Church camp 2009!

yays!! here's the recount on the most anticipated and most fulfilling church camp i ever had in my life. i must say that im getting more comfortable in ce. cos the people are really nice and very closely knit. haha, i remember being so crazy about camp at least a month before it even kicked off. i had planned my to-bring list before my mid years, that was in mid may... and i pestered my dad for updates daily (he was the comm. member remember..) i pretty much knew almost everything and every game that would be played in camp before the camp itself. LOL..



my family was part of the advance party with uncle kian lye's family. i was super excited cos advance party's always fun, just the thought of 'i knew the campsite before you' makes me feel like having a 'edge' over others. no, im not competitive, just over excited about church camps. uncle kian lye's the camp master, my dad was the rooming ic, so we went up first to handle admin matters, oh, it's only the two of them involved. it was leisure for the rest of us, auntie siew loong and mum, three of us sisters and jonah (uncle kian lye's son) i was still sick on the way up, clogged nose and cough, i felt little terrible.



we reached mersing at about 5. went into a seafood restaurant, the boss told us that they were only ready at 530, so our families decided to jalan jalan as well as shop a little. that was when i discovered that the dried guava i bought from singapore was sold twice the price there, i felt a little twinge of regret, but who knew they would sell it there. anyway, it started to drizzle and it was 530, so we made our way to the restaurant. we had a good dinner, and the badminton finals for the singapore open was being broadcasted. i mistook bonsak ponsana's name as pornsak, then jonah was so cute, he called the guy pornsak too, by then i had realised my mistake, but er jie n i couldn't help but giggle a little. in the end, this little misunderstanding cleared. after dinner, we took another 1h plus to get to the camp site. da jie was going all crazy about the sun setting in the backdrop of a pink sky.



we reached about 7.30. the first impression was good.... :) the chalets were cool, and more spacious than last years. jonah and the three of us went around the camp site, he was becoming more and more of a nice brother to us (he's er jie age). later that night, we played bridge and made the ice bags for the games. after all that tying of the bags, da jie said we are potential tao hwey and fishball sellers. lol.



the next morning, we went out to do more shopping for camp necessities. when we got back, our fathers had some meeting with the resort management and the rest of us congregated at jonah's room. we were going to teach our moms how to play bridge. it was an overall amusing experience, cos it was so interesting to watch our moms bemused expressions when we explained the game to them. they didn't really get it, but we still had fun! after that, we proceeded to do a factory chain for the goodie bags. we were super efficient, n i felt the sense of accomplishment when we finished, we had packed 130 bags!



we then made our way to the main hall. on the way, i saw joanne's family arriving. er jie and i went to greet them. after that, it was pretty much ping pong with josiah for me. haha. soon, nat, marcus and isaac chan arrived, so we played together. very fun!










anybody cares for kung fu ping pong? marcus on the left, isaac chan the hilarious guy on the right. his name sounds familiar? he was one of the people who made my group such a comical one.




isaac chan - auntie pat - uncle ishu. auntie pat's the master mind behind the painting, i just helped her. :) and uncle ishu, my group's beloved leader. such a funny guy too.






my group presentation! i will forever remember it! i was the guitarist, not in the pic, and the women of the group + isaac chan were off stage singing the song did you ever talk to God above. isaac played dual roles of providing the cue for the actions as well as the sole male singer. haha






my group discussion room, also uncle ishu's room. he gave us a lot of camp momentos, and it was volunteery on his part, i doubt any other group leader was as generous as him, and as enthu. haha

camp shot. the faces too small la. but what to do, it's has to be...

at tioman, the fishes are cool

the singers! they are great and great and great! i love their singing, and the guys are really good guitarists. they could entertain u with any song u wanted. including somewhere over the rainbow, sha lalala, im yours, can't take my eyes off you and most importantly, the michael learns to rock song: paint my love!

snorkelers! no such word... but we were really hairpee!

upon arrival at tioman. note: jonah's the guy on the extreme left, :)

the ceramic tile, the brain child of auntie pat. nicole and i helped her. :) im so proud of it.

more fish. this fish came to say HIEEEEE.okay, the pics are totally not in order....

coral or what do you call this? anyway, they had a calming effect on u. very pretty

er jie playing a fool. heh

nat and i. i guess i have to teach nat that she has a backbone. lol, im so mean.

snorkel and co.

chalet style at tioman. super homely

the sub lobby, this lobby was for us only. so cool, it is beside the main lobby. just beside this is the private pool where we teens play pool captains' ball. so fun!

last look at tioman. how beautiful....

bah, shan't continue...

Church camp (not the recap)

Church camp + tioman trip was great!!! im suffering from severe withdrawal symptoms!!! argh! now i can say that i like malaysia more than singapore, not cos it's superior in any way, but cos it's the place where i have so much fun with church friends every year, and singapore's the place where i have to slog (supposedly, but i don't, but the thought of o's make me sick...)

the many things i liked about church camp were:
- the fellowship!!! (x 100)
- i have to admit i wasn't 100% attentive during the sermons, but i think pastor arie's pretty good, his sermons are short and SWEET
- ping pong and beach volleyball, great time for fellowship.
- my beloved group, i dare say that i had the best group cos we were sooo funny! thanks uncle ishu, uncle meng hsien and isaac chan! we had a real good time laughing!!!
- being able to enjoy myself despite being a little sick with cough. my voice even went wonky the first 2 days!
- the cool experience of the firefly cruise.

the many things i liked about tioman trip:
- the fellowship again, just that i found it a little too noisy, (especially with 'smelly tofu')
- the hotel was fabulous, international food that was fantastic, singers by table side (they sang paint my love by michael learns to rock plus other nice songs like shalalala! i was swooning!!! the ambience was just priceless) and the hotel room! i had adjorning room with isa, iva and tze yan. we were like one big family...
- the snorkeling was cool too! got underwater pics with my cam.

anyway, this is the vid of my group's presentation. it's hilarious.. if u understand it.. :)

My song!

hey blog! i have officially composed my first song! it's just the tune, no lyrics yet, but i dun wanna add lyrics any time soon, but my mum, da jie, er jie, and nat like it! yay! i actually played the song 'little by little' wrongly at the beginning then i realised that it was a nice tune, so i started from there and added more chord progressions and melodies. haha, theory and guitar really helped. i haven't got a hard copy, it's all in my head! well, i have recorded it and downloaded it onto my com and mp3 player. :)

about my interpretation (all music must have interpretation) it's a mildly sad song, (it will be perfect for a drama ost, especially korean ones where the female lead dies and the male lead gets so sad... sounds like autumn in my heart!) and do not get me wrong, i did not compose the song with this in mind, instead, i just fitted in nice tunes and tada, i got a song. then when i played it once through on the piano, bingo! it sounded so much like an ending theme of a korean drama. haha. actually, after listening to it so much, i think i need to slow the tempo down... hmmmm....

it's 3 days to camp!!!!!! yipeedo! and once again, gear up for an ultra long post on both camp and tioman trip.

3 things

yesterday, i went for the midsummer nights dream play. it was awesome! it was extremely comical, i liked the characters of bottom (pyramus) and flute (thisbe). i literally laughed till i had a dry throat and almost teared. actually, this play was pretty OBSCENE! that makes what bottom said that they will 'rehearse most obscenely and courageously' true and not a malaproism! LOL. there was a scene of a kiss between bottom and peter quince (good thing he was acted by a woman, if not it would have been unacceptable for me, but peter quince is supposed to be a guy, so this is confusing!). demetrius staring right into helena breast (his nose was almost in her cleavage, imagine the proximity, almost smelling ahem...). titania sitting on bottom's stomach, erm.... and the most offensive of all pyramus and thisbe, instead of speaking through the cranny, spoke through the real hole of the wall (played by tom snout), that is his butt and penis! EW! the last one is definitely an addition on the crew's part. the text talks nothing about the other 'hole' i stole glances of sam during these scenes, and her mouth was agape, my expression was probably of pure disgust!

all in all, the play was thoroughly enjoyable, i do not mean the sick parts, but the comedy of it all. the actors were competent and to be able to speak their lines so fluently, i must take my hat off them. im hoping to catch some reviews of the play in life (strait times), i hope they are positive ones, cos this play deserves it. personally, i would give it a 4.5 out of 5. haha, half mark gone cos of the obscenity. yeah, it's that good! well, for the obscene parts, i really wished janice was there, she would enjoy it to bits.

okay, the second thing im going to talk about is my pen pal! im going to have a pen pal! haha. she's from the US and is my church's american minister's grand daughter. i think having a pen pal is cool. i previously had 1 'pen pal' from portugal, we chatted a lot on msn n i shared my knowledge about singapore and she shared hers of portugal. it was always a joy to talk to her, but ever since she enter law school and never being official pen pals, i talk less to her now. but i still do! it's hard cos we prefer to chat, and chatting requires a common time, which is another challenge cos of the time difference. this time, Gwen, my new pen pal, is going to email me instead, so i foresee that this will last long! :)

last thing, and the most distressing. i have 2 sties on my left eye eyelids. so painful that i feel like crying... argh!!! mom says it cos of the heaty stuff that i have been consuming. i admit it could be because of that, but i cant help it, all the stuff i like are heaty. like chocs, cookies, hokkien mee, mango and even tom yam etc..... owwww!! im screaming in pain now. every blink reminds me of the sties... i so wish that er jie is already a doctor, so that she can heal me. :(

Random things

i have bad news pertaining to my results. they are horrendous!!!! i've never done so badly in my entire school life. i had 3 c5s! the only thing 'good' out of this kind of marks is that i have broken record. on a sober note, bad results are good to learn from mistakes and gear up for upcoming test and exams. so, i shall not take it too badly.

on a lighter note, i played with my hair a little today. (oooooh, i have just realised that i keep using the word 'note', maybe this is because i have been playing too much piano these days. :) ) haha! im sure u are wondering what on earth i did that 'bush', well, it has migrated north (haha elyssa, this sounds familiar? i lack creativity to think of something else...) and since elyssa said take a pic and post it online, i have decided to do so. haha, i take elyssa so seriously, but it is fun. besides, my hair is somewhat unique and interesting cos it is super obedient.

can u see it? :s haha

anyway, talking about american idol finale tonight, i am supporting lambert! hehe, i like to oppose elyssa sometimes! :)

Waiting for church camp!!!

yes, this is yet another post on church camp. the only thing in my mind is church camp. i have advanced to the next level, less than one more month of waiting. :) exactly 28 days more to go! hehe, since my dad is in the comm, i get updates about the camp. attendance is great, the best we've had in years! all but 2 or 3 families going for camp. the activities are cool. oh man, nat and joanne, i can't wait. what's more, my family's going as advance party, that means we are going on sunday, after service. boy, that's fun! after camp is tioman island. great time again with a 30 plus strong group. :)

chinese o levels.... get off my back!

AND

someone please explain to me what it means to WAIT!

June church camp!

yah! im too excited about my upcoming church camp, excited until cannot study properly. :) hehe. :) im so excited about spend a week out of singapore, and spending the time with natalie and joanne!!!! im counting down to camp! lol... :)

SYF and SOP 2009

hi blog, long time no talk. i dont have a post for april, not even one. argh, i regret it. anw, today's labour day n i shall take some time off to blog about 2 very significant events in late april.

SYF. it was great. i mean our performance. we played soooooo well, the best ever that guitar club of PL has presented. every thing was there, right feel, right techniques, right talents and the best ever commitment. after our performance, mr gaspar, my instructor, said that we pla yed very very well, the best ever that we had ever played. even instructors from other schools commended us and told us that they found no fault with our playing. but it turned out to be so unfortunate, we were award a silver. i remember, on tues when we got our results back (we performed on monday), the foyer was filled with emotions. sooo many of my juniors and guitar friends were wailing buckets. we had put in sooooooo much effort, i say close to 200 hours! and yet we did not get what we deserved.

SOP was good. but i was soooo tired. had spent 16 whole hours in school. yeah, i dead beat went i got home. but i had a pleasant surprise awaiting me. :) i will let the pictures do the talking. :)

guitar fwens!

nicole being ever funny and elizabeth - chinese partner!



haha, diane's unglam!


what's with that stare diane..

president and i!

traci, me and the ex co members

best friends in guitar!!!!

no bread (mei loti) and clarice. both very funny people.

santine! the cool person on the exterior but warm inside

vice pres wan xin!

here with adeline. she loves ch 8 and i love it too, so we talke about it. :)

the funny gal michelle. her sneeze can resonate throughout the whole agape concert hall and make every body stop what they are doing. happened during one of the rehearsals. LOL and that wasnt the only time she terrorized us with the sneeze of hers

best friends and instructor mr gaspar

oh my, nicole looks scandalous here

one happy family

the grand finale, singing one voice

my beloved friends!!!!! i love u all!

mummy! and i

er jie! and i. she helped me carry my bag, so sweet of her

and my pleasant surprise from dad. CHESTNUTS!

Happy week

hey blog, last week was supposed to be a holiday, but apparently it was nothing different. guitar called me back from tues to fri. session durations ranging from 3hs to as long as 9hs. yeah, it was nuts, considering that we already prac 3 days a week on normal school days, each 3hs. some more today i spent 5hs at republic poly, just to familiarize itself with the syf venue. haiz, i wonder how much more of my time will be munched off by guitar... argh, it's all because of syf.

sad things aside, looking on the brighter side... on tues, the women in my family, i.e everyone except my dad (we kept him in the dark, lol) went out to 'celebrate' my b'dae. okay, it was more of a treat given by my sisters. da jie treated us on the dinner and erjie, on the movie. mom, da jie, er jie and i headed to ps. walked around, couldn't find a decent western restaurant (western food was what i requested for), and we ended up in the dreaded cafe cartel... lolz, i've been there a substantial number of times, but i never had good encounters (food was expensive and a particular sandwich i once ordered was too salty...), and thus a bad impression had formed. anyway, since all of us were females and in constant pressure not to get fat, we ordered 3 main dishes (although there were 4 of us) and a side order of cheddar fries. this time, somehow, the food was better, n i didn't feel the pinch as da jie was paying for it all. :) after that, we walked to the cathay to catch a movie, marley and me. oh btw, mum didn't want to join us as she felt that movies are a waste of time and money, and felt that she wanted to shop for necessities. that's my mum for u, she didn't bulge despite us persuading her a little. marley and me was pretty cute and FUNNY at some parts. certainly heart-warming. :) at the end of the day, i was a little exhausted, but i had a great time with my sisters and mum.

skip forward to the weekend. on fri, i was soooo sad, why? cos survivor was not aired... on sat, i baked a batch of pretty successful oatmeal+walnut+choc chip cookies! apart from what i did, i've received 2 new things that i hold very dear to me. they are my bible and my TABLE TENNIS BAT! yay!!!!! yippeee! for the bible, i have finally an old king james bible, not the new king james version (which was the one i was having), it was a little hard for me to follow my pastor, who uses the old kj, and my congregation too. also, my table tennis bat! im so in love with table tennis now, and i can't wait to spar with my dad, lol, he represents his club in table tennis, but i believe that with my perseverance, i will beat him one day. :) anyway, an update about my sports profile, i love table tennis, soccer and tennis. :) hehheh, can't help but profess it here. :D

6teen!

yeah! im 16! haha, growing older means more burdens and miseries in life.. nevertheless, i will try to face life with optimism, which is a high order for me, someone who often feels suicidal. gah, life is soooo hard... but i will survive, erjie said so. she too had felt more or less this way when she was my age, so i will press on!

here i am, sitting in front of the computer and eating my aglio olio, cooked by mum!.

i shall recount significant things that have happened to me since last week
1. on wed, eating with my beloved sisters at shokudo, the heeren. we wore erjie's treadless shirts. haha, try to spot what our shirts are saying! (mine isn't shown but it shows birds and bees, yup.. mature theme, hah, but i was almost 16 then, can lah!) erjie's was counting sheep and dajie was a cow and a chicken staring at an egg with cow spots, wondering whose offspring it is. haha, very interesting designs huh.

this event was speical to us as it was our first official outing together, with only the three of us, with the aim to spend quality time with each other. and sure we did! erjie han a $30 voucher (haha, from spending over $70 eating there with her 'bf' during chinese new year) so we ate without much constraints expenditure wise. dajie had sashimi avocado sushi (my FAV!), erjie had some noodle, i had soft shell crab and rice. these dishes were shared among us, and on top of that, we had a pork dish and a desert, honey butter waffle. the bill came up to $50 and i treated them for the remainder that was not covered by the vouchers. haha, how sweet of me! oh man, after the meal, my stomach was almost bursting at its seams. yeah, i was that full. hehe, after that, i played a little with a choc saleswoman, ate her samples (i couldn't resist chocs!) and then got my sisters to reject her offer to purchase a box of choclates. haha

2. on sunday, after church, my family and i went to bliss, a western restaurant at pungol park. we had a blissful dunch there, but at the end of our meal, it started to shower, then it stormed! it was quite terrifying as there was a lightning bolt, so powerful that it crippled the restaurant's electricity. good thing my family was leaving already. outside, at the carpark, there was torrents, so it was extremely inconvenient to get to the car. and the water was getting threateningly high, so high that it could wet the engine and then spoil it. fortunately, we managed to hop into the car safe, thanks to the good service the staff had. in the car, mum thanked God for protecting us, it was an experience but definitely not one pleasant.

3. today. my birthday. school was normal, however, i was severely disheartened by the results i got for chem and phy.. surely not good enough for me! hah, and lemme tell u about my deceitful clique! during recess, janice apologised in behalf of the clique, saying that they haven't gotten a present for me cos common test just ended and they had no time, and that they promised to get me one by next week. (i should've realised that she was a 'sneaky' one and there was something fishy). anyway, i thought that was the end of the story, so i said it was okay. i was a little disappointed, but sort of expected it, haha, some 6th sense. so i didn't show my disappointment.
.....................................................................................................................................................................................................
skip to the time just before chapel.... while i was doing a maths ws with elyssa, one of them (janice or diane or sam, or maybe all of them!) placed an enormous orange bag in front of me. and the alarm in me rang. MY PRESENT! haha... the surprise was good, haha, partly also cos i was an easy bait. it was a beautiful basketball! oh man, i refused to shed tears, though i was a wee little on the verge to, haha, im too tough a nut to crack. the ball had their signatures, very complementary to ball, it made it feel as if it was a prized ball which had a collection of 4 famous stars! very ingenious to me. and there was a card too! heh, not so ingenious here, but it had their sweet notes for me. the content was basically the same, just expressed in four different manners and ink colours. haha, the content obviously was their immense love for me.. of course.. haha, ego...

okay, that's all for now, i had durian! (mumsy bought my fav food!) n later i will be having crab and a birthday cake! yeah! will tell u another time!

now for the pics!

at shokudo:


3 sisters and our spread. background gives the oriental feel, great atmosphere


spastic! haha. the food was SHIOK!



at bliss:

me here with my chicken + corn + baby potatoes + cheese + ham + onions. it was very rich food, i abandoned the thought of getting fat!



mumsy with her alaska king crab and rice. alaska crab tasted really unique, flaky(in a good way)



dad and his shank with mashed potato! haaz he ate it to the bones and then start going a little obsessed with the socket. haha, he said that it was ball and socket, er jie rebutted, said it was something else, hah, i forgot...


erjie and her aglio olio seafood, she LOVES it... almost always ordering this whenever we come to western restaurants

dajie and her codfish dish. very fresh fish. :)

today:

mum's very own attempt on aglio olio, she did it a few times before, but they were freaking healthy, im glad that today i have a succulent serving of mussels and other shell fish.

my presents!

the spalding basketball my clique bought for me! and the card. haha, here are elyssa's and sam's signatures.

and here are diane's and janice's. haha, diane told me to take shots at every angle of the ball, so that i will still remember how the signatures were, if not they will be gone forever when i start playing with the ball and all the ink will be 'scratched' off. hawh, but i shall only take 2 pics, if i do what diane suggested, i would have to infinity shots!

and lastly, a surprise from reaiah! haha! a photo frame or rather a 3-in-1 photo frame. i guess she hopes that i will always have memories of her. heh, i see her almost every week when she comes for tuition...

once again, i wanna express my heartfelt thanks to my family and friends for making my birthday special! :)