Jingle Bells

Felt like picture blogging this 'morning'. Time flies, and is still flying, soon Christmas would be here, and we'll anticipate another new year, 2009, nope, scratch that...the world is dreading 2009. Even saying the number 2009 makes it seem like a big black hole or something that could suck you right into its darkness. Issit really that dark? I dunno, GOD knows.

Below are pics that were shot randomly one Sunday evening (didn't wanna go home) around Orchard with my ol' trusty K550i. Still love my phone! its been a year! 

My adorable grandmother commented, "Aiyo, qing nian de shen tan jie pu siang shen tan jie, siang, ing tu ren de dipawali"

That was the exact thought running through my mind whilst my uncle drove past Orchard, only that, having so many Singaporeans in the car, I chose to remain mum.

My cousin Ben was funnier, he said it is as though Hitachi (lighting sponsors) didn't have budget this year and decided to call up India, China and everywhere else. The lighting manager would say something along these line "Err, hihi, I'm from Hitachi, this year economy not so good leh, got any free leftover lighting from deepavali, hari raya? anything at all, pass it over here, can?"

Charming ain't he? The youngest addition to the Chia family, Othnael Chia. (I hoped I got the spelling right). He is the starking resemblance of Ethan Ruan from Taiwan's Hit Drama this year, Fated to Love You (Bien Li Tie Ni Hai Zhi). 

Oooh, my mum always told us, no girl, you don't expect mummy to take on a nanny role when you have kids ok. "wo pu yau ar, ge...better ni men zi qi 'kau tim'" Four is enough already.

Then, when she saw Othnael, guess what she said? "aiyo, girl ar, if your son look like him, I don't mind taking care of him..." (My aunt -Ottie's mum shot us a puzzled look)

Yeaps thats my mum....when she came down to Singapore last week, the first thing she said when she stepped into my new room, "Girl, you should buy some wallpaper and cover that yellow stain on your wall" *Roll Eyes*

But I love my mother very much =) Muaakkss...

Charming ain't he? a hungry Dog gotta do what a hungry Dog does...

I went for a Malaysia vs Singapore basketball game. We lost although there wasn't one Singaporean on the Singaporean team. This is a short but weird testimony. The Sunday before this game, the message was : God wants to bless you. You can say I have faith and I believed that. During the game, I noticed ppl getting beer (cos they are company sponsored) I told myself and God subsequently, ah, God, can't I have a beer too? a free one, cos I'm too poor or cheap to buy one. Moments later, 2 guys from the lower bleachers turned around and passed us 2 beers, for free! Amen? yeaps, hallelujah.

God wants to bless me, even in the smallest, weirdest, nonsensical way. WHO gave us the idea that, God has NO time for trivial requests in our lives? Like he's too busy up there sorting out scrolls of prayer requests? He's GOD man, nothing is a mess up there, everything is just perfect!

One thing I'm praying for now, make me study!

A New Creation...

I spent the past one week scouring the bible. Yeaps, it's really not my cup of tea (usually) to scour the bible. It's not that God came and spoke to me audibly, but I figured he conjured me to do what I dislike. It started last last cellgroup meeting in CF where we were going through the book of Exodus. 

I don't know about Christians in general, but I've always taught the 10 commandments as important as a child (primary school) cos its printed in colour and graphics fanciful and all on the first page of my Zondervan, NIV Teen Study Bible. Pegs got it for my 11th Birthday.

However for the past 5 years or so in RLC (Renewal Lutheran Church), our senior pastor, Dr.Joshua Yee has always totally disregarded the 10 Commandments. Yeaps, you can say he is a Grace preacher which is kinda weird considering he was raised a traditional Lutheran Pastor. That was why he started 'Reneval' Lutheran Church.

I always felt Pastor Joshua's teaching a tad too extreme for my fancy. Week after week, you'll see signs pasted on the backboards "Your Year of Supernatural Abundance" quoted from some verse in the bible. Next year, Supernatural something and then something and something. But every year, the theme would be something 'abundance' something 'supernatural' or somewhat 'prosperity' sounding.

Every month or so, we'll have this 'anointing' prayer sessions, where entrepreneurs gather for a prayer service to pray for 'favour'. I found it a lil annoying, nevertheless, my mum, being the simpleton that she is, urged me to go for one anointing session to pray for financial assistance from LSE (London School of Economics).

Oh, and generally, RLC is kinda deemed as a prosperity church. Even my sis thinks she didn't really like attending RLC cos of its 'prosperity' teachings.

But, you know what's so funny? Both of us are ardent fans of Joseph Prince who leads a seriously 'prosperity' church in Singapore. (or thats what the Singapore public thinks)

Of course, many months after that, I got a letter from LSE's financial office, offering me a 12080 pounds Bursary, renewable yearly (depending on your grades).

I didn't really think, it's because God poured 'favour' on me just because I asked and I think I almost forgot about the anointing session because shortly after, I was rejected based on academia. So I didn't go to LSE in the end. At the back of my mind, reminding myself not to 'forget' Gods' intended favour, and somehow wanna 'honour' (repay) him.

So I came to Singapore instead to continue studying, and naturally ended up attending NCC (New Creation Church, Joseph Prince's congregation) weekly. Naturally, cos I first liked him from his CDs, I listened intently during service instead of 1/2 sleeping back home to Pastor Joshua. (heys, I like Pastor Joshua kays, but my heart was not right, and God had a plan for me)

And I received much from those Sundays sitting in, listening intently.

Now as I type, I realise how God positioned all these mish mash of things to happen to me to send me the message. Of knowing him, the true gospel of his Grace.

I understand now why the 10 Commandments is irrelevant and why Pastor Joshua always disregarded it (somehow I managed to wake up at the wrong time and sleep past the bible justification bits). I understand now that God does not need me to 'repay' his 'favour' bestowed unto me, and no I won't be cursed for that either. And I understand why people pray for favour. Its not being greedy or conceited. We're coming before him, on our knees asking him to take over our finances, because only him can make us victorious in every area of our lives. It's a surrender rather than 'prosperitism'.

And most important of all, No you won't deliberately continue sinning just because you're 100% forgiven in Christ. When you receive his love and grace, and draw closer to him, you will bear fruit, and this is what I've always missed out on. I need not bear fruit unwillingly on my own, I only need to Focus on Jesus, and naturally, He says I will bear fruit. And I am.

Cheers to our Lord, the Alpha and Omega.

Oh my current favourite song, Rock Productions (yet to be officially released) :

You Are The God Who Loves

written by: Karen

Saviour of the undeserving

You have beckoned me with love

You designed all Heaven's Glory

Yet You came, restored my worth

Majesty stripped of all honour

Man of sorrows on that tree

The God who fashioned nature's wonders

Yet You stooped to rescur me

This is love, spoken through Your brokenness

This is grace - crowning me with righteousness

You are the God who loves

You are the God who gives

Salvation, favour, victory as I stand and see

You are the God I love

You are the God I give

All honour, glory, adoration for eternity

Singapore vs Malaysia, what I think?

This was the latest email I sent to Emily, and I felt compelled to add it into my blog, cos It really accurately describes what I feel about Singapore right now.

Hi,

Yeah, I'm pretty much settled, only that i have to start job application soon.

Which is quite stressful, sucky. But it seems that SIM students are not really highly regarded in Singapore.

In fact, we are treated or looked at as leftovers in society. It seems that if u cant get into NUS, u drop down to NTU and then SMU, then when choiceless, provided your parents cant afford to send you overseas, You come to SIM.

However, I dare say SIM students are not the kind of 'quality' students you would find in NUS o NTU but I dare say they are of quite diverse background, some quite talented actually. Usually they are the smart slacker kind. They dun seem stupid or anything, just lazy lor.

People can't seem to tell I'm not local, in fact they get quite shocked when I say I'm Malaysian. Apparently i dont have a MALAYSIAN accent. What is the MALAYSIAN accent? go figure? i think its supposed to be a cina accent since 80% of chinese in malaysia dont speak english as their first and i figured if you're malaysian and you come to singapore to study and you chose to study in SIM, chances are you are not from KL, prolly JB or some other part of Malaysia, and chances are, cos you couldn't get into NTU or NUS and chances are your English won't be superb? I dunno these are just meaningless assumptions. 

It seems we are the only KLrians at SIM (SIngapore Institute of Management). When it comes to alien and foreign things, and i dare say we PJ or KL english speaking kids speak better english and mandarin than the Singaporeans. It's not that their vocab or grammar sucks, its the pronunciation. They really Singlish everything lor. 

Its like they cut their tongue short or something, like they have a LAZY tongue. I am starting to pick it up and that sucks cos I think I usually speak quite audibly and clearly, like my enunciation is quite good. Now i dunno.

But, really everything is really organised here. One person make a complain to any authority, immediately it is RECTIFIED. I can really feel the difference in the efficiency here. There isn't the tidak apa-ness u often just take for granted in malaysia. ONe thing is for sure, Singaporeans are way more punctual, cos their lives run around the public transport system, so every minute counts, u late one minute, wait next bus, which could jeopardize your whole journey plan. Cos we have those online checkers and SMS thingies to check the exact minute your particular bus will arrive at your particular stop. Its all very techie and gizmo-ish here. EVERYONE has the latest nintendo, or PSP or ipod or Iphone or whatever not la.

Its normal to go for bible study and not see bibles cos people use electronic ones. Almost every tom dick and harry here owns a PDA.

Wifi is really almost everywhere near important, malls, cafes, libraries etc. The best is the national library board (NLB) i mean i think singaporeans are so spoiled, they get FREE access to so much info and content, reading materials and most ppl don't use this access. They take for-granted. Like i PAY 50 bucks for a one year membership. Of course there are tons of libraries islandwide, with diff wide selections of books, audio, visuals, CDs etc. And you can borrow one book from Library A and drop it off 3 weeks later at Library B. Can renew online also for a small fee. But like i said, everything is pretty very predictable here, so it gets kinda boring, like nothing could ever really go very wrong u noe what i mean? u cant like get lost like in KL, driving around.....

Ok i typed too much rubbish about singapore but this is what i feel la of this place. But ppl here are generally very sheltered, hence, very nice and concerned. Helpful lor... of cos where I live is quite up class la. I think if u go west to the industrial side its a diff story. 

Keep in touch my dear emily.

I really miss u guys so so much.

Hope to see u soon!

A new place, quaint ol' Singapore innit...

Hey Liz, if you're reading this, no the previous photo of that huge 'basic' empty room is my uncle's spare room. Its a half storey up there for me only, and it has no nothing. So yea, was there for a month shuttling back and forth the 'ends' of Singapore (East and West).

Pandan Valley Condo

Below is my current room. Its a really old development but it's huge (the vicinity). Last time, they could afford to allow for large open spaces in condo developments hence we have quite a lot of garden/park space. This is my temporary en-suite master-room that I'm sharing with Rachel. The other roomie is in a single room by herself in the same unit. Its a penthouse, but like I said its old and a bit run-down, But I'm happy.

Doggie in his new bed

I could really get used to this room really, but soon (2nd Nov), we 3 girls are moving to a larger private entrance master-room in which we shall call home for the next 8 months. The big room is in the same unit, just that it is currently occupied by an indonesian Girl by herself. (they are filthy rich)

Penny's Corner

Our Fridge

Supermart Under our Block

Look at all that juices!

Cereal anyone?

My first dinner

Hi Mr Post/Bill Machine

No worries if we get sick

Our Pool area

Feeling Fat?

Need some alone time? (library)

Play some ball, baby!

Quiet neighbourhood

Pandan Park Connector

Bad Hair Day? (under my block)

The way to DOVER MRT

Thats all for my new home for now...next post will be about the other bigger room, with the private entrance. My owner is this sweet grandma kinda lady. She made fu chuk yi mai for us the other day (and for herself too). Loaded super loaded Malaysian lady...lalalala

I'm HAPPY! Oh and I have a 3000SQUAREFEET rooftop to dry and sun my clothes and DOGGIE and my blankie... and I love KAKAK, she's so cekap.

The lil treasures of Singapore

I'll halt my writings on Kinabalu and Sarawak, (just because I'm too lazy).

I need need to write this down now. My initial thoughts and impressions of my new home, Singapore (an F.O.B.'s Point of View) cos I don't know how much longer I will be a FOB. So I really want to know what I thought when I was a FOB in Singapore, if I happen to read this post years later.

First thing first, factual things about me and Singapore.

Where do I live? My uncle's house in Pasir Ris. I live in their 1/2 storey of their 2 and 1/2 storey (like my house)

My temporary room and doggie and his new ezylink friend.

Where do I go to School? 

-SIM. No not SIM city or NUS or NTU or SMU rather Singapore Institute of Management.

-What the...?? Its the largest PRIVATE University in Singapore.

Note : I didn't drop out of my course at HELP Uni to come to Singapore, still am will always be a UOL external student....Swt

Where is school? 

-Minimum : 1 hour 30 minutes from Pasir Ris, school is@Clementi.

Do I plan to move? 

-Yes, 12th of Oct, this Sun.

Move Where? 

-Pandan Valley Condo@Ulu Pandan Road@Clementi near Holland V

-FIRST ever Freehold Condo Development Project in Singapore (1979)

-Built by DBS

How far is it from school? 

-5 minutes (6 intranetwork bus stops)

How much am I paying? 

-A lot

Do I get my own room? 

-nope, not even sharing, TRIPLE sharing...and I'm paying? ALOT.

-but i get laundry&ironing services and occasional cleaning services.

How do I get to school(currently)? 

1)BUS (Uncle's House to EW1@PasirRis)

2)MRT (EW1@PasirRis to EW23@Clementi)

3)BUS (EW23@Clementi to SIMHQ@ClementiRoad)

SBS BUS52 to Uni

Mangrove Swarm@Pasir Ris Park@Sunset

Sabah Adventure : Days 9,10

Oh gosh, finally I'm almost at the end of my Sabah Adventure posts, but there's still Sarawak! urgghh and i promised myself to pen it all down in a 'real' diary (pen and paper) then i decided to settle for blog posts...... ok penny....one step at a time.....

Once we came back to KK, we finally went to Little Italy to eat! You know being in Sabah and all at first I thought it was stupid to go eat at some Italian Joint...but OMG, the food here is amazing, really good Pasta here......They have like so many types to choose from not like here (fettucine? spaggheti?) Over there there's everything! you can mix match as you like. I swear at least 10 different choices of pasta for every pasta flavour.... btw, it was packed...we had to wait to be seated, in KK. @ Little Italy, KK

Day 9 and 10 were lazy days. It was a Monday and a Tuesday (22nd and 23rd July 2008).
For the whole of Monday, we decided to go to one of the 5 TARP islands, so we told Vince our plans on Sunday night. He got us arranged for Monday with Borneo Beach Bums (God, I love that name!).
They operate from ShangRiLa@TanjungAru, talk about 1st class service (thanks vince!)
He sent us out there early morn in his trusty white pick-up, as usual he's downing his malt and taking in grass all day, again that same old "marijuana" record of his playing over and over again on his radio.

We decided on Pulau Mamutik, and was transfered in by a highspeed boat. (life jackets on of-course)We got snorkels from Vince, and rented fins on the island. Only one restaurant on the island, despite the monopoly, prices weren't bad at all. I got an indo-mee with egg for lunch@RM3.




























No worries about losing your things on this island, no one cares or will take anything, go swim freely in the sea, leave your things all over the beach, completely safe! (amazing place)

The waters were pretty choppy cos a storm was seeming to set in, surprisingly, the storm never came, just that the waters remained choppy and the sky looked like it was ready to engulf us. Snorkeling here was almost as good as diving (although diving is of course better) but u can see where I'm coming from, it was good despite the fact that everything is still a NEMO. Pretty good muck diving here. Shallow warm blue waters, rather high density of corals and small schools of fishes, sea-urchins (urggh) and some other weird sea creatures which I can't seem to place.

The shore-line at Mamutik is pretty much shallow all the way to a couple of meters out then suddenly there is this sudden increase in depth (a cliff in the water). But don't worry, buoys are generally placed to mark shallow and deep waters.

We swam for hours in the sea with our snorkels and fins (no life-jacket). At first, I felt like I would drown anytime (choppy waters) but later on you get so caught up with the fishes and what not, you forget about drowning and be mesmerised by its beauty.

Lazy, to be continued...

Sabah Adventure : Days 7, 8

Why Why...am I such a lazy person... I guess people just can't change... I'll always be a procrastinator.

I must write all these down before I really forget...

So 20th and 21st June 2008 was spent on Labuan, The Pearl of the 'Orient'

Fi and I got up pretty early today (20th) and took a short walk(10 minutes) from our place (Jalan Dewan) to the Jetty (Jesselton Point). Since the Sun rises an hour earlier here, everything is bright by 6.00am.














At Jesselton Point Jesselton Point

Unassumingly we took the 2nd Class ticket (economy) on the Ekspres Kinabalu to Labuan which was a whopping 3 hour high speed ride away! We were basing our purchase on memories of past experiences on Langkawi's 45 minute ferry rides... Please remember, and remember, and remember, whenever you HAVE TO get on a high-speed ferry for 3 Hours to anywhere at all, always, and always, and always, and always buy 1st Class Tickets!


<---Someone is about to Puke (from diesel fumes trapped in 2nd class chamber)... We met up with Chong at the Labuan Ferry Terminal (he flew in from KL and walked to the ferry terminal cos 1. He is kiamsiap 2. He had time to walk or 3. He is just plain macho) We decided to not hunt for a car first, and went food-hunting...Honestly, there is absolutely nothing nice to eat on Labuan Island, so don't bother looking, just eat! We got a cute quite ok new kancil for RM60/day which is ok byLabuan stds...there aren't many car rental service providers, unlike Langkawi...
















Driving around the 'tiny' island in the Kancil Chong and 'his' tree















Labuan, The 'Pearl' of the Orient where 'business' and 'Leisure' meets.

What a corny tagline, but I wouldn't say this lil tiny baby is the 'Pearl' of the Orient in terms of Leisure... not sure about business though.

It was drizzling the whole day, we parked the kancil at the above spot facing the sea and sat 'in' the storm... I seriously didn't want anymore alcohol after the 'PADI' celebration night, but a can of Hein was RM2 and our trusty coke was RM1.60? I felt stupid.....so yea I bought the Hein and a RM10 plastic mat.

When the rain ceased, we got out to sit on the RM10 mat. That was the best part of Labuan I think, to sit facing a 'teluk' where the wind blows in the strongest while sipping on some cold beer.....saying nothing...just taking in the breathtaking sight and enjoying the gushing wind thrusting and sweeping past your face.

Nightime in Labuan (especially Saturday night) is very very different from its Day. The scene on the left is a typical hawker stall on the street just like how you would find all over KL/PJ or for that matter, Malaysia.

For some reason, most of the time, ppl drank beer whilst consuming their food. Hardly ever you see 'teh ais' or some 'normal' drinks on the table.

3 Brunei Chinese guys were sitting at the next table. One came over when we were convincing Chong that the 'iphone' is heaven... The dude asked us where to get the iphone around here? We told him we ain't local, so we dunno...
We chatted for a while, he invited us to a 'club' after dinner...told us to come pop by 'pop in' if we're free... we said sure...we'll see....

Of course, there is nothing we can do in Labuan at night even with a car and a room at a pretty rundown Inn (Melati Inn) but hey its RM55 a night for a queen bed and aircon. Chong read good reviews of the Inn online, and he wonders why....

After some lazying around the room and some toilet activity, we went around searching for the 'pop in'... I think Labuan Town roads are really idiotic, the way they are built and designed, we went round and round in circles for at least 1/2 hour before we finally 'pop in'... To our surprise, we saw bouncers at the door with a desk..Shits! got cover charge... we went check it out anyways...RM5!! hahaha

The place was not bad at all.. live phillipino band (of cos not as good as the one at Shenaningans), flat screen TVs showing football, nice bar, nice music. I noticed many girls dressed really skankily, (me, not a clubber) but Fi said, nola in KL the girls also dress liek dat one...some even more keng chau... I was like oh..ok.
Boy was I right, these ain't those 'hot' KL type clubbing chicks, they are real chicks... I saw their big mama hen doing her rounds in her Mama Coat...discussing 'business' with her 'clients'..
OMG, we are in a whorehouse!!!

Chong got some...or was offered some...I dunno about him, cos I'm a girl...I'll puke if I had to do any of them...Fi and I agreed, bad-shape....
After a couple of free beers (courtesy of Brunei) we left around 1am, the time when ppl were leaving the club because the clients are on their way to performing their 'transactions'....

We left right after brunch (briyani) the next day.. Bought some duty free and ciao-ed...1st Class!
















P/S : Melati Inn is good because it is in the no-whore side of town...