Thursday, March 27, 2008
11:12 PM

I've just realized that I never blogged about the fact that Mom bought me an iPod Touch the day before I went to Osaka.

She knew I'd been trying to save up for it for a while. Prices were still significantly steep so I'd decided not to get it.

But Mom loves her daughter too much.

So in the tradition of naming all my electrical applicances.
My sleek new darling, iBlessed, has now officially replaced my still pristine and well-preserved iPod mini, Wasabi.


Been playing FF12.
I love FF graphics.

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Monday, March 24, 2008
11:08 AM

Hello. Its been 12 days since I last blogged. I don't get very much traffic these days anyway.
The Osaka and Bangkok trips are over, and I'm having mild holiday fatigue from having too much fun, spending too much money and just enjoying myself thoroughly in general. :D

Time to be good and work for the next 7 weeks before the LA/Tokyo trip.
I'm just really really blessed and fortunate to be able to enjoy my post-A-level break to the fullest. Not everyone gets the opportunity or has the resources to go on holiday so often, and I'm really thankful that my Mom can afford to let me enjoy myself so often, especially since my pay is currently being channeled to an untouchable bank account and I'm surviving on the stale and diminishing remnants of my very first pay cheque. (long story.)

Bangkok is well and truly, the best place to shop and eat I have ever encountered in all my years of traveling. So much so that I cannot believe that I've never visited it before.

Shopping there was just amazing. I cannot even begin to blog about how many new articles of clothing, accessories, bags and other misc items I now own.

Budget traveling and much budget shopping makes Lizzy exceedingly happy beyond all comprehensible vocabulary. *happy*

Osaka was very enjoyable as well, though the shopping there was mostly for glorious Japanese snacks which I have great preference for. Every 2nd food item I bought there was green tea flavoured. *loves*

It was very happifying to eat green tea ice cream, green tea chocolate, green tea puffs, green tea Pocky, green tea McVities, green tea everything.... everyday. :]
Bought back loads of sweet things for consumption.
Then Bangkok satisfied my shopping itch for everything else. (Food in Bangkok is cheap though. Eating at Manhattan Fish Market there costs less than half the price we pay in Singapore.)

So yes. I've been enjoying my life very much.
Envy me all you want, I have nothing to be proud about - I'm just very blessed by a generous God who has given my Mother a generous heart. You can never outgive or outspend God. :)

I would otherwise never have been able to afford the trips and my shopping expenses.

Now its time to save up money to spend in LA/Tokyo. XD

Must make more pilgrimmages to Bangkok to shop.
Being there has cleared the illusion from my eyes.
$10 shirts in Singapore no longer look cheap anymore. :(
(The same shirts cost 100baht ($4.40) in Bangkok. Better prices if you buy more/bargain.)


I think human beings are strange. When we enjoy ourselves too much, we feel guilty for having too much fun. How far the world has fallen. How accustomed we are to condemning ourselves. How used we are to believing that we are not deserving of the good life because we have not worked for it.

There were many times on the Bangkok trip I felt very condemned, because I was once again spending more of Mom's money after she had paid for my Osaka trip/shopping expenses just the week before. I felt bad because I was bringing in income yet not paying for the things I wanted, and with the two trips, more than $1000 had been spent on my person in the past 14 days alone.

Condemnation set in. I felt undeserving. And indeed, I am. I am undeserving of my Mother blessing me with the spending power to buy what I want without having to worry that I wouldn't be able to afford it. I am undeserving of my Mother's love because I am not always a filial daughter.

But you know, my identity is in Christ. And God's beloveds can enjoy the good life despite the fact that they do not deserve it. At all.

We have done nothing to deserve God's love. Christ's death on the cross, His overpayment for our sins, is all His doing. We only receive the gifts that come as a result of this sacrifice. No finger we could have lifted to help would have given us any part to play in our own salvation - except when we raised our voices to call Him 'Saviour'.

I do not deserve to be blessed.
But I am. Very, very, blessed.
And I can only enjoy these blessings because I am Daddy's beloved.

I do not deserve it. But the same way not allowing Mom to bless me monetarily would be an insult to her because she loves me, it is an insult to God when we tell Him we can do it by ourselves when He just cannot wait to unleash the full force of his favour and blessings into our lives.

Mom graciously paid for all my expenses although technically I should have been able to do it on my own because I'm working. Likewise, God wants to do the same when He covers your life with His grace to makes things work out for your good.

If Mom, being human, has so much love for me, what more the love of Daddy God, whose agape love is beyond my minute level of comprehension? :)

I'm just blessed. Thats all I can say.


And oh, yes, the A level results were out a couple of weeks ago, but I didn't have time to blog about it while caught up with the excitement of my various trips.

For the kaypoh people:
H2 Literature - A
H2 History - A
H2 Economics - B
H1 Maths - A
H1 General Paper - B
H1 Project Work - A
H1 Mother Tongue - E
H3 Literature - Distinction

Yeah thats all my subjects, not very interesting I know.
Applying for NUS FASS (probably majoring in Political Science) and NTU Communication Studies. Though I'm pretty much more inclined towards the former.

Hmm.
Just moving on to another stage of life I guess, and enjoying my youth as much as possible. :D
Results are just that, results.
They don't determine my life, nor will I allow a couple of alphabets to define me as a person, or whether I'll succeed in life. Because I have Jesus, and He is more than enough. :)

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Wednesday, March 12, 2008
10:10 PM

Am in Osaka. Forgot to update.

Keyboard here refrains me from my usual verbosity.

Be back on Sunday!

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Wednesday, March 05, 2008
5:57 PM

Days in the office pass pretty fast and bring me closer and closer to Friday.

Anyway, something perfectly traumatic just happened and is probably the most interesting thing to have ever happened to me in the office yet. :S

Was minding my own business having a chat with Mr H at Mr T's table, staring at the fish tank with its array of short-lived fishies attempting to kill each other off like they always do.

And I noticed that Mr T had placed a large piece of transparent tape to cover most of the top of the tank, presumably in case the fish ever decided they wanted to do dolphin jumps and unfortunately find themselves on dry land.

The tape was really sticky, and I was amusing myself with the thought of the fish doing Free Willy leaps and finding itself stuck onto the tape because obviously, if you couldn't get out of the tank, jumping would leave you on the tape.

While absentmindedly laughing to myself amidst Mr H's horror at my morbidity (I mean, yes, its terrible if the fish die. But the prospect of such an unfortunate death, you have to admit, is black humour), one of the fish (all of which spend their time lunging at each other trying to chew each other up anyway), in its bid to escape the evil clutches of another, did a magnificent, noisy leap, managed to miss the sticky tape which covered MOST of the surface area of the top of the tank, and landed on the table right next to my arm, eliciting, of course, what else, but the loudest shriek I could ever be possessed upon to utter while as the same time doing a highly acrobatic leap across the area of the cubicle, as far away from the fish tank as the wall would have allowed me to go.

Mr H turns around, sees the fish, and then proceeds to let out the a shriek not dissimilar to mine. :S

Panic ensues and fishy decides to do its own acrobatic flop from the table and onto the floor amidst much frantic and wild-eyed expressions exchanged between me and Mr H. Clever Mr H picks up a plastic bag. A plastic bag. Well, he picks up the plastic bag after being paralysed long enough to see fishy do a few more pathetic floppy fish leaps on the floor.

Since it was quite obvious that neither of us were going to go near the flopping exhibit despite being armed with a plastic bag, I grabbed the nearest person who seemed most-likely-to-be-less-hesistant-about-rescuing-cold-slimy-moving-creature-from-the-floor.... KM, who was minding his own business three cubicles away.

Hilarity ensues as KM takes over the plastic bag from Mr H and hovers near fish with obvious cluelessness and reluctance. Mr H is frantically shouting in the background: "You just came out from OCS, you deal with the fish!". While the hapless reply from KM was: "Uh.. but I'm not from infantry..." as he attempted, with plastic bag held open, to wait for the fish to flop high enough to land in the bag.

At least one minute had passed since fishy discovered ground-that-wasn't-wet. And while the seeming irrelevance of the entire conversation played out in my mind, tears streamed down my face because I'm a wuss and totally incapable of not tearing under such panicky circumstances.

But anyway, after several attempts, fishy did 'jump' high enough to land in the comically oversized Giant Supermarket plastic bag and KM then did the honourable duty of trying to dump fishy back into the tank from the plastic bag. By then I was quite convinced that fishy would have been quite, quite dead.

Fortunately, fishy was not.

After a mild struggle with the bag, KM finally managed to get the surprisingly-still-alive creature back into its watery habitat, and the poor fella immediately cowered in the corner of the tank, resting heavily on a certain stony tank feature looking quite, quite traumatised. Well, at least I'd like to imagine it looked traumatised since it is, after all, a fish.

Mr H then proceeded to write on the tank in whiteboard marker:
"NO LIZZIE WITHIN 2 METRES." :(

I did nothing to the fish.
But yes, I have developed a phobia of the tank and will venture less into that corner of the office. One can only deal with so many traumatic experiences so many times in a week. :S

But for now, I'm going to check if its still alive now that an hour has passed. :x

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12:58 AM

Finally finished Shawn's layout, which I'd been promising him for 3 months.
x_x

Gosh I detest tables.
But somehow I just had to attempt to conquer these horrid <> <> codes and not use my usual div layers instead.

My eyes feel mildly crossed now.

Anyway Shawn and I were having a rather serious conversation earlier, just being real about certain issues. And the entire thing just brought a particular Casting Crowns song to mind.

I believe church is there for us to be real in.
Not to be holy moly.
Not to put on a "Christian front".
But to admit that we are vulnerable. We make mistakes.
We fail.
And thats why we need Jesus.


Casting Crown - Stained Glass Masquerade
Is there anyone that fails
Is there anyone that falls
Am I the only one in church today feelin’ so small

Cause when I take a look around
Everybody seems so strong
I know they’ll soon discover
That I don’t belong

So I tuck it all away, like everything’s okay
If I make them all believe it, maybe I’ll believe it too
So with a painted grin, I play the part again
So everyone will see me the way that I see them

*Chorus*
Are we happy plastic people
Under shiny plastic steeples
With walls around our weakness
And smiles to hide our pain
But if the invitation’s open
To every heart that has been broken
Maybe then we close the curtain
On our stained glass masquerade

Is there anyone who’s been there
Are there any hands to raise
Am I the only one who’s traded
In the altar for a stage

The performance is convincing
And we know every line by heart
Only when no one is watching
Can we really fall apart

But would it set me free
If I dared to let you see
The truth behind the person
That you imagine me to be

Would your arms be open
Or would you walk away
Would the love of Jesus
Be enough to make you stay

Chorus x2

Well if the invitation’s open
To every heart that has been broken
Maybe then we close the curtain
On our stained glass masquerade

Is there anyone that fails
Is there anyone that falls
Am I the only one in church today feelin’ so small

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Monday, March 03, 2008
9:35 PM

Well its finally here.
:)



Matt Redman - Never Let Go
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death
Your perfect love is casting out fear
And even when I’m caught in the middle of the storms of this life
I won’t turn back
I know You are near

And I will fear no evil
For my God is with me
And if my God is with me
Whom then shall I fear?
Whom then shall I fear?

Chorus:
Oh no, You never let go
Through the calm and through the storm
Oh no, You never let go
In every high and every low
Oh no, You never let go
Lord, You never let go of me

And I can see a light that is coming for the heart that holds on
A glorious light beyond all compare
And there will be an end to these troubles
But until that day comes
We’ll live to know You here on the earth

Oh no, You never let go
Through the calm and through the storm
Oh no, You never let go
In every high and every low
Oh no, You never let go
Lord, You never let go of me

Yes, I can see a light that is coming for the heart that holds on
And there will be an end to these troubles
But until that day comes
Still I will praise You, still I will praise You



---



So expectant of good from Daddy God.

Wheeeee.

In other news, I now have a tutee. Ho humm.

Oh yes, Wy's birthday was on Sunday. Here comes the mandatory camwhoring exploits.


Our dear friend has orangeyblond Sun Wu Kong hair.

HAH! Tried this new place, Mana Mana, at East Coast Park near Lagoon food centre. Zhaoey works there. The ambience is really lovely and romantic, though the food isn't as good as it could be. But the food is VERY affordable for the kind of ambience the place affords, so I guess it evens out.


Lizzy, Rene, WY. With that strange orange juice + milk concoction know as "Governor's Smile" or something that tasted kinda gross.


Us trying to squeeze into the pic. Looks like a bad neoprint shot. All you need is the sparkly decorations.


Attempt number two:


Well, okay yup. Everything else is on the most-addictive-website-on-the-Internet.

Toodles.

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