soup to buy. I wanted seafood mushroom and he wanted garlic mushroom. Being the “Love your wife as yourself” husband that he is called to be, he let me have my seafood mushroom. During supper, I was enthusiastically trying to convince him that seafood mushroom is much tastier.As I was about to say

“Lao gong. This soup is really good eh. They give so many mushrooms!”

Lao gong said, “Did you get a lot of mushrooms? When I was scooping the soup I purposely gave you more mushrooms.”

That burst my bubble. But gave me another bubble. Lao gong’s so good to me. Give me more mushrooms…. =D

The garlic mashed potato is already very delicious by itself so it doesn’t need any gravy. However, the mashed potato that day was a little dry because lao gong didn't add enough milk so we couldn’t finish it. We got bored of it after a while and started playing with it.

It a snowman!

(Well potato-man actually)

It was one of my most satisfying supper, and we had a lot of fun laughing together and playing with our potato ;P

With God in the picture, married people can have loads of fun!

Nails Update

2007-10-31T00:42:00.000+08:00

My latest Manicure, done by Lao gong. This time he did colour experimentation.

Purple nail polish from Face Shop

Followed by a darker shade of purple glitter from SaSa.

Final colour result

Thank you my creative Lao Gong! Hee you're still so good to me =P

Memory- A Modern Dance Performance

2007-10-28T22:41:00.000+08:00

An Example of Modern Dance

Last Sunday, me, Lao gong, Vinita and Audrey went to watch a modern dance performance called 'Memory'.

It was produced by Frontier Danceland, the dance group I used to be in, and choreographed by my dance teacher Low Mei Yoke and Albert Tiong from Hongkong.

I always loved lao shi's dances, cos it's always so expressive, exhilarating, exciting and conveys messages across to the audience. However, it was a new experience for Audrey andVinita so they had a bit of trouble interpreting a few parts of the dance.

e.g. a lady sitting on a chair tying a maroon piece of cloth diagonally across the chest
Hui Ling>> An imagery of how women used to carry their babies in the past, across their chest. Aud & Vin had no idea what she was doing.

-dance movements along the wall, with head rolling actions across the wall
Hui Ling>> going back to their memories
Audrey>> I thought they represented ghosts. (But the title of the performance is Memory, not Ghost) But Audrey's interpretation is still valid I feel. Memories are sometimes like ghosts. And the beauty of modern dance is that there are really different ways the audience can interpret the movements.

-dancers sitting in a circle with index fingers on the floor, moving in synchronised movements across the floor
Hui Ling>>playing with Ouija board when they were young to look into the future
Vinita: Oh I was wondering what were they pointing at.

It was one week ago that we watched the perfomance so I may have gotten some of their individual interpretations mixed up. Aud and Vin, pls correct me if I remembered wrongly =P

Well, those were imageries to convey certain message with dance interwined in the whole performance. I felt that overall the production was a good one with different genres of music , some parts being silent, some parts with only the dancers' voices singing, some with strong drum music etc. Some parts were abit slow but probably if it wasn't, the full expression would not be brought out.

After the performance, we had a great time sharing all these different interpretations. With such high spirits, we couldn't bear to go home so we went Hongkong Cafe and took some arty farty shots ourselves.

Look at the bird above the lamp!

Ok that was lame...

We are One!!!

Best Shot of the EveningYou know why this is best shot? Cos it's the most arty farty. This is a-east-meet- west dish, spaghetti with chinese stir fried black pepper beef. So Aud used a western cutlery- the fork to take her chinese beef, while vin used a chinese cutlery-the chopsticks to take her spaghetti. This brings out the east-meet-west theme of the dish!!! Tadah!!!

Nails Update

2007-10-22T02:13:00.000+08:00

Lao gong hasn't done my nails for quite some time because the
last time he removed my nail polish, we realised my nails were coming off in thin layers. We both agreed that we better let my nails get some oxygen.

Red & Pink Flowers on Gold Base

There's different designs for the thumb and the fingers =)

Thank you lao gong. Though you stopped doing my nails for so long, you're still as patient and xi4 xin1 as ever.

Pubs

2007-10-22T02:03:00.001+08:00

On Thursday, we went Barfly to hear Olivia sing. We haven't been to a pub for a long time and it was interesting to see how pubs are revolutionsing.

Beautiful Chandelier at Barfly

Me and Lao Gong

The most Freaky Pub - Clinic

Wheelchairs for customers

There were hospital beds, drips, an operating table as the recept counter, a mortuary etc. Innovative or plain weird?

A Memorable Evening at the Theatre

2007-10-17T01:10:00.001+08:00

Dinner @ the revamped Kenny Rogers

Juice-Bottle LampCute right

Carbo Overload Out of 4 dishes, 3 were potatoes. There was garlic potato, potato salad and mashed potato. Haha, both me and lao gong like potato =)

Now you see it, now you don't!

Me & lao Gong with our $82 Foyer Stall Tickets

We got these tix for free! One day while flipping through ST Life!, I saw a sms contest to win free dance tickets. I prayed for the tix, sent one sms and won the tix!!! God is good, all the time!!!

Our 1st Performance @ the Esplanade Theatre

Name of Performance: Sevilla by Compania Maria Pages (pronounced as Pah-gays)

Verdict of Performance: Wonderful!

I had thought that it was gonna be a traditional flamenco dance performance but it turned out to be a dance performance of international standards. Boundaries of art were broken as canes were added to a piece to create new dimensions to the rythmns of the tapping feet and clapping of hands. Another piece had the dancers clad in black from head to toes and shoes embedded with small red lights. With the use of good lighting and music, the whole performance was a truly enjoyable one.

Glow-In-The-Dark Pang-Sai

2007-10-15T02:27:00.000+08:00

About 2 weeks ago, I woke to find that lao gong had already gone out. I vaguely remembered him giving me my morning kiss before he left so I wasn't surprised. However, when I walked further out into the living room, I saw that lao gong had let ah boy out to roam the whole house with ah ger. (When we're not watching over them, we will separate them using the living room and the study room). Then I saw a half-eaten green highlighter on the floor. I immediately turned and looked accusingly at the 2 culprits and scolded them while picking up whatever that was left.

Below are photos of their guilty looks. I was so amused that I quickly whipped out my Sony Ericsson and pretended to continue scolding them to capture their expressions.

Ah Boy not Daring to Look at Me

Ah Ger with her Sheepish Smile

I was quite angry with lao gong because I told him before not to leave the 2 of them in the same room unattended. Mummy knows best that 2 dogs together = Big Mischief. As I msged lao gong to tell him what happened, I tried my best to keep my emotions under control and not sound like I'm blaming him (when actually I am =P)

Me: Lao gong, ah boy and ah ger create trouble together. They took my green highlighter and ate it.
LG: Sorry. Next time I wouldn't do that again k.
Me: Ok. Nevermind la, at least now their pang-sai will glow in the dark.

Anyway, they didn't suffer from any side effects after chewing the cotton stick and sucking the green ink. To date, they have tasted antibiotics, highlighters, a remote control, pads (with blood- ah boy) pens, spectacles, a small glass cup (ger), money, tissue paper, and rubber bands used to be ah boy's favourite. After he stole 2 raw squids from Shawn's mum's kitchen, he seemed to think that rubber bands were squids too. Everytime a rubber band drops on the floor, me and ah boy will look at the floor, steal a glance at each other and dash for the band. Sometimes me or lao gong won, sometimes ah boy won. When he got hold of it, we would shout," Pui!". More often than not, he would quickly swallow it in one gulp before we were close enough to pull it out from his mouth.

There was another day where ah boy kept squatting and standing and it seemed like he was having constipation. On closer look, lao gong noticed a string hanging from his backside. That turned out to be the "sai" that ah boy couldn't get out. Lao gong pulled the string and out popped aaaaaaa balloon. Maybe ah boy thought that was the another "squid".

071007

2007-10-08T00:02:00.000+08:00

To us, 071007 is a beautiful number. Why? Cos it’s the date of our 1st year wedding anniversary. It’s a beautiful date that brings back wonderful memories of how God united us together as one in marriage and called us to put each other before ourselves and to give of our whole lives to each other. Heh so sweet right…

We were supposed to go for a 2nd honeymoon but due to my students' exams, that had to be postponed till november. For the actual day, we settled for a local celebration. Less adventurous but still very romantic thanks to lao gong, who pre-planned the days’ events.

The Journey OutWhen you’re celebrating your wedding anniversary, everything seems super romantic, even an ordinary ride in a cab. Lao gong’s eyes very small hor. He wasn’t sleepy...it was just a bad shot with the hp camera.

Waiting for the highlight of the evening

Nope not the Kelong

Songs of the Sea Lao gong brought me to Sentosa for Songs of the Sea. My last visit was when it was still called the musical fountain. The revamped show is much better with laser, fire and fireworks being added to the “fountain”.

Do you see the face of a lady in the mist?

I only managed to take these pics cos I was too busy enjoying the better parts with fire “jumping” to the rhythm of the music. And yes the fireworks made it all the more romantic.

Then we took a cable car ride out of Sentosa. Usually you will have to share your cabin with others as there’s quite a few people waiting and the management wouldn’t let the cabin leave half empty. However, the couple with us got down at the tower in the midpoint so we had the whole cabin to ourselves after that. There was soft music playing in the cable car and so the night ride in the air was a really beautiful experience.

Somewhere before and between Songs of the Seas, lao gong was behaving suspiciously. Kept checking his phone and making calls, apparently to change the time of his reservations for our dinner. By the time the show ended, it was about 9 plus and I was wondering which restaurant would be opened till so late. And he asked me, “What if my surprise for you turns out to be a dinner at home?”

All these constant checking of his PDA and phone calls plus that question made me all the more curious and I actually thought he deployed our good friend Nd Quek to cook for us or something.

Our dinner place turned out to be….

The Jewel Box at Mt Faber

From the cable car place, lao gong brought me down the stairs, whispered something to one of the staff and led me to the restaurant. That was really a surprise. I just didn’t think of this place among all the places I kept trying to guess. The cable car ride actually was impromptu too. Lao gong wanted to bring me there in a cab, which would have spoiled the surprise when he had to tell the driver where to go. But the limousine driver who wanted to charge us a bomb for driving us down (which we rejected) suggested the ride to lao gong. Heh God is so good. Even He also got involved in our celebration and dropped a hint to lao gong to make the whole plan more seamless and romantic.

My seafood with lobster sauce and lao gong’s fish and chips

Is that Heineken?

Haha yes it is. Probably came as a surprise to those who know us well. Lao gong used to be a heavy drinker but stopped ever since he fell in love with something even better. Anyway, the restaurant was located above the hilltop and we could see the nightview of the island of Sentosa. There was a live band playing and with the atmosphere of the special evening, lao gong had the rare urge to drink again. I of course stuck to my mocktail (don’t want to vomit on this special night!).

Even his lao po was surprised when he ordered another Guinness draft. But this pic is proof that lao gong is not religious haha.

Nice candle?

But it’s a fake! I’m always curious about everything and it caught my attention that the “candle” could keep on burning. So I peeped inside and found another surprise! It’s a fake candle. A bit of a letdown but never mind, it still looks nice…

Malaysian Bis-Cheesecakes?

Lao gong started asking funny questions again like “How come the live band left so early?” (They left at 1130pm.). Then he said something like, “I’m so disappointed with the management at Jewel Box.”

Suddenly at 12am, he leaned over and whispered “Happy anniversary Lao Po.” Then he told me that there was actually another surprise. He had arranged a few days ago with the management for the live band to announce at 12am to everyone that it was our wedding anniversary and then the waitress would come out with a cake and sing a song.

He had already pre-ordered my favourite brownie in advance. Well the band left before midnight, and the cake never appeared. Lao gong was very disappointed with them. He felt that they had over-promised and that if they couldn’t do it, they should have said so and he could have done something else on his own.

Though these things did not take place, I could sense lao gong’s sincerity in wanting to make this evening special for us (well more for me probably =P) and I felt greatly comforted that despite being married to him, he still took the effort to court me like that.

By the way, here’s the review of the assorted cheesecakes.

Me: How do you find the cheesecakes?

LG: Not good.

Me: Ya, taste abit funny.

LG: Like the biscuits from Malaysia.

Me: Ya! No wonder it tasted so familiar.

LG: Thank God at least it looks pretty.

This plate of Malaysian biscuits in the disguise of cheesecakes costs us $9+++.

Total bill: $122.40
Food - ok
but ambience – very good.

Chocolate & Chilli Stains on Lao Gong's Pants

Another Surprise for me the next Morning

He recycled the paper I used to give him his surprise 3 days ago!

Ta-Dahhh!!!

My new Gucci sunglasses. Oh dear I can join their fan club le.

This is the first time I received a present that wasn’t bought
1) while shopping with me,
2) on the actual day of the occasion or
3) after the occasion

Lao gong didn’t used to pre-plan anything for me. So in the end it would be too last minute to get me anything and I usually ended up with no present on my birthdays. Then I would look disappointed the whole day and he would feel guilty and get something for me the next day.

It feels very different receiving a present that has been thoughtfully prepared and bought beforehand. I used to feel that my presents weren’t truly from my then boyfriend’s heart cos he didn’t buy it because he wanted to please me but because I had whined and pouted and gotten upset.

So girls, don't believe that after marriage your hubby won't treat you as well. It's actually a myth. It really depends on how you both work on the marriage. If you want your lao gong to be as interested in you, you got to continue making an effort to look good for him. If you want hubby to treat you well, then you got to treat him well and be...submissive. Haha. It's not my own philosophy, I mean the submissive part) it's biblical.

The Next Day

Reliving our 1st Date at Coffee Bean

We talked about our childhood, our teenage life, our dreams…

It was a special day for the military force at Istana too…

We found them while walking to Paragon. Ended the day with a simpler dinner at Fish & Co. By the way, I pamper my lao gong too. I got him a Braun Buffel belt, a pair of shoes from Pedro and a cheesecake from Coffee Bean. It was meant to be a surprise for each day 3 days pertaining to our anniversary.

Final words: Thank you lao gong. you really made my day. I love you.

Today's QT - Approval Addiction

2007-10-01T15:40:00.000+08:00

Am I now trying to win the approval [favor] of men, or of God?
Or am I trying to please men?
If I were still trying to please men,
I would not be a servant of Christ.
Galatians 1:10

Don't be addicted to approval. Folow your heart. Do what you believe God is telling you to do, and stand firm in Him and Him alone.

[Extracted from 'Managing your Emotions' by Joyce Meyer]

Today's QT

2007-09-24T13:51:00.000+08:00

This is what the Lord says:
"Cursed is the one who trusts in man,
who depends on flesh for his strength
and whose heart turns away from the
Lord.

He will be like a bush in the wastelands;
he will not see prosperity when it comes.
He will dwell in the parched places of the desert,
in a salt land where no one lives.

But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord,
whose confidence is in him.
He will be like a tree planted by the water
that sends out its roots by the stream.
It does not fear when heat comes;
its leaves are always green.
It has no worries in a year of drought
and never fails to bear fruit."

Jeremiah 17:5-8

Music Box

2007-09-21T09:33:00.000+08:00

Look what I found during lunch yesterday? Music Box by Mariah Carey! This album is lao gong's favourite and also mine. And I got it at less than $10 from NTUC Fairprice! Ok I'm breaking a grammatical rule here. You're not supposed to place conjuctions at the beginning of a sentence. So students don't learn this!

One of our fav songs in this album is Hero. May this song be an encouragement to anyone out there who's feeling down at the moment.

Do you know who's the Hero being described in this song? Take a look at the lyrics to find out.

There's a hero
If you look inside your heart
You don't have to be afraid
Of what you are
There's an answer
If you reach into your soul
And the sorrow that you know
Will melt away

[Chorus:]
And then a hero comes along
With the strength to carry on
And you cast your fears aside
And you know you can survive
So when you feel like hope is gone
Look inside you and be strong
And you'll finally see the truth
That a hero lies in you

It's a long road
When you face the world alone
No one reaches out a hand
For you to hold
You can find love
If you search within yourself
And the emptiness you felt
Will disappear

[Chorus]

Lord knows
Dreams are hard to follow
But don't let anyone
Tear them away
Just hold on
There will be tomorrow
And in time
You'll find the way

Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life." John 14:6a

Running causes Toothache?

2007-09-20T13:06:00.000+08:00

Mei goes to the gym with us every wednesday now to train for her marathon. By the way we only gave her permission to train but we didn't give her permission to go for the 10km marathon. So skinny, later wind blow her backwards instead of forwards how?

"Ouch my teeth hurts."

This is what happened to her after running 2.4km on the treadmill last night.

Mr Jin Wu Lark and Mrs Jin Bo Lark

2007-09-20T12:53:00.001+08:00

Thanks to my wonderful Sony Ericsson auto focus 3.2 mega pixels camera phone, I managed to capture the following.

Mrs Jin Bo Lark happily training with her one slab of iron.

Mr Jin Wu Lark training very hard with his 20 slabs of iron. My hero....

Hair

2007-09-18T22:47:00.000+08:00

Hair from the brush Source: Owners' laziness. Never brush dogs for months.

Hair rolled together

Source: Under the piano

Hair among the pebbles

Source: Hair blown by the wind

Hair dug out from carpet

Source: Hair that managed to sneak into the master bedroom

The culprits

Source: Ah boy and ah ger's face after shower

Success

2007-09-18T00:24:00.000+08:00

Possible benchmarks of Success

1) Career - Compared to your peers, are you on the higher rung of the corporate ladder?

2) Marital Status - Single, Attached, Engaged, Married?

3) 5 Cs - Condo, Credit Card, Cash, and ???

4) Social Status - Famous? Popular?

5) Spirituality - Strong understanding of personal religion

6) Number of Children you have

7) Qualifications: Degree, Masters, PhD?

To me now, success is measured in the following order.

1) Knowing who I am in Christ and being confident in the roles He has placed me in.

2) Ability to provide my husband with the support and help he needs.

3) Sharing the love and joy of Christ with all my students and friends.

4) Being joyful and happy in what I do. Serving the Lord and teaching my students with joy.

What are your benchmarks of Success?

Proverbs 3:6 In everything you do, put God first, and he will direct you and crown your efforts with success. TLB

Sad but true?

7 October 2007

2007-09-14T01:33:00.000+08:00

7 October is coming again!!! We are married for almost a year. Starting to prepare for this year's honeymoon so excited!!! We have a few options.

1) Cruise to Redang

2) Krabi

3) Bali

We want a place that doesn't have many things to do so that we can just romanticise each other, holding hands while walking along the beach and while snorkeling.

4) Taiwan (Never been there and very curious about the myriad of food, shopping and scenic places there. It would be fun exploring the country together.)

5) Hongkong

Then again, we have never been to 4) and 5) together. Our Chinese New Year vacation can't possibly be at these two places cos almost everywhere's gonna be closed for business. So should we still have a beach vacation since our last real vacation was at Bintan and our next vacation after honeymoon is gonna be most probably a beach vacation too???

Our Little Piece of "Maldives"

Our favourite Water Hobby

I still remember our very 1st snorkeling experience. It was during honeymoon at Phuket. We were so amazed by what we saw underwater that even when everyone was done with it and were exploring the little island the boatman stopped at, we were still sort of squatting and floating around the shores looking at the underwater world. When we finally stood up, we realised everyone was already on the speedboat waiting for us and we were the only ones still standing knee-deep in water and snorkeling!

Our 2nd experience was at Bintan. It wasn't as colourful and the variety of fishes underwater was much lesser but still it was a wonderful experience for me cos lao gong held my hand tightly throughout while we explored the waters together.

Sometimes at the end of a busy day, my favourite activity is to sit on the couch in lao gong's arms, listening to lhis heartbeat and seeing him smile at me. After reading the story on Sally's blog, I was reminded of how important these things are especially when we get too comfortable with each other and take each other for granted.

Lao gong cooked dinner for me and mei today and worked himself into a sweat again. So touched by his gesture. Thank you lao gong. Muacks!

Mr Big Foot and Miss Small Foot

2007-09-14T01:24:00.000+08:00

Can you spot who's who?

Ah Boy's "Hairy Paw"
Eversince daddy trimmed the fur between my paws, my fur has been growing weirdly. =S

Sally's new nicknames for us.

2007-09-14T01:18:00.000+08:00

Today I read Sally's blog and realised we the Engs have a set of new nicknames. Mr Jin Wu Lark and Mrs Jin Bo Lark. Haha how apt the title. Yesterday we went to the gym. I went to my favourite machine for toning flabby byebye arms and slotted the pin into "2". The lightest possible weight, ie 1 slab of iron.

Lao gong, who has stopped working out for almost 2 months got inspired by me and felt that since he was there and there was only one other person there, he decided to make use of the time to work out too. He went to the chest machine, took out the pin and slotted it right at the bottom. 20 whole pieces of solid iron. For a moment I was worried that his face will burst when I saw the amount of exertion on his face. Haha next time take photo for you all to see.

Eng Ah Ger

2007-09-11T11:49:00.000+08:00

Hi my name is Ah Ger. I'm the pampered lady in the house. My brother ah boy has to do all kinds of funny things to make mum and dad give him titbits but i just have to appear beside him and look sweet to get whatever that he's been given. Though I know less tricks than him, don't you think I'm the more blessed one?

But mum says i frown too much. That's because I'm afraid of many things. Mum and Dad say maybe something happened to me when I was young but I can't really remember. All I know is that when I accidentally pee in the house, I don't get as much scolding as ah boy. I overheard them saying that I can't be scolded too much. I'm meant to be pampered and loved. Life's so good...

My favourite place is on mum's lap! I'm sp happy I can't keep my tongue in.

Actually i'm very mischievous too. See the white piece of cloth under my leg? It's actually the lining from dad's sports shorts. He seems to tear his clothes up all the time cos he forgets how big his muscles are and uses too much strength to wear his clothes. So his clothes tear quite easily. Mum gave it to us cos she knows we love anything with their smell and I won it from ah Boy.

See? I'm not that scardey cat. I love playing with ah boy and I don't mind him covering my whole face with his mouth.

This is dad squishing me when I was a puppy. Maybe that's why I can't seem to grow as big as my brother.

Hope you enjoyed reading my humble biography =)

Eng Ah Boy

2007-08-30T01:11:00.000+08:00

Ah boy on his Luxurious Satin PillowIt's actually ah ger's but as he claims ownership over it.

Ah boy is the mischievous one. Super playful and smart. Our neighbour loves him alot and even keeps a jar of dog cookies at their house for ah ger and ah boy.

Waiting for our Neighbours

Every time Uncle opens his gate, ah boy will eagerly wait for his invitation in their house. Then he'll go to the place where the cookie jar is and look at uncle meaningfully.

If uncle pretends not to give him his cookie, he go into "Qiu qiu ni" position and begs for a cookie. After getting his cookie, he'll happily run back home. Haha so realistic right...

Enjoying the Scenery while Pee-ing

Ah boy is 4 years old now but he still squats like a girl when he pees. Ha at least he only lifts his leg once in a while when he thinks we've gone senile. He has this habit of squatting because everytime he lifts his leg, we'll shout at him. But we also make it a point to praise him immediately when he pees without lifting the leg so that he understands he's being scolded for lifting the leg, not for pee-ing.

He's trained to eat upon command so that we wouldn't get mixed up as to who ate the food and give one dog two portions and the other none.

Making fun of him by delaying the "Okay!"

"Okay!"

Did U know Forever Frens Bear was inspired by Our Darling

He loves to imitate humans too. The moment u pull a chair, he'll take it as an invitation to sit on the chair like us.

"Bang! Ah! I'm dead..." He learnt this trick in 5 mins flat. Lao gong was staring at me when I taught him this trick. When we first got ah boy, I thought gone. This dog is so stupid. Can't even lift a paw after 2 weeks. But after he got the hang of the training sessions I had with him everyday, he started to understand that he was supposed to learn something.

From them onwards, everytime I taught him something, he will look at me, think about what I'm trying to make him do, and slowly slide into postion while looking at me as if to ask, "Is it thiissss?" I would praise him like anything and give him a bite of his favourite snack and it helps him understand clearly whether he's doing something right or wrong.

Ah boy's trademark "Roasted Pig" Sleeping Position

I'm a Big Grizzly Bear

Sometimes he gets mistaken for a Pig...

Thank you Pa for blessing us with such a lively dog who has grown from a chubby puppy into the handsome dog he is now.

Largest Physical Blessing

2007-08-28T17:39:00.000+08:00

Sunrise Outside Our HouseEvery day is a brand new day!

The Great View outside Our House

Ah Boy in his Toilet

Living at the first floor is a big convenience for us whenever we need to bring the dogs out for play and to do their business. This garden is just a few steps outside our house. There's even a big field opposite for the dogs to have a good run.

Welcome In God has truly blessed us alot alot. As mentioned in my wedding blog, not only did He bless us to be able to get married at such a young age despite our lack of discipline in saving up for marriage, He also blessed us with a wonderful house.

God's timing was smack on the dot. Around the time when we were renovating our house, lao gong happened to be in the renovation business. So he took the whole door back to the factory and had a new laminate pasted over the door, turning the door from boring HDB to contemporary condo ^_^

Before and After of Our Cosy Corner

Our house came completely bare. We wanted to allow light to pass thru and create a more spacious feeling while retaining the cosyness of a contained space in the tv room so we hacked down the wall separating our tv room from the living room and had it replaced with a glass.

My Favourite "Ice-Cubes" Lights

Boring wall replaced with Glass

We live right at the first storey. The labour for bringing such a heavy big piece of glass is very costly. Cables will also be required to lift it up if it can't go thru the stairway or elevator. If we were to split this glass into two, there wouldn't be the seamless look with the line in between. Because of that, we saved alot on this piece of glass.

Our "Mini Theatre"

We painted this room a deep blue and scarlet to create the atmosphere of a cinema experience.

Our Master Bedroom

My fav Lamb on My Fav Couch

We painted our master bedroom a dark purple to give it a romantic and cosy look. The whole floor is carpeted with gold carpet cos I wanted to feel like I'm living in a hotel room ;P

Sultan's Bed hehe See the pretty lilac cloths hanging down at the 2 sides of the bed? It's actually a "cloth" light. We got it during our honeymoon at Bangkok.

Sunshine Look

I was so old-fashioned. Wanted a leather headboard for my bed. Thank God lao gong suggested this wall paper for our headboard. Pretty right...

Our Black "Hotel" toilet

The toilet came with orange floor tiles but to complete the "hotel" look and give me my dream toilet, lao gong got the tiler to overlay the original tiles with black tiles. We also hacked away the beige HDB sink and toilet bowl and replaced them with a black glass sink and a shiny black toilet bowl. And of course we got all these at a good deal cos lao gong was in the reno line at that time. :P

Common Toilet

We got the footprints at a deal! The shop was having a closing down sale with 50% discount for about $60+. Few weeks later, we saw exactly the same thing being sold at Molecule for $100+!

See our toothbrush holder. So cute right? Darling Sally bought it for us after she heard about my search for toothbrush holders. Mine's the blue puppy one and I gave lao gong the pink hippopotamus. Just to make fun of him! It has this cool technology. When u take the toothbrush out, the holder will just open up automatically. When you put the toothbrush back, it will also close automatically.

Study Room complete with a Dog that looks like a Pig being Roasted

Lao Gong's Kitchen

Lao gong keeps saying this kitchen is his cos he uses it much more than I do. I take that as a blessing. Don't mind giving him ownership of this place =D

Servant's Leader

2007-08-23T00:12:00.000+08:00

Leader: a person who has commanding authority or influence [Merriam-Webster Dictionary]

Given this definition, it is scary to obey God and regard our husbands as our leader. To surrender our authority over ourselves to another person and be in a position vunerable to being hurt by that person.

However, in Luke 22:26-27 of the bible,

Jesus said to them (vs 25)...the greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who rules like the one who serves... But I am among you as one who serves.

Jesus was a born leader, charismatic, faithful and full of wisdom. The disciples gave up their careers and left their hometown to follow this man in His crusades and ministries. Yet He was also a servant leader. He taught my lao gong, to be the greatest, you have to be as humble as the youngest. To rule, you must also serve.

My servant leader on earth

Personal groomer

Manicurist

Chef

Cleaner

Jewelry Maker

Provider

It's not that bad to be in a position of being someone else's subordinate when you get a servant leader right? =P

My new cell

2007-08-22T23:35:00.001+08:00

Remember my entry last month about our cell split? After the split, we're much smaller. However, we're also able to bond more easily and get to know each other better. Here's some updates on my new cell. Yet to be named.

We ka-ra together...

While some others who don't like to sing laze around...

We dress in similar clothes...

Laugh and play pranks on our bday girl...

Hang out @ Housefly (the Hougang equivalent of Dragonfly at St James)

have lots of late night suppers together

and go for double dates together...

Hehe...love ya all.

[Some photos extracted / "stolen" from http://plyn.livejournal.com/]

Follow-Up on The Humbling Experience

2007-08-22T23:24:00.000+08:00

After the humbling experience a week ago, I was determined to work on managing my emotions rather than letting my emotions manage me. Emotions, especially women's emotions are always unstable, changing from one day to the next and even from one minute to the next. If we allow our emotions to control us, there wouldn't be much lasting joy.

Right now my focus is on managing my emotions rather than letting my emotions manage me. Only when I can be self-controlled can I be a better helper and have a more gracious spirit.

So far the week after "the experience" has been quite good. I'm able to watch my tongue better, to control negative emotions right at the onset before it becomes full-blown and uncontrollable. I've even succeeded at holding my tongue on numerous occasions not to "tell lao gong what he should do" and try to pray more instead.

The result: A happier lao gong and a happier lao po!

A humbling experience (Part 2)

2007-08-17T15:02:00.000+08:00

That night I asked God to come into my life to deal with this issue in me. If I was going to minister to the youths, to my students at tuition, to our cell members, to be a good helper to my husband, I cannot continue to let my emotions rule over me.

What followed after the prayer seemed like a nightmare. My emotions went into roller coaster mode. The streaks of rebelliousness, of feeling unfairly treated got more frequent and more intense.

God was allowing the full measure of my problem to come to the surface so that we can really deal with it. He was also allowing the situation to seem to get worse for me to test me and push me to have a higher level of endurance.

Sometimes it would get demoralising because every time I resolved to change, something would trigger me off again and I would fall back into the same negative behavior.

All this while, I didn't tell lao gong that I knew I was in the wrong for my own behavior. I kept it between myself and God. (So that he can't have something to use against me in our next quarrel. You see I was protecting myself and in the process, I wasn't submitting. )

Finally one day after one of those lectures, lao gong asked me, "What's wrong with you?" I then broke down and told him what had been going on all these while. That actually I knew I was wrong but I just couldn't change and I didn't want to let him know that I felt I was wrong because I feared that he would use it against me in our arguments.

Lao gong told me, "You should have trusted more in my love for you. By not telling me all this, you would just cause the misunderstnading between us to deepen and it would make you feel that you're all alone."

Yup I shouldn't have tried to do things my own way. I should have trusted in lao gong's love for me. I also should have trusted God that by submitting fully and exposing even my most vunerable part to lao gong, God would do the rest. He would protect and bless me.

That night was a humbling experience cos I had to admit all my mistakes in front of lao gong and God. I realised how difficult I had been when I stood my ground and hardened my heart against lao gong. I frequently judged him by his actions and my own emotions rather than being more discerning to God's voice.

As women, we all have our own hang-ups. We all can have different tolerance levels for different issues. Not being able to tolerate certain behaviors doesn't mean that we're right. Neither does it give us a right to try to change the situation by being ugly. Instead we should go to God in prayer and ask Him whether the problem lies in our perspective or with our husband. And if it's really our husbands who "have a problem", then we should wait upon the Lord to guide us as to what we should do.

Most of the time, we try to take things into our own hands and try to "set our lao gongs right." But God calls for us to submit and help. We can help by praying and asking God to open doors for us to say something that is truly from God and not from ourselves. If it's from ourselves, most of the time it would just come out negative rather than positive. If we follow God's timing, our husbands will listen. If we don't, we'll just end up harming our husbands, dampening their spirits and making it difficult for them to love us.

I'm still learning. But it has gotten better after the night I confessed to lao gong that I was the one in the wrong. It doesn't matter what lao gong has done. He is answerable to God. What matters is my reaction to what lao gong does. I am not just answerable to God but I'm also answerable to lao gong. Because I'm his helper and I'm suposed to submit to him as unto the Lord.

Lao gong says my behavior towards him affects his day alot. When I'm happy, it causes him to have lots of motivation towards his work, gym workout and ministry. When I'm moody, I not only affect his mood, but I also affect the family.

I asked him, "But there's only 2 of us in the family what."

He says it's not just the 2 of us. It's us as a unit, our spiritual health, the atmosphere in our house and more. If I can be strong and resist the devil, I can be of lots of help to the family.

Ok drive all self-pity out and take control over my emotions!

A humbling experience (Part 1)

2007-08-16T16:24:00.000+08:00

The last 2 weeks have been a really difficult week for me. Though we had lots of fun going out with our new cell, I also had a hard time coping with my own attitude and submission issues. Again. Yup I'm still learning.

A few months back, I had a big argument with lao gong.

"But I thought you wanted to be a submissive wife?"

Yup that's the problem. If I'm really submissive how come I can't approach our issues properly without being a quarrelsome wife?

The problem is that though I wanna be submissive, I can't manage my emotions well. I can only submit when I'm happy or when lao gong does what I think he should. But when I strongly disagree with something, my emotion takes over and you can tell I'm not the least bit submissive by the tone I use when I talk to him or the type of tantrums I throw.

During the quarrel, lao gong said, "You have to learn how to manage your emotions! You have to stop allowing your emotions to control your behavior!"

Of course during the quarrel I refused to admit that I had allowed my emotions to control me instead of me controlling my emotions. I refused to talk to him and just went to sulk in a corner by myself.

After I've cooled down enough and lao gong was asleep, I asked God, "God, do I really have a problem?"

I didn't hear anything. I couldn't cos at that time, my emotions were still in control. I still had resentment in me and that made my spirit insensitive to God's voice. So I went online to surf abit and dropped in on Joyce Meyer's website, which I don't usually do. That was the 1st or the second time I dropped in.

And the online sermon for that day was "Managing Your Emotions."

I was truly like, "Oh my God."

As I listened to the short 15min sermon, what Joyce Meyer described seemed exactly like what I felt very often. And she mentioned that most people have a problem managing their emotions. That our faith and spiritual walk at many times is ruled by our emotions, how we feel about ourselves rather than what we know the bible says.

Ok I gotta go start tuition. con't my story in the next entry.

Ah don't beat my backside

2007-08-16T16:11:00.000+08:00

I feel sheepish again for not updating for such a looooong time. But recently lao gong set up a new house rule. That both of us are not supposed to be on the comp after 10pm. This is to make sure we have quality time for each other. So I really have not much chance to update. Mornings and afternoons are the times I reserve for QT and worship. After all the meal times and preps for tuition, I really feel so hard-pressed for time.

But i really wanna update regularly. Lao gong set another house rule. To sleep by 12am and wake up by 6am. We didn't accomplish either till now. Cos we're always out at night these days and by the time we come home and settle down, it's always past 12am. For 3 days, I've been having plain green nails on my left hand and red flowers on green nails on the right hand.

Cos lao gong didn't have time to finish up the manicure. And last night at 1am when we were finally ready for bed, lao gong suddenly says he's hungry. Again. So we had to walk all the way out to buy cup noodles and after everything, it's already 2 plus. So we ended up waking late again and not accomplishing enough work during the day.

Hai I must be a better helper. If even the helper loves to sleep till 12 noon, how can she help the lao gong to wake up early?

Fishing Story (Special Edition)

2007-08-08T01:22:00.000+08:00

Remember a few months ago I shared about God causing all the fishes to die in the long kang because of 1 man, which was my lao gong as a sign to him that he shouldn't have gone fishing?

Yesterday lao gong told me he wanted to go fishing again and felt the peace of God telling him to go. I felt very strongly (well I got pretty upset actually) that lao gong shouldn't go but tried to remain open to God's comments on what He felt about the whole situation so I asked Him to give me a sign if I was wrong by way of lao gong's catch. Or lack of it.

Lao gong also asked God for a sign and prayed that if he doesn't get any fish, it would mean that he was wrong and that it was his own desire telling him it was ok to go fishing and he would apologise to me first thing when he sees me.

God not only gave lao gong a fish, he gave him his biggest fish ever fished in his entire 19 years of fishing career. Yup lao gong started fishing ever since Primary One or even before that. Teo, Randy and Quek also went but didn't catch anything. Haiz...I better be slow to speak, quick to listen and slow to anger. And also learn my lesson of submission.

By the way, this seabass weighs 7kg. God is really amazing. I think He has a sense of humor too, don't you think so?

Marriage Counselling

2007-08-08T00:51:00.001+08:00

7 August 2007

Today we went for to meet our marriage counsellors Matthew and Dolly from our previous church WEFC.

Hey it takes effort to work out a good marriage. Doesn't mean lao gong's so good to me and I try my best to submit means that we have a perfect marriage. And doesn't mean couples who go for marriage counselling are couples with "problems".

We all have our differences and sometimes don't see eye to eye with certain issues. Though as the wife I keep trying to submit to certain issues, I may remain unhappy bcos the differences are not worked out or resolved.

Yup so we had a really good time at their place. We had an amazing dinner with home-cooked bryani rice, garlic prawns in lemon juice (I'm not sure what it was but it tasted really good), chicken rendang, vegetables. Then we had strawberries and cherries and dessert was home-baked apple crumble with Hagen Daz ice-cream! I haven't eaten so much in quite a while!

Ok food aside, the sharing was very refreshing. We updated each other about our lives and me and lao gong managed to share some of the difficulties we face in our marriage. We felt so comfortable telling them everything in our marriage and it was also very refreshing to hear from people who could tell us frankly how we're wrong in certain ways and how we can resolve our problems. But ultimately it also takes an open spirit to take all this in cos it's not easy to hear someone else tell you that you're wrong. All in all, today has been a great day.

And best of all it so happens to be our anniversary! Not the actual wedding anniv but the monthly anniversary of the day we got together. We had lunch at Jack's Place and lao gong bought me a pair of Charles n Keith slippers.

And the one that I liked happened to be a promotion item so we got it at a good price. God is good! All the time!

FOP

2007-08-08T00:40:00.000+08:00

Went for FOP on Sat with homecell and Vinita. She seems to gel really well with the young ones. We invited her to join our home cell since she fits in so well haha. But I think it was bcos of her gentle & very pleasant disposition that made them all feel so comfortable with her.

This year's FOP was Delirious and Don Moen. Hmm finally can start to appreciate Delirious abit more. We even jumped a bit. Me in my heels, Vinita, the students and Shawn. The stadium was fully packed and they were still turning people away one hour after worship began.

But this year was much better. Those who got turned away received a free cd and a priority ticket that allows them to join the VIP queue the next day and get priority seats. Wow great idea.

The worship was really great. When Don Moen played the first song, the anointing was so strong and I could feel a jump in my heartbeat.

Sunday we went and did the queueing thing all over again. This time with Andy Tan, Sally, Mei (Heli), Nd Quek, Lit Kah and Jiesi. She came late and was one of those who got turned away but she persevered and came on Sunday. We all went for a great supper @Geylang with lotsa frog porridge! Great weekend!

Some of the people at our home cell look alike at times. Below is an example on FOP Saturday.

After-Effects of giant blessings

2007-08-03T01:26:00.000+08:00

After i received the gifts as graciously as I could, I started feeling guilty for throwing a big tantrum and thinking of lao gong as a big nasty fella. And also for being angry at God for allowing me to go thru' such trials.

Lao gong saved on a Braun Buffel wallet and instead bought me a Gucci wallet. I was so touched at his sacrifical love for me and how he really go all out to shower me with love that I threw my arms around him and wept. . And he didn't give me one gift but he gave me two giant gifts.

Then i got worried and asked him whether he would still continue doing manicures for me. Cos he once said that since he can't afford to send me to the mani palour, he would do it himself for me. So now that I have a gucci wallet and bag, that means he can afford to send me to the nail palour too. Thank God his response was, "No la! I will still continue doing for you."

Then that night I had a nightmare. I dreamt that Lao gong didn't buy me a present for my birthday. As was his usual practice for quite a few years at the beginning of the relationship. Yes God is so real in my life cos I can see how He has transformed my hubbi from an insensitive unromantic, proud and impatient fella into the loving hubbi he is today. Hubbi never used to get me gifts for Valentine's or birthdays. He seldom brought me shopping and romantic outings was a non-existent subject in our relationship. And when hubbi gets his pay first thing he used to think of was what he wanted to get for himself. But that's all in the past. Now hubbi drags me to Orchard even when I've got "too much work to do" and eats food court while pushing me to have my lunch at Sake Sushi. Before every big paycheck, lao gong will be praying to God asking Him what to get me this month. For Valentine's Day, he cooks steaks for me and slow dances with me to love songs.

My dear LORD Jesus has really molded lao gong into the loving hubbi that tries his best to love his wife sacrificially like Jesus does for His church.

Anyway back to my nightmare. In the dream, hubbi didn't buy me pressies cos he had already gotten me 2 big gifts beforehand. I wasn't that hurt in the dream cos I also understood that well hubbi has already given me more than enough but I couldn't help feeling disappointed. When I woke up from the dream, Iwas still feeling pretty upset until I remembered that it was only July and that my birthday was not here yet. Phew!

Haha so funny we humans are. When God blesses us, instead of trusting in Him and enjoying the blessings, we start to get afraid that He would replace other blessings or that trials would come to test our faith. Haha...I'm learning LORD. To really trust in you.

But till now, you haven't let me down. As I trusted in You and threw myself into learning how to submit to hubbi, you've given me back more than what I've given up. Thank you LORD!

G-U-C-C-I

2007-08-03T00:24:00.000+08:00

On monday lao gong scolded me quite badly for something. Cos i wasn't discerning and didn't behave properly. I felt that he had been too harsh on me so I threw a pretty big tantrum.

Yah I know I'm trying to submit but I was really hurt that day and my emotions got the better of me. I cried my eyes out cos lao gong refused to talk to me the whole day and I still felt that it was unfair of him to scold me like that.

Finally I gave in and went back to my "little girl" posture and simply pouted and went about doing my own things. Then lao gong sat me on his lap and explained to me why he was so angry and after that he asked me to close my eyes for a surprise.

He then placed something in my lap and made me guess what it was. It was a small flat box that felt like a box of chocolates but I knew most prob lao gong wldn't have to make a box of chocolates so secretive.

As he helped me take the object out, I was like oh no please. i didn't dare look cos a while back he had brought me into a gucci boutique out of the blue. He made me test a bag which i felt was nice but when I realised the bag cost a thousand plus, i was offended! I felt that it was ridiculous to pay so much for a bag and I told lao gong actually the bag wasn't so nice.

Back to Monday, true to my suspicions, it was a Gucci wallet. And then he brought out an even bigger paper bag and in it was the bag i liked. Yap I nearly fainted. For those who know me well, I'm a $30 bag person. Never in my life have I thought of owning one of those ridiculously expensive stuff. Of course if it's free I wouldn't mind but I would never spend money or my lao gong's money on such stuff.

Honestly speaking, if this was the former "domineering no-no submit to hubbi" Hui Ling, I would have scolded hubbi for splurging so much on things like bags and wallets. Even if it was for me. I would rather save it up for practical things like our child's education (if you get what I mean.)

But because now I've learnt how to submit to hubbi and also accept God's blessings, I received the gifts with much gratitude to both God n hubbi. Submitting to hubbi means respecting his decisions and not criticise him for the decisions he has made, in this case splurging on Gucci for his wife.

I've come to understand the grace of God to a deeper level. Yes the money could have been saved up for emergency or family planning but as the bible says in

Matthew 6:26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?

Of course it doesn't mean that we spend without wisdom and misuse the resources that God has called us to be stewards of but it means that we don't have to be so uptight all the time. Sometimes it is ok to sit back and allow God (and others) to pamper you. Then you would love God even more and with that deeper gratitude you would be able to give even more love to God and to others right?

Sigh...I've never had a bag so structured, so roomy...

Curry Chicken, Transformers n St James Power Station

2007-08-03T00:18:00.000+08:00

Sunday after service we had a great time at corporate prayer meeting.

Then went Andy n Sally's house for homecooked curry chicken.

Caught transformers @ Vivo City. The show's so good! We're gonna watch it again on DVD. Bumble bee!!!!!!

Met the rest at St James power station. There was a great band there with great vocals. Only thing was the vocals were so good Andy Quek suspected that the ang mo sound technician at the back did something to the vocals which made the singers sound so good. Well but it didn't matter. Just got me more inspired for Karaoke on Monday with Mei, Audrey, Lit Kah, Wanhui and of course me and lao gong.

Wanhui and Lit Kah sounded so good together we asked them to join the singing competition and compete with a duet. =P

Last Saturday

2007-08-02T23:57:00.000+08:00

Finally caught up on my blog entries.
Sat was greeeat.

Lao gong brought me shopping after tuition.
Met Cynthia, Yun n Jingfang for dinner. We had
Sake sushi @ PlazaSing,
Walked to Rochor Road for the Rochor Road beancurd
Walked to the new Cathay building for toilet break and shopping
Took a train to Cityhall to walk around the Esplanade.

As usual, when we bring Yun n Jingfang out, they don't get their day's worth of fun unless we bring them out till 2am standard.
From Esplanade we walked to Fullerton and we liked the toilet so much we took a photo there.

Then we walked back to Esplande and.....ate again! The oysters in the oyster omelete were so fresh and big. Then I have another taxi story again.

While we were waiting for the nightrider, as our common practice when we go out with the young ones on Sats, I saw a Sonata parked at the side of the road. Because I was already so tired and we had to wake up early for church the next morning, i wondered whether that was a sign from God to take a cab rather than the bus.

By the time I shared that with lao gong, the cab had already left so we agreed that whichever comes first, cab or bus, we would take it (as a sign). And it was either Sonata or bus. No other types of cabs. Many Sonatas came but instead of driving towards us, it turned in toward the taxi stand nearby cos there were zig zag lines at the bus stop we were waiting at.

Many buses came but none was the one we were waiting for. After missing like 4 Sonatas, I thought maybe I had "missed cue" from God. Maybe He didn't tell us to take cab.

Finally He answered as to why we didn't get the Sonatas. A space cab came along our way and instead of driving into the taxi stand like all the other cabs, it drove toward us into the lane beside the bus lane away from the zig zag lines. I was flabbergasted. God is really a God who blesses abundantly and gives us more than what we ask for!

The space cab was really spacious and luxurious. It's like a MPV and the airconditioning was from the roof so no matter where u sit, you wouldn't feel suffocated. And the best part is the mileage is the same except that the initial fare was 30cents more than normal cabs. Wow!

Church gym @ Blk 574

2007-08-02T23:46:00.000+08:00

Monday was gone case. Not only was i unable to wake up at 6am, but we (both of us) slept till 2 plus afternoon. Cos it was like accumulated from Friday right up to Sunday and we were so dehydrated from the Funday @ Sentosa.

Wednesday was my first time to our church gym at Blk 574. For those of us who've heard the love story between me and lao gong, he was once a fitness instructor at California Fitness. So from now onwards, we will go 574 on wednesdays to be the fitness instructors there. I'm lao gong's assistant and will be helping him with the female trainees. I'm so glad lao gong gets me involved in all his ministries. Then I never have to wonder what he's doing outside or pine for him at home. Best of all I get to spend even more time with lao gong and as we work together, our relationship grows to another level.

And i get to work on my butt too!

Funday @ Sentosa

2007-08-02T23:32:00.001+08:00

22July 2007

Rem I mentioned that this was a super packed weekend.

Friday: chalet & bbq at Changi to celebrate Andy Tan's bday.
Lots of fiery chilli sotong and chatted till like 1 plus. Again. Seems like my fridays always end around that time.

Sat: Tuition first thing in the morning. Rushed around for the wedding. After wedding dinner went for coffee with Stacia till midnight.

Sun: Wake up at 630am to go to church for the bus to Sentosa.

Our church organised this Funday @ Sentosa and booked the whole beach for us and our friends. We had a great time bonding with our cell members and even baked till we were all burnt. I think Pea got it the worse cos she literally laid under the sun to bake her skin.

Beach babes

Beach hunks

I even met my primary school friend Wanxia there. She was invited by another member from our church.

Gerald

Isn't he charming? Everytime I look at him i feel like having bbs.

Bert & Cherilyn's Wedding

2007-08-02T23:18:00.000+08:00

21 July 2007

This was a fully packed weekend. After 2 lessons one after another, we had to rush to Goodwood Park for the wedding lunch. Though we rushed till I had motion sickness in the car, we were still very very late. By the time we reached, the ceremony had ended and everyone had started eating. Felt so sheepish running through the marquee to our table.

After the wedding lunch we hung around town with Stacia, Carolin and Heli to wait for the dinner at Hyatt so that we don't have to travel to and fro. I felt lousy not being able to change into something different for the dinner so God brought us to Wisma and I bought this hairpin that gave me a totally different hairdo. God is good, all the time! All the time, God is good!

My very first french twist!

Angel's Share

2007-08-02T22:53:00.000+08:00

19 July 2007

Hmm what could Angel's share mean? Share of heaven? Of blessings?

Nope. It's the name of a restaurant opened by a wine distributor. Lao gong supplies them plates and bowls so they invited lao gong for the soft launch. All wines and food on the house. Then my dear lao gong who believes that God gives abundant blessings asked whether he could bring two more friends including his wife there. Haha and interestingly the manager agreed.

So we went with Adrian and Andy Quek. We didn't drink the wine but according to Adrian n Nd, the wine was very goooood. Well the fruit juices they served us was very good too. Me and lao gong, the only two non-drinkers had lots of pineapple juice and cranberry juice hehe.

Nice place right =)

Back from MIA

2007-08-02T22:47:00.000+08:00

Hehe so sheepish. Have disappeared from blogging for quite awhile. Actually i don't have a very valid reason. My only excuse is that I've been really busy....having fun =P. Will share about our adventures in the next few entries.

Who Am I?

2007-07-26T13:59:00.000+08:00

Who am I, that the Lord of all the earth

Would care to know my name

Would care to feel my hurt

Who am I, that the Bright and Morning Star

Would choose to light the way

For my ever wandering heart

Not because of who I am

But because of what You've done

Not because of what I've done

But because of who You are

I am a flower quickly fading

Here today and gone tomorrow

A wave tossed in the ocean

Vapor in the wind

Still You hear me when I'm calling

Lord, You catch me when I'm falling

And You've told me who I am

I am Yours, I am Yours

Who am I, that the eyes that see my sin

Would look on me with love and watch me rise again

Who am I, that the voice that calmed the sea

Would call out through the rain

And calm the storm in me

Not because of who I am

But because of what You've done

Not because of what I've done

But because of who You are

[Who Am I, by Casting Crowns]

Sumptuous Breakfast

2007-07-20T06:15:00.000+08:00

Busyness makes it very challenging to hear from God. If you really want to hear the still, small voice of God, you will have to be still. Find a cave, like Elijah found[1], where you can simply be still.

You need extended periods of quiet to seek God, to be free of distractions and interruptions. If not, you are missing His best for you.

I [Joyce Meyer] have to get alone with God; sometimes I have two or three days alone with Him. I [JM] cannot fulfill my calling without that time with Him. To bring a word to this nation and to the world, I need to hear from God. If I am not alone to give Him first place in my life, I cannot hear from God or be led by the Holy Ghost. I have to have time to give the Lord my undivided attention.

When you are alone with God, don't think about your problems. Sit down, get quiet, and answer God's question when He asks you, "What are you doing here?"[2]
Tell Him you want to know what He has for your life.
Ask Him to tell you what He wants you to do.
Ask Him to tell you what He doesn't want you to do.

Present yourself to God and listen. You are honoring Him by going to Him. You will get an answer from Him. If you don't hear Him speak during your time alone with Him, keep a reining ear toward His throne, and in the following days look for ways He answers you.

Sometimes we try too hard to hear from God. We actually want to hear so badly we get tense about it; we let it make us anxious and almost fearful that He may not speak or we may not hear. This could be one of the reasons we often hear later after we had a time of seeking Him. Later when we are relaxed, just going about our ordinary business, and He is able to speak because then we can hear.

God's greatest desire for His children is that they experience His best in their lives. He wants to have close fellowship with us and be invited into every area of our lives. He wants to speak to us and lead us in all our decisions by His spirit.

It is God's will that we hear clearly from Him. He does not want us living in confusion and fear. We are to be decisive, secure and free. He wants each of us to fulfill our destiny and to walk in the fullness of His plan for us. Listen, that is the first step towards hearing. Turn your ear toward Him and be still.

He will speak to you to tell you He loves you. He cares about your life and what you need. God wants to meet your needs and do more than you could ever think or imagine in order to bless you abundantly.
Ephesians 3:20 ...to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine...
Hebrews 13:5 ...God has said, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you."

The depth of our personal relationship with God is based upon intimate communication with Him. He speaks to us so that we are guided, refreshed, restored, and renewed regularly.
Romans 14:17 ...the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but it is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
[As we hear from the God and walk in line with His word to us, we give Him the throne of our hearts and His kingdom is established in our lives. We will then enjoy the fruits of the kingdom, which is righteousness, peace and joy!]

You can hear from God, it is part of your inheritance[3] - don't ever believe otherwise!

Extracted from "How to Hear from God; Learn to Know His voice and Make Right Decisions" by Joyce Meyer, bestselling author of "Battlefield of the Mind"
Bracketed words and footnotes :blogger's own

[1] The cave can be your own room early in the morning or late at night when no one is awake to disturb you.
[2] See 1Kings 19:9b
[3] If you have accepted Jesus into your life.

Pst: I woke up at 5am today and this is a summary of the gems I got! You can get it too!

Personal testimony: This morning when I woke up with my eyes still closed, I felt very tired and my mind said, "Cannot. Today too tired already cannot wake up so early." But I had to go to the loo so while sitting on the toilet bowl, I told God," God if it's you who woke me up, then please give me a sign."

I actually felt the heaviness physically get lifted off me! So I thought, "That's the sign. Even though I asked God for 530am last night, if He says 5am then so be it."

At the beginning I just tried to be still and quiet to hear Him speak to Him. He didn't actually say anything but there was this very comfortable presence I felt in my heart. As I started reading, was still feeling sleepy and a few times closed my eyes.

Actually my eyes were as big as saucers but my mind was still trying to go back to sleep. When I closed my eyes, it wasn't the nodding off to sleep kind but the close for 5 secs ro rest kind. By about 530am voila! My mind and my body was awake to really spend time going in depth into my study material!

Jia you everyone who's trying to wake up early too! Lao gong woke up at 7am! Yay we can start worship early today!