Updates

An urgent deadline which required extra hours from Thursday till Saturday late evening. Earlier plans to go Streams of Praise (SOP) and stayover at Kareen's were cancelled. Grateful to Rachel Ou who swopped vocal slots at last minute.

Managed to catch some great fun with CTSS Grads '98 at Aloha Changi on Sat night, binging on barbequed chilli sotong and the usual few of us played 'blind cat' with much persuasion from Pornsak (be sure to catch him co-hosting some of the variety shows on television only if you are free). Left early to rest for the next day, which I realised was a wise decision. Running between 2 services on Sunday morning to make sure I captured Mum on stage at Chinese Service and listened to Ps Tim's message at English Service, had lunch and listened to Ps Song's message at Bilingual Service, had coffee with Andy Chee before he leave for US today, and sat through 3 hours of Pentacostal Foundations.

Back home yesterday, I had to think through some of the things which had been bugging me - and especially having spoken with Andy over coffee. (How can I not thank you for those words at the end, if you recall what you said? You seemed to have hit on the nail, brother.) The kind of counsel much needed these days, came from this trusted man, whose faith brought him to where he is. Thank God for you.

Will be attending wake of Eugene's grandfather this evening.

Celebrating Possibilities

This year's National Day celebration is definitely going to be fun! Check: www.ndp.org.sg

I will definitely be walking with President S R Nathan at the Marina Bay Challenge in the morning of 18th August, and looking at fireworks in the evening @ Singapore Fireworks Celebrations!

We are small, but we are hot!

'A New Beginning'

It is one of those moments to feel happy, yet upset. A milestone.

An sms from Sis that informed that all the proceedings are going to be settled and over.. in a month's time.. What to think, what to say?

Only to keep moving forward.

Ezekiel 36:26-27

Verses from the Bible, as quoted in 'Wild at Heart' by John Eldredge:

26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you;
I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you
a heart of flesh.

27 And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.
Ezekiel 36

'Petrol Kiosk' Break

I have finally made the choice to step back a little from back-up singing on alternate Sundays. It felt sad to draw myself away from a commitment I enjoyed, yet there seems to be the need to slow down to see if this is where I should continue to move onwards. Even if it means to stop doing what it seems to be right.
(Right: Majority of worship team members - Jeff, Derek, WenKang, Weisheng, WeiJie, me, Adrian, MeiZhen, Ps Tim, Amy, JerYaw, Allan, Daphne, Petrina, Shawn and HuiJun)

I remember the words quoted by Mervyn, friend and cell group leader, whom I respected and received much encouragement and support at times needed (especially in terms of missions and my spiritual growth):

Success is to be at the right place, at the right time, doing the right thing.

tcc @ german centre

This was the first retail conceptual design I did for my company last year.
Even though it was not selected for construction, it was fun doing it. :D

Feasting Season

All the dinners with good old friends recently had made me fat and down with gastric pains, despite the attempts to exercise more nowadays. Wave set on the low with the need to give myself a break, to watch my health and get 'detoxificated'. Maybe to eat vegetable for a while will be good.

Since late June, these are where I had been (eating):

Wasabi Tei, one Japanese restaurant well-hidden on the 5th level of Far East Plaza. Esmer and I spotted a long queue of patrons on a Friday evening and joined the queue for curiousity sake. The pricing is reasonable, for good serving of good authentic Japanese food, but just too long a wait. Esmer and I could hardly walk after the meal. It was too much.

It felt like many years since I last met Adele, whom we got to know each other through the housing re-construction trip we had made with Habitat for Humanity to Aceh, Indonesia in Dec 2005. Dinner at Hooters @ Clark Quay, had us caught up with each other.

The group that is familar to itself crowded around a table of home-cooked dishes at YongLiang's place, as we enjoyed special company from Perth. Thank you, Andy, for the words and love you've brought! (photos: YongLiang, BingXin, ChongZhen, Andy and Mervyn/ JinYu, Andy and me)

Szechuan Court at Raffles The Plaza served pretty delicate and unique Chinese cusine. That was where we went for our company's mid-year dinner. Nice ambience and company of bosses and colleagues: Wan, Robin, Mr Ng, Lao Wu, Vincent, Jessie and NanNan.

I had attended three wedding receptions within 2 weeks, there were:
Rachel (her husband, Ray), my poly-mate from SP (DAT), at Novotel (photo: Lydia, me, Rachel and Peiling. It has been long since we meet up, gals. It was great to see MeiMei, Ridzuan, Nicole and Jeff again),

Adrian and Daphne, (on 070707, together with 700 other couples in Singapore on this day), at our church and

Tsu Ching (her husband, Jeffery), my secondary school-mate from CTSS, at Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel (photo: Kevin, Nancy, me, KongSeng, ShuJun, HuiYin, Eugene, Teck and Moses).

Mum's birthday is just around the corner. Her culinary skill never fail to satisfy the 'multitude' as she provided lunch for her regular singing khakis at the church carporch (photo: Sis, Mum and 'god-grandmother'). Jie (in her 6/7th month) posed with my nephew, KaiJie, whose birthday is nearing too!

Last Tuesday was the second round of the singing competition. No, I did not get through this round. I am disappointed but it is not something to dwell on for too long. It will take a lot more that singing, to become a good stage 'performer'. I cannot totally say I am not heading that way. Therefore I need to keep improving. We had supper, with Sean and Esmer at Cineleisure's Xin Wang Hong Kong Cafe before heading home that night.