In a week

For dunno what reasons, i didn't feel too free this week even though i wasn't so busy. There was some work to do since CNY is coming soon and i've cleared my projects. So it's time to find prospective projects. some things have changed a bit in my work, to help me survive financially through this period, because i can't depend on an erratic flow of projects, and needed something more stable financially. as much as i wish money will pop out and appear in front of me, God's idea of teaching me to just have faith in Him to provide timely and to have wisdom in how i spend is much better.

my company is a great company with great colleagues and even though the work is tough and sometimes i feel like i have to be really independent, teaching myself and finding things to teach myself....till every project seems like an experimental experience, esp since my mentor is gone, gee..i learnt so much faster with him around. glad still hav my buddy around to share how our day went, rant about work, talk about life, lunch and just enjoy each other's company.

oh i'm gonna go learn to drive. :)
finally taking up my basic theory test again after 7 years (failed my test then for the simple reason that i didn't study, dumb rite?)

i love sundays :) though i'm always so sleepy in the mornings (because we wake up early early to go church esp when i have band prac) and sleepy in the afternoons, always craving for a nap, and weirdly it doesn't happen on other days.
and this week when we went over my in-laws place for dinner, the Ww's newphews were there! (we call them 'the boys' or 'zhuzhu-s'). missed them so much! they're always so cute, esp Augustine (which we think looks most like Ww of the 3 boys). this week they had their tricycles to show off and still bugging us to read books to them.


Alger boy has started to warm up to us. and since he has started to walk all around the house he seems happier to join his elder brothers in their play...and he started to happily say bye bye too..new stuff learnt!

Career vs Mission

we read this chapter of "The Incredible Journey of Faith" by Ray Pritchard and were really moved by God's truth in it.

as we ponder on my possibility to get a new job for more financial stability, and furthering his studies we were at the crossroads of our life. and when this question makes us think, think hard.

"Is your life a career or a mission?"

"There is a huge difference between living for your career and being sent on a mission. The Bible never talks about having a career. Having a career is not a biblical issue. Having a mission is."

"It's not that believers don't have careers. We do. ... But the difference is this: The people of the world live for their careers; the people of God don't."

so what is my mission in life?
i enjoy architecture and interior design and after all that, it's people that matters more to me. i always know i want to help people...i don't know how, i don't know with what, i don't know where. i wish i can do more.

"the question is not what are you doing for a living? The deeper issue is, what are you doing with your life? Why did God put you here on the earth?"

"Use the bigger position to impact the world for Jesus Christ.... Realize that God has put you where you are "for such a time as this" Understand that behind every open door and every promotion stands the Lord God who rules heaven and earth. As you climb to the top, remember who put you there."

if money is the issue, is the change of job with a higher and more stable pay the solution? God pls give me more faith. i need more faith. faith to believe that You will provide me with what's enough to live. that while there's so much bills to pay, faster than both of us can keep up with. i need more faith.

"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose." Jim Elliot

Doughnut factory!!

I'm mad. I never imagined i would line up 2hrs 15mins for this. doughnuts from Doughnut factory.


Actually i just wanted to buy 1. And i overheard an auntie behind be saying she lined up 1hr 20mins and gave up. so i thought i'll buy 6. and after 1 1/2 hrs i thought i had better buy 12 instead.
i just finished my interview and had time till i meet my buddy & her friend so i thought i could kill 1hr of time queueing for this.


so instead of going to airport after my tuition we enjoyed coffee & doughnuts at our balcony....shared some with my sis & gave 2 to her when she came by to pick up contact lens solution she kept forgetting to buy.

that's how we spent our anniversary...(and watched Catch Me If You Can).

Happy Anniversary to us

It's our 1yr 2mth wedding anniversary! Happy anniversary to us :)

Too bad i have tuition tonight at 8pm, and Ww finishes school abt 7plus. :(
otherwise we could go out for dinner or something. but then again, in an attempt to save money mayb not. when we were dating we would go out to eat every 8th of the month, though not always on the exact date cos sometimes we have things on that day. i think we've gotten lazy already...or eh..mayb just save money ba.

whatever it is, as much as it is nice to go our for nice dinners together and (my fav) to talk over coffee at nice cafes, it's the time we have together that we cherish lots, it's stuff no amount of money can buy.

i used to read about stories where couples say "i love you" everyday. and i wondered how possible is it to keep saying it, honestly i was quite amazed then. (but then again u wonder how you would greet ppl "gd morning" when you see them, same wat). Yet we do it, say ILU everyday, (i should think so..never really counted). you can only say gd morning in the morning but can say ILU anytime of the day and as many times as you like. the key is about saying 'i love you' is to tell the person with sincerity, to mean what you say, because you can say gd morning without any sincerity, but not with 'i love you'. it has to come from your heart.

Ww dear, I love you! happy anniversary!

Alleby is $1.90!

Yeap so it is..that famed green and long stuffed snake at IKEA is $1.90!!
it was $7.90. i told my sis and in the evening she called me while she was there with her friend and wailed to me that she bought it at $7.90 last week, "Why?!?!!?" oops..it's just luck eh? u never know what ikea decides to put on sale.

now Alleby is part of the mess of stuffed toys at our Klippan sofa. the green works pretty nicely with the sofa. now they seem to be taking over the sofa instead.


there was much lesser stuffed animals around..but after dropping by my mum's place last week, we brought back a big bag of stuffed animals that was always there but which i didn't even bring over to Ww's hse then.
- Stag (that dinosaur in the middle)
- Rover (that red dog on the far right, on the black bear)
- lion (that lion on the far left & looks like the Great Eastern lion logo)
- Mambo Jumbo (the blue elephant which my sis used as a prototype for her home econs stuffed toy proj)
- Melvin (that moose on the right, to accompany Gusto the other moose [it turns out that Gusto is a reindeer...whopps sorry Gusto...WW said i humiliated him on the internet world...haha..oops!] which, Ww gave on Christmas....*someone was asking wat he gave me for Christmas)

meanwhile i'm in a holiday mood still! oops..sorry people..but there's no work and so my gd buddy and i have been going out for lunches, shopping and mani/pedi tmr, and coffee on fri. taitai lifestyle? eh...not really, i wish. but we have time and no money. so..not too fantastic. i'm hoping for work though, but is a 9-6 job that is more stable and good better, or what i am doing now with flexi time and the potential of a good pay better? i do somewhat like what i do now but it's not giving me enough (just a lot of time at times..and no time at other times), if i take a 9-6 job it has potential to be really interesting but i'm not really in it so how can i tell anyway? gosh. i'm still considering (weighing the pros and cons, the opportunity cost), and waiting, praying, hoping.

Suddenly free

2 ppl fly my kite in the today & tmr. so i'm suddenly free....not a very good thing :(

Gosh! what am i gonna do?
~ whip up delicious dinner for Ww? (i'm still puzzled on what to cook...still need planning and thought. i'm not good at just buying & cooking. plus there is no cookable food in the house already, cos we have concluded that all fresh food die of neglect at home)
~ go shopping? (no no no....gotta save money..it's a really tight month..settling all our bills. so no new year clothes, i'll wear clothes that makes you think it's new. or maybe i can try the Zouk flea market...)

and i thought i can resue my Macbook from its hospital..but i didn't bring the form cos i didn't expect my appt to be cancelled today. ohh...i had such a premonition....

i dunno what to do!!!

who do i look like?

according to many people, i look like my mum...altho there are many times i do wish i'm not like her but somehow or rather being married kinda causes your influences from your parents since young to show up more clearly. because Ww will catch some expression or way i do things that seemingly reflects what my mum does. oh dear.

was checking my email and got the subscription from Radiant mag which is one of my fav online & print magazines around.
this article spoke to me deeply as i pondered about my ministry in my workplace and wherever i roam. it quoted the Message translation of Romans 12:1-2 which i recently shared during cell during our last cell of 2006..and which is what we'll be really goona work on.
God reminds me because i always forget. it's easy to remember one time off stuff but when you have to keep doing the same thing (which is to not to conform to the pattern of the world, to live holy-ly, to be renewed in our mind) in a different situation, in a different mood and emotion, you've gotta keep that one thing constant. to keep spending time with Him.

the article is Here.

i like what she writes...
"Lord, help us to be still and dwell in Your presence. Help us to become so connected with You that we reflect more of You and less of ourselves. Your beauty is extravagant. We want to look more like You."

suddenly the week becomes busier after a slow 3 days of the week. how weird. still...

"So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you." —Romans 12:1-2, MSG

On cloudy days

Interestingly, on a cloudy and murky day like this i can't seem to wake up at the unearthly 6am.
(yesterday i was able to wake at 545am..it was a potential sunny day).

it still looked like this at 930am.
Still i love rainy days & cloudy days.

It's gonna be a long day i hope. No surprises please.
Just a little bored with things to do but that are not urgent.

Yawns. i think i can sleep the whole morning.

Here's to a new year!

Having a 2 day public holiday this week is great. work was kinda light this week which is always the good and bad thing. gives me time to toggle with some stuff i like to do but no work = no income. not so good. but this year starts with some new hope and already some disappointments.

one of my disappointments was that my Macbook's harddisk died on me. :( terrible! and there's a high chance all things inside has become to nothing...invisible data floating in their cyberspace and never coming back! so it's in hospital till they can get it back to life or if they can't they'll change a new harddisk for me. the only thing i can remember not backed up is my emails. all gone!

hopes are for new things this year in work and career. expecting some changes, if it works out.
hopes are for our spiritual life and cell.

weekend went in a breeze, with quite a few eat outs..wei4 lao2 hui4 for cgl & mm, at lemongrass & fish&co respectively. yumss...but so much for being healthier. after moving in and not caring what we eat (so that's why there's so much tidbits at home), i thought we had better be more wary of what we eat...more fruits (we really eat too little fruits...last time our mum's will cut fruits for us so it was quite convenient), eat healthier bread, less fried foods..u know the usual...but who can resist really good food..that doesn't seem to be sinful and eh..fattening?
like this....

ate this over a game of Rage....with the cgl leaders after our dinner..so there were 8 of us. Ben & Jerry is nice :)

blank time

sometimes i just know what to do, get all the errands done, sort this out, do this and that. but sometimes i'm not sure what to get started to do, esp when work isn't so busy in the start of this year. good and bad though...

i just discovered new expenses that crept in two months ago which i thought was cpf's or the bank's mistake, but after some investigation realized it was some payment i deferred a year ago. now it pounced on me without any notice and just at such a bad time. time to look for more tuitions...save money and eat less!

looking forward to the weekend :) though i'm somewhat the busiest on saturday still, with 3 things to settle on saturday.

i used the doremon music as my alarm clock music this morning...keep snoozing it, and i think we're gonna get used to it for a while..maybe next few weeks we'll be able to sing it for you.

After the new year holidays

It's a somewhat slow start to a new work week. And it's nice...cos i slept early and woke up after snoozing for an hour plus till 7.09am. (i set my alarm to 545am..hoping to wake up with Ww, but wasn't successful).

It's gonna be an exciting year ahead with many things i dunno about, many things i anticipate but don't know the outcome, many things i'm afraid (because they are unknown), but God is in control and all i need to do is trust in Him and walk with Him daily. my only Assurance.

So what's so good about new year? *excerpt frm relevantmag.com by lauren stutts
Life Assessment:
The New Year is a time for looking over the past year and assessing our thoughts, words and behaviors. Did we grow in our spiritual journey? What did we accomplish? Did we engage in activities that were glorifying to God? Did we create more good ripples or bad ripples?
365 days seem too much to remember what i did in 2006 in detail. and we always find it too little, ie not enough time to rest or play etc. guess life assessment of the past year leads us to look for improvement in the new year..and this year is about really finding time for God despite our busyness. (so i told myself that i have to wake up at least 1 1/2hr before i got out to work, enough time to spend time in quietness and eat bfast..or even some last min work)

Shedding the Old
The New Year is a time for shedding that old, scraggily skin. It makes me think of soft-shelled crabs. They are viewed as a delicacy because shortly after a crab sheds its skin, it begins rebuilding its shell. Therefore, crabs have to be caught right after they’ve molted to serve them up as soft-shells. The New Year is a great opportunity to do the same—to shed bad habits, regrets, bitterness, anger, hurt, confusion and all those feelings that negatively freckle our skin. Even Paul was up on the shedding: “But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead” (Philippians 3:13, TNIV).
shedding bad habits...takes effort, determination, and a just do it attitude. you know how sometimes you just want to nua2 and enjoy the tv, sleep & eat and let the rest of the world serve you. but it's not a time to be lazy..all the time!
also to forget what has passed....let go what is preventing me from moving forward, but not to forget the lessons that needs to be learnt.

Making Things New
The New Year is a time for making things new—for resolving to change and rebuild a stronger skin. It would be nice if they sold that stuff at the store, but alas, it is ironically something we’ve got to build on the inside. Despite the annoying weight-loss campaigns, the most important resolution is to improve our relationship with our Lord because He’s the one that will enact the change in us: “I am making everything new!” (Revelation 21:5, TNIV).

While all those tips are effective, there is really only one thing you need to stick to your resolutions: Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed (Proverbs 16:3). That’s really all folks.

really just commit to the Lord. there are times where there are things i really want to do but can't, or want to do but don't have the opportunity to do or wish this and that. we'll always be discovering and living...but i know that whether i wish for something else in the future or not, what matters is i'm living for God now at this moment, lest this day be wasted in what God could have done.

It's a new year 2007!

It's like 1:30am. and Ww has knocked out after watching the movie Mother Theresa halfway...but i'm still wide awake...and itching to enjoy a quiet new year's night.

We went to Ww friend's housewarming and came home early to catch the fireworks that we were wondering if we could see from our house. and yes we can!

this was just the first part and i was wasting time running to the study room to take my camera and out to the balcony to capture it on camera. the fireworks were quiet for a while and we thought there weren't anymore so we actually went back to do our stuff only to see a reprise later..quite cool. but i thot better to enjoy watching it than to waste precious seconds to try finding the camera. cool...so we can watch fireworks from the comfort of our house in future! (just that it's far far away lo)

it's 2 days of holidays :) luv it!
tmr there's a wedding to attend & help out, exciting tho it's gonna be a long day. every wedding is joy, to see a couple commit to love God together & love each other for the rest of their life...and saying the wedding vows that the some of the world sees as "prison" but we see it as God's purpose and blessing and joy, a wonderful privilege.

it's gonna be an exciting new year. new hopes, new challenages, new friends (and old friends), new adjustments, new joy. praying i'll meet and find God in freshness this year.

anyway we read this article about happiness in the Sunday times by wongkimhoh who wrote that "Happiness is not something you can pursue, but which just happens. And when it does i want to savour every moment".
really, happiness and/or joy just happens. sometimes it happens even in relief, after something difficult, during a struggle, (it's sometimes your perception as well)

So what makes you happy?
God my father in heaven,
coming home (we love our new home so much we're still quite happy abt it despite the housework to do),
hanging out with my sis,
my friends,
being with my brothers and sisters in Christ,
seeing 'the boys' (Ww's nephews...we only saw them for a short time when we went over for dinner..so sad we only had 1/2hr to play with them),
eating (esp buffet breakfasts),
popping a pimple,
having a good laugh watching a comedy,
plopping on my sofa,
rolling around in our super cozy bed (that makes it so hard to wake up in the morning),
stepping into the transit terminal at the airport (cos it means i'm going overseas),
ice-cream melting in your mouth,
many more...
and of cos..Ww...everything about him makes me happy. :)

Happy new year!