So, (I know some of you don't want to be reminded of this), it's a week before sem two point two begins, a few days before the thanksgiving for oh eight and counting down to the oh nine, and some hours before I got to send the bulletin, looking so fresh, pretty and new to the same old printer.

I can't remember the last time I dread a new year.
I like new things, like blank paper, like the chance to make wrong things and past errors right again.

But oh nine means exchange to some random rural part of China that no one has heard of or bothered with, (well, the Director claims that he likes to send students to places we won't go for tours, I guess this one is spot on), hopefully a trip to some place sunny with turquoise waters with the beloved klan, two months of internship at i-have-no-idea-where, and essinvitecardsMetamorphosisBulletinsNewfacesCampAndSoOn.

Yes, I know we'll survive it all, like we always do.
I know God is faithful and He will stand by me, and i know I have great friends around.
There's just a tinge of dread,
a bit like how you got to run another round of the stupid stadium tracks when you just completed one.

I am still writing Christmas cards,
and the new year is storming proudly with its head held high towards me.

I want to jump into a well and look at micielo.
._.

Many things have happened in between then and Christmas right now~

W A T E R

Sky bright bright, waters blue blue
Xin, Lays & Ber went swimming pool







I can no longer say I haven't exercised for 2 years 'cause I went wading 'round the pool on Tues. Ber swam many laps and I swam some laps. Ber swam the length of the pool, while I swam the breadth of the pool, HAHA.





It was a fun time, and I got like 0.5% tanner.

C O W C A R W A T E R

Headed over to Chinatown over the weekend with my mum, sis and family before heading to pick Dad up from the airport.





Isaac is becoming more and more naughty, lol.
Have been shopping a lot since Dad's overseas, hahaha, :D
Mum's really generous with what she gets for me, and I am thankful for that..

Dad seems really satisfied with this little trip...
came home cheery and yet with a little cloud of regret,
saying that soon and very soon,
"you yan jing ye hen xiang shi mang ren"
(having vision will become as good as being blind)

He's the eldest child, and got to give up his education opportunity to the younger ones at home, and though he is doing well in his career, not being able to fill up forms and read documents can make him feel handicapped I guess. At least he has the heart to learn even now : )
So much has changed since their time.

D A T E D I W



is a one-day workshop that Y-Comm held recently for our new volunteers.
It is really quite exciting seeing so many new faces, so teachable, humble and willing to learn.

It is our first ever workshop too,
and it won't be the last..



These are some of the badges that we made for the volunteers :)

H E R O E S C A M P

Super lag to be blogging about camp after Christmas.. ._.
And I don't have much photos with me, so I'll just say...

it's tough to decide to obey something you have decided to obey before,
knowing full well how tough it will be.
Thanks for being patient with me, 'pherd.

I am very happy that people like the camp booklet :D
There's consistent heart attacks seeing the campers' numbers climb steadily up and knowing we don't have enough booklets/materials to go around. It is a good problem, but it is also a tricky problem as camp started on Sat, and printers are normally not open. So I praise God He made a way that I got the extra 50 lanyards at halfprice, MUAHAHA, and that the printers were so quick to deliver an extra 50 copies of booklets. ;D

I am very awed by the straw analogy.
You can be a mere yakult straw or a huge bubble tea straw,
God is like a flood of water,
and when He comes, He will work through you, whatever straw you are.
I am very proud to be doing His work, and being in a church where lives touch lives.

I grew in my understanding of surrender.

*

I enjoyed the camp and I ate a lot during the 4days3nights :D

D E M P S E Y

Headed up to Dempsey over last weekend for Y-Comm Evaluation '08 and to collect our postcards.
This is what I bought :D



This photo doesn't do the artwork much justice due to bad angle... it is a pretty piece of woodblock collage, and I really like the whole series.
It's by a local artist Deborah Tan. I have no idea who you are, but keep making Art!

(yes I know people are freaked out by the faceless part, the ones with the faces scare me more so I opted for this. I love the little girl illus in the background..)

There are many gorgeous pieces there, such as these ones, but they cost... a lot more moolah than what I can afford :/





P A M M I E

is currently in Hokkaido, and I had a good day with her before she flew there few days back.

Headed to bugis and cityhall area, ate and walked around.
(Met nuo at fancypaper! :D)



look at this tree...



and look at the lights they use



per tiny area.
:O



She got some albums that she's very happy with...



Atas food makes me happy at first,
then very sad that I got poor over lunch.

Got my second issue of Frankie at BooksActually.
The saddest place on earth exhibition they are having is just so adorably sad.
Didn't take any photos of the display, head over if you are interested!









Wasted her instax and headed home :D

*

Mass updates are tiring...

Merry Christmas, World.
Hope every one of you have something to be thankful for this Christmas time :D

My eyelids are heavy from yesterday's stayover, but I went shopping around northpoint (lol) with mum and broinlaw and the little isaac just now :) and i got a pint of chocolate fudge brownie, yay!

The movie marathon at Jo's on Christmas Eve last night saw us completing a grand total of... *drumrolls*... 2.5 movies (-_-"), and the rest of the night/morning was spent on mahjonging. Master huaysharn taught me mahjong and I touched those tiles for the first time in my life, and images of the entire clique playing mahjong in our thirties flood my mind. Eeeeks.





My fav movie of the night is hairspray!
The colours of every scene are just so captivating :D
"Time cannot take away what is free",
"Do it now or regret forever more"



Xin gave all of us these cubeecraft cute toys and letters for Christmas!
Mine is the jigglypuff one, 'cause I am a pokemon fan, hahaha.
Ber got us letters, facemasks and candy!
I wanted to give them cards but I am horrible and I fell asleep while drawing.

Anyhow, we got this for breakfast!



I think it looks very warm and Christmas-y.

Christmas service before that was at the Rock Audi.
Went there with my secret desire of being in decor and helped with balloons :D



Service was quite alright, I spent half the time of worship cringing in pain from cramps.
Thank you xiao gwen and shuz for being around. :D

It's Christmas day, I have received 6 cards thus far...
and only gave out 1.
I feel so lazy :X
But it will be done and delivered soon..!



I still love receiving cards via snail mail.
Thank you for your wishes, munyee! ^^ It came as a wonderful surprise.
And Thank you Pamyeo, hope you are not freezing in Japan now, and I got your card on the exact day :D



My very giving shepherd got me this for Christmas.
Yay, it's time for a change of pencil case...

And dinner with the family.

Thank You for being born thousands of years back to die, that we can have hope today.

Christmas is coming, and I haven't started on any card, no0oo0o0o00o.

Hello, I am back from camp.

My dear Crumbs is still under repair, and I am using my PC which is lagging like crazy, and so I cannot upload any pictures.

Camp was good and I'm thankful for everything that has happened.

:D

More details when the mac is back.

That's my hippie Adium duck, and I will be away at Heroes Church Camp from
13th to 16th December.
The Mac is away on repair too :D

Happy holidays, people!

That little mockup has become a real book, and is resting in an ugly packaging on the lecturer's table. Oh well. The block is over, but a nagging voice at the back of my head says I didn't do my best. Guess it was the headaches, and the much fun I have been having :X

Last Thursday was Madagascar II with the girls who watched Madagascar I together a few years back :D Rmb we were at cinne too, and we went out before I flew to Thailand, haha. Somehow that made the movie more special for me. I think the show's awesome... and the food after that was good too. Shokudo @ Heeren.





I like how the entire place is so well decorated :D Can go on and on snapping, but...

food was good.



I love cha soba



katsu curry



omu rice with chicken chop,
this one was damn good



seafood soup thingy



shokudo special pasta thing

followed by waffles, sundae (with dango!) and happy people.



(sorry jasmine bad photo, what were you doing ah?)



yay

and friday was meatballs of awesomeness at ikea alexandra.
I attempted to cheat my cg to come to the east, but my plan backfired, 'cause we had a musical after that at NUS, so to the west we head.



The musical is entitled It's My Life, it's made for teens by teens, Singaporean production. I won't say that it is the best musical I have caught, but definitely shines in its own way. They kept it very real, where these teens who acted in it shared their stories, and they somehow string them together into what we saw. The cast is very new and must have worked damn hard to pull it off. We happened to catch the last show, and they were all crying in joy, hugging each other and all. I think that's the sweetest feeling, would like to try it one day. Maybe I will be a shadow, haha, that's what they called the set designers.



Saturday was spent whining and annoying people.
Thank you for those who felt my forehead and gave me sympathetic looks, and thank you puay and philo for smashing up the paracetamol for me.

Went up to Dempsey anyway for



where you can send in your postcard size works and they put it up for exhibiton and sale.
Kiap, Yiyou and Matt had their stuff hanging proud on the walls of House.
The standard is quite high, and I can't decide to be happy or not that I didn't join. But I will next time, that's two years later. Don't even know where I'll be.

I bought something by a local artist there,
it's a pretty piece of woodblock collage. It has that neon orange sold sticker on it belonging to me muahahaha. will be collecting it when the exhibition ends. Puay got a colourful happy clock.
Really hope that Kiap,Yiyou and Matt get their stuff sold and earn back the entry fee, haha.

Sunday and Monday were spent at home trying to chiong work when the lovely Philo,Puay and Kiap stopped by for visit. It makes me happy to see them in my messy sty :X I felt encouraged, thankyou! Went over to Philo's at midnight to stay awake to finish up,

and Tuesday was utter madness trying to get the annual report printed and looking pretty.
A sleepy YT met up with a sleepy Lays and we ate fourleaves and ended up meeting the entire class in town printing too.



Christine and her cute page



cmyt panicking a little

ended the day with tauhuay



and two very tired people

met up at noon and reached home close to midnight. Not very fun, but the sacifices of doing print design.

This morning was utter chaos.
Through the night I cannot stay awake despite calls (thanks for trying sunny, haha!) and so I had to finish 70% of a module's work in half a day. Singing praise song helps. And thanks truckloads benwai for helping me collect the prints and sending it to the east, xie xie! I was cutting my namecard and the envelope on the cab and got a little carsick x(

Spent so much moolahs on cabs today! D: <
It was raining and I was lazy so I cabbed a little to SSDC...
and... I...
failed... my basic theory.

*stands in the middle of a crowd of first-time-BTT-passers and gets mocked at*

You guys who tell me to just read through cheated me, need to memorise one leh.
I felt salt in my wounds when I heard the (very noisy and very inconsiderate) invigilator ask the China man if he passed and he's like I don't know how to read, and the invigilator is like 'P' or 'F' and China man says "P". He doesn't even know he passed...._.

And it wasn't so drama and animation that I thought, I imagined the bright red button would flash out and zoom out on the screen and F A I L will appear. No leh. When I pass I should go make some animation and make them use it to mock fellow failers like me. hahaha.

I am not that affected lah, getting a license in my family means growing in sacrificial spirit and willingness, haha. But I really want to be able to drive to school at least once, and drive everyone to Ikea or smthg.

Next time.

Hello my dear friends, I haven't been hearing much from you guys and I miss you people.
Welcome Jasmine, to Yishun, say hello to 25minutes ride to town instead of your previous 10+. Well, northpoint is self sufficient, maybe you can buy everything there, hehehe.

Met Ying shopping for prom dress in the East the other day...(Didn't you just get your prom dress? Oh, that's two years ago?!) Been seeing some of Xin online, and Jo too, probably working hard for our pathetic 2 weeks of break. Ber, you have disappeared from the face of this earth, where are you? Pang, your new collection is quite nice, I like that weird baggy shirt showing a scene of trees, do you think it's my size? :D

I have been busying myself Talking to Bread, and pretending to be Mozart and Picaso at the same time, drawing violins in cubism style, making photos of hands bitmap and toying with InDes and sleeping.

I have to appear at AMK at 1545h on Friday, and I am drowning in deadlines, so I can only meet you guys for a short while in the late morning/early afternoon T_T
See you then I hope.

Love, Lays

The weekend was a tad more exciting than usual.
We had a ministry fair, right at Nexus Recept, was really quite interesting.
It's like MinOps organising CCA fair. lolol.

(Philo, can send me peektures? :D)

Headed up to Old School for OnTheWall...
I guess the 80bucks rental did put many off.
The bazaar wasn't as bazaarish as it is supposed to be.
There wasn't even like a roll of film around for me to buy, or perhaps we got there too late.

Went to find Rachel after that :D
Been wanting to catch up since forever.
Nice time of chatting <3

Went out on Sunday for dinner unwillingly, due to the heeeroesss booklet putting itself on loop in my head, but the food was not too bad, the ambience sucked.
It's some chinese restaurant that's filled with crying kids and weird waitresses shouting, feels like food court/kopitiam, just 5 times the price. And they had a filipino waitor who cannot speak mandarin, it's like pageone/pizzahut hiring china ladies to pick up calls. Just misfit I think.



The yellow sauce is mango :D
And it makes me happy. I love anything mango!



This is some tomato fish thing that's overly-seasoned, or whatever you call it.
The fish just drowned in the tomato taste.
The rest of the dishes are too ugly to take.. :X



And for child-lovers out there, this is Isaac.
He can say "mama","papa","ba" (bus),"yi" (aunty,aka me GASP), "gong gong" now.
His teeth has grown out too.