clique outing: janice's birthday celebration
- went to downtown east with the intention to go escape, we were disappointed, escape was closed...
- DES (standing for diane, elyssa and sam) actually effortlessly planned an amazing race for janice. they are very ingenious indeed.
- janice arrived. we ate lunch at buddies hoagies. i hope i got the spelling rite! we presented birthday girl her presents. the food was not bad.
- then we contemplated a movie (my girlfriend's an agent/2012) OR cycling. the movie timings were off our schedule so we cycled pasir ris park instead. took a lot of random photos at the playground. took pics with the beautiful landascape of green grass and blue sky. spotted PDAs. JEDS (janice included now) claimed the spotted nat, but i wasn't there.
- then they wanted to watch 2012, i wanted to be counted out, told them that i didn't want to waste my money and time on some speculations i don't believe in. truth is, im not that firm in holding my believes, i just didn't want to watch the film, had some hidden grudge against it.
- after that, we headed home
prom nite on 24 nov
- first time i really dressed up. hated the hassle!
- went to hair dressers, trimmed, washed and styled
- slipped on my gown at home, make up on by mum
- dad fetched janice and i to conrad business hotel, venue of prom
- elyssa's dad had sponsored us (excluding diane as she was in australia at the time) to a night at a room, we checked in. the room was posh enough for school kids, the toilet was even cooler. (i bet u have seen the pics alr)
- at about 630 was the start of the dinner in the ballroom, there were about 40 tables. i rmb mine, 27! we had miss cambridge pageant, heather, my class representative came in runner-up. - we had blessed draw (some lucky draw of sorts) and throughout it, i was hoping that i wouldn't win anything, not eve 100 bucks vouchers at any capitalmall malls. if not i would have to inch up the stage in my gown and receive the last thing i want - attention.
- the dinner was really palatable, but the serving was pathetic. putting $70 for the dinner as a little ex.
- during intermissions between eating, i took pics with all the teachers that taught me in sec 4, at least with those that were present at the dinner.
- after the dinner, clique went back to room, we took pictures :) it was our first night tgt and at such a cool place, we were sure excited!
- it was about 12 plus when we sneaked out to suntec, still in our gowns to buy some snacks etc for the night, but all the shops were closed, 7-11 was too far away. actually 'sneaked out' isn't a very appropriate term to use cos we had no parents to restrict us! i was quite apprehensive at first, sensing the danger and all, but it was pretty thrilling.
- when we returned, we films videos for diane, telling her how much we missed her and i watched a little tennis
- we played taboo and monopoly through the nite. had loads of fun and ate instant mee. i monopolised the monopoly game. heehee. we invented ourselves memorable names. sam's - bubi, janice - bo bo, elyssa - bin pin, mine - bra-brain
- we only slept at 6, unfortunately it was not 'late' enough to catch the sunrise, we had konked out alr.
- woke up at 9.30, we ate breakfast at macs. at 11, elyssa's mom came to check us out and fetch us all home.
- at home i only had a further 1.5h of sleep, then i went for rock climbing
rock climbing on 25 nov
- i was obliged to go for rock climbing at 3, cos nat was the organiser, although i was soo drained of energy, i still went, out of support for nat.
- the admission fee was more ex than usual. $14.50...
- we climbed in the indoor hall. i tried the route boaz had given nat, couldn't do it even with several attempts. maybe im not so good a rock climbing. or maybe i was just too tired
- we did not try the outdoor trails cos there was additional charges, it was like they were trying to extort from us.
- i had dinner with iva and nat
- on the way back on the bus, nat n i confided in each other, our friendship was strengthened
26 nov.
- prob due to the lack of sleep, i fell sick with sore throat. i was miserable.
1st week of dec - supposed to go ks camp, but i didnt want to see them and feel sad when i left, so i didn't :(
2nd week of dec - i was a helper in vbs
- vbs was a great experience! i realised that i actually can stand kids, haha, the last time i worked with them was during cip
- day 1. nat and i planned the games. it was quite chaotic but we managed to pull it off.
- i helped out in the kitchen quite a lot cos nat and huiqi abandoned me for rock climbing.
- i tried doing my theory homework in the girls' room but was constantly distracted, i got to talk with zhi hui! motivated her never to stop learning piano, even when the going gets tough, cos she will eventually enjoy it loads!
- i was the unofficial guitarist for singspration. the kids were pretty curious about my guitar. made friends with them via guitar teaching
- helped mom out in teaching the song item that they were to present on the last night. discovered who are the naughty kids and the lovable ones, as well as the naughty but still lovable ones.
- first night, the youths stayed up till 2am to chat about a lot of juicy stuff, which comprised rumours as well as facts. bernice and ezra entertained us. we laughed too much, the kids couldn't really sleep. oopsie, haha, but later we learnt that it w as because the air con was too cold.
day 2
- woke up at 6, assisted in preparing breakfast
- bernice helped out in 5 bx, very sweet of her. we played h20, i had fun!
- second day was pretty much like the first, just that i swam 20 laps in the pool! that was a good work out for me!
- second night, the youths sang our hearts out by singing songs from 'we're singing' and christmas carols. slept at 1.30
day 3
- the same stuff, just that i fell sick with sore throat. bad day for me. :(
- left camp at 8 plus with auntie wan teng
weekend of 2nd week
- ck came to my house for song prac. a delicious dinner followed. :)
- some of us watched sea games and witnessed our singapore pride soar when team singapore made yet another splash in the pool.
3rd week of dec - ck/cks campday 1
- i was so enthu and excited that i made dad fetch my along with cheryl and bernice to camp at 1.30pm. :)
- arrived at campsite with cheryl and bernice, being obviously too early, dad brought us to changi village to have a drink first till it was 3. it was sure a loooong drink. haha
- i was group leader of the glorifiers. my group was really cool, it had ppl like nat and cheryl, as well jem, yang zhi, joanna, matt, ezra, jonah and hui shi
- camp master matthias declared the start of camp and gave us a safety briefing
- cheryl led in icebreakers. her game was great, i loved the tongue twister part, ming hui was so awesome at it! :D
- again i was guitarist for ck camp, can't ever get enough of guitar :)
- that night, message by pastor goh reminded me of how glorious God is, and how everything He created should give Him glory
- as the group leader, i led in discussion for the ckers in my group, namely jemima nad yang zhi with cheryl as facilitator. the discussion was pretty fun, everyone was very responsive and i even made them laugh quite a lot. to boost team spirit (we were trailing behind in games do to a poor start in ice breakers), the four of us came up with a group cheer! haha, it was so creative and motivating, and i was so sure that we would turn tables around
- during the closing singspiration, i sucked out phelgm from my throat and smelt blood. at first, thinking that it was just the aftermath of my sore throat that weekend i sallowed it. just a few seconds later, more phelgm accumulated so i sucked it into my mouth and spat it out into a paper napkin and lo and behold! it was fresh blood, thick and curdy of the size larger than that of a 50cent coin. informed er jie and she was shocked, she in turn called for joanne (they are the medics of sorts for camp) since my mouth was bloody they at first derived that it was probably my gum or a shaky tooth. but then judgeing from the amount of blood, my er jie thought that it was something more serious. they ushered me to the kitchen and shone light into my throat, joanne said that the surface was very rough, compared to my er jie's and blood was everywhere the passage. er jie even almost scared me by nearly exclaiming, 'your whole mouth is bloody!' that moment, i felt a little afraid of course, but i was perfectly fine, there was no pain at all! i went on to spit out more globules of blood uncle roy tried cold compression on my forehead, suspecting that it was a nose bleed. with all that attention, i felt so honoured, yet worried about worrying them too much and i hated the fussying over me. matthias came in and learnt of my condition. (nat told me later at the clinic that matthias announced that i coughed out blood and there were gasps, i felt even worse, i didn't want so many ppl feeling worried!) er jie advised my to go to the doc, uncle roy kindly offered to fetch me there. on the way out, i felt faint, i leaned on the car while some of the campers expressed concern for me, i really didn't like that attention. :S so i quickly got into the car with my sisters and nat.
at the clinic, the doc checked my blood pressure, heartbeat and said that everything was find, but she wanted to be very sure, so she referred me to A&E. by then, dad and mom arrived. dad fetched me to A&E at SGH, nat and er jie set off for camp with uncle roy. at that time, i was very very sad, lol, i had been so so excited about this camp, yet i had to miss it a little. at A&E, it was a long wait of 2hours before i had a x-ray taken of my lungs and a blood test. when the doc withdrew blood from my arm, i turned away, haha, i still couldn't get over seeing too much blood being lost from my body. after a further hour, the doc told me that i didn't have tb as gathered from the x-ray results and blood test, but he still wanted me to visit the lung doc on 29 dec (which is tmr) to confirmed that i was fine. he even advised me not to go back to camp, instead say at home and rest. on the way home, i pestered my dad to fetch me to camp the next day even though the doc had given me 2 days mc.
i reached home at 4am. slept till 11 that very day and immediately got ready to go back to camp.
day 2.
- when i was back, er jie squeauled that she loves me so much. btw, i kept her posted on what the doctors had said the previous night. the campers welcomed me back and some people asked about me, i appreciate their concern. :)
- we had song practice. i love song practise, but irony is i couldn't sing, mum told me not to exert my throat
- following that, we had treasure hunt. my group did superly well, after finishing first, we did our cheer victoriously.
- upon learning that we had some sort of group challenge to memorise philippians 3, i decided to use the free time to make them memorise. we spent quite a fair bit of time trying to come up with a short-cut to rmb the verses, but all that failed, in the end, we just took to memorising the whole chapter individually
- next was dinner i think and then singspiration
- pastor goh preached on the maid's testimony. i was amazed at how God can use the lowly to spread his gospel.
- that night, auntie jean prepared luo han guo drink, i drank it during my group discussion, our discussion was as fruitful as the first.
- after discussion was games by er jie and jonah. jonah's game was quite cool, the only glitch was ezra's couldn't-care-more attitude. he helped us lose at least 5 out of 20 lives!
- er jie's game was survivor inspired, i like like! in fact i helped her come out with the different aspects, and i ended up with the best endurance. it was tough but i managed to do it. although my group came in last, yet, i think we have a great deal of team spirit. :) next, we had another game of mind vs eye kind of challenge.
- after the games, i was severely exhausted. considering that i was going to bukit tinggi the following day, i chose to be wise and go home to rest. i did not return the next day.
bukit tinggi trip
day1
- i was much stronger and well-rested for this trip. i was pretty excited too!
- the families that went where tze yan's, isa's, dorcas', boaz's and mine's
- we set off at 8am
- our first stop in malaysia was for tea break, the kids were treated to an ice cream affair
- the second stop was at the foot of genting. we had lunch and i rmb being bombarded by
chestnut stalls! oh man, how much i had to resist temptation cos my throat was still recovering!
- we fianlly reached at 4pm. the hotel was like a castle, and it was not the only sight that was picturesque. the greenery was awesome! my quote: im living in a geography textbook!
- we checked in, took pics and then went for dinner. the dinner was as great as tioman's. we had an international buffet, which consisted of chocolate-dipped brownies, tiramisu just to name some.
- at night, our group of girls caroled down the street! (boaz was too tired and yang zhi was sick with fever) this was sure one of the highlights of our trip (although it was not at all planned in the itinerary). we earned applause from the other tourists dining in the area and even some of them took pictures of us! whoa, we were that famous!
- the day ended with devotion
day 2
- we had breakfast, an equally sumptuous affair. i had prata, cheesy omelette and cereal with milk! devotion was next
- we went to the botanic gardens. took more pics
- went back to the hotel for lunch, the singers (the real hotel-hired singers) came to sing sha lalala (reminiscence of tioman!) and stand by me.
- after lunch we had horse riding! this was the first time i would be riding alone. the last time i rode was with my dad behind me cos i was only 4. i got indiana rose, a beautiful all-black stallion. the ride was cool, but too controlled. the trainers did not let the horses venture too much by themselves. besides, my horse was infamous to be easily distracted by leaves along the roadside, thus it would be a hindrance to the group, this made the trainer even more strict it.
- back at the stable, we took many many pictures. i was quite fortunate to have taken a few close up shots with indiana rose cos the trainer later warned us that it bites people! maybe my patting and carressing did work!
- after horse riding, we visited the jap garden. we didn't try the kimono rental though, we went there for dinner. there was free flow of sushi, but i wouldn't say that it was great, but it was palatable enough
- that night, it drizzled, that shelved our plans for yet another caroling session down the street. instead we caroled a little in isa, iva and tze yan's room.
day 3.
- we spent much of it travelling back to singapore.
- we arrived in singapore at 7. had an extravagant dinner at ah yat seafood restaurant! cheesy lobster and karoke were my favourites!
25 dec - christmas!
- attended church activity - caroling at 2 old folks homes. i didn't sing much cos u noe why... i was playing the guitar! so predictable. met isaac after months of no see. :)
- in the afternoon, the youths came to my house for song prac. er jie was stressing out cos her standards were too high, but we hadn't had much time to learn the songs and perfect them! chill er jie! i love the altos (lol, i almost spelt all toes!), we are so on everytime!!
- we had a sweaty game of captains ball.
- mum prepared dinner for us. after which, most of the youths left
- bernice and i watched 'together' together while playing stress with noelene, aaron and dad were immersed in a game of chinese chess (again....), er jie was out, da jie was singing with nat and cheryl at the piano.
- after 'together', we sang more phantom of the opera, sound of music and we made a video - so long farewell.
26 dec - boxing day
- this day, received my 3rd yearly scholarship in a row! thank God for upkeeping me in my grades. :)
- in the afternoon, i went for ck. i learnt that Christ's death is powerful to save all, yet God only elects some people for it to be effective for. and my group covered the verses which we can use to reject the armenian teachings that God loves the whole world! i was pretty much enlightened after bs!
- had a wet and muddy captains ball. but i liked it, it feels good to have a good run after a long hiatus from exercising (apart from the previous day)
- during dinner, er jie was being funny again... haha, anyway we discussed on the dress code for pnp. talking about which, im super excited for pnp this thursday! i hope i can stay over! :)
alright! this post is ultra long too! great that i finally managed to finish it! it was a little daunting!