Nanjya Monjya

The most exciting thing that happened to me today was the discovery of this wonderful discount coupon for Nanjya Monjya. My sources say that this restaurant is very authentic and serves great Okonomiyaki (Jap pizza).

go to http://www.asiax.biz/cutoutcoupon/cutoutcoupon.html for other bargains.

Christohper Tan 31st October 1977 - 17th May 2005

Chris was one of my youths when I first became a Youth Shepherd. God took him out of cancer last year. I miss you brother!

My nieces

I need to be fair...since i posted about a couple of my nephews...these are my nieces.

Shannon(15), Amanda(18), BC Canada.

Geraldine(9), Melissa(5), Cambridge UK

Krissa(3), Singapore

Ariel (23 mths), Singapore (Zech's sister)

Janelle (12), Singapore

Ok, since I'm at the this, might as well... this is Janelle's bro, Jonathan (7)

There are two more...Alastair(19) and his sister Cassandra(16). Alastair is already in National Service and Sandra is super camera shy. No pics, sorry. Altogether, I have 5 nephews and 8 nieces. That's 13! No. 14 is on its way. omigosh!

Another song that caught my ears and heart...

Planet Shaker's Beautiful Saviour from their album Pick It Up.

Verse 1:

Jesus, Beautiful Saviour,

God of all Majesty,

The risen king,

Verse 2:

Lamb of God,

Holy and righteous,

Blessed redeemer,

Bright morning star

Pre-chorus:

All the heavens shout your praise,

All creation bow to worship you

Chorus:

How wonderful, how beautiful,

Name above every name, exalted high

How wonderful, how beautiful,

Jesus your name, name above every name, Jesus

Bridge:

I will sing forever, Jesus I love you, Jesus I love you

The words are simple, nothing too profound, even sound a little Christian 'jargon-ish'. We sing words like these a lot in contemporary worship songs to God. Yesterday as I sang this song, I asked myself, "If Jesus is all these - Beautiful Saviour, the God of all majesty, the risen King, Blessed Redeemer...what does this mean to me? How has this truth affected my life? " I'm still contemplating.

We Love Because He First Loved Us

Yesterday's worship at church was awesome. I went into the sanctuary with somewhat a heavy heart. I'm saddened by how youths these days are so quick to see that suicide is an option to solve their problems. I don't remember ever wanting to die when i was kid...i do remember times when i was really really upset and troubled and distressed, but i never ever thought about taking my own life.

As I stood at the pew singing songs of worship unto the Lord, He just flooded my heart with His love. I was so moved that God loves me for me. God reminded me in my heart how much he loves these kids too. When they want to hurt themselves, or have the intention to destroy themselves, it breaks his heart big time! I could literally feel my heart break and wrenching. But it's only a glimpse of the pain God must have felt.

Fresh Home-Made Durian Cake! Yumm~

Geok bought durian cake from that auntie at Bukit Timah. She uses fresh durians and it's sooooo good! It's also cheap at $22 per 1kg cake...wait, it could be 1.5kg or even 2...hmmm. but it's definitely value for money. There's plenty still to share with you guys outside singapore but too bad you're outside singapore...hehe. But then just now mom commented that the cake smelled like cat poop! Oh man, what a way to describe the King of Fruits!

Blackburn Gals

It's been quite some time I skyped my sister Pat and her gals, Geraldine and Melissa. They live in Cambridge, UK. But we did tonight. My parents were very happy. The gals have grown so much!
Technology rocks in this case!

PHS Open House

Today we had Open House for Presbyterian High School. The school was opened for prospective students and their parents to visit. It was sort of our chance to show them what the school can offer. Something like a marketing strategy...that's how I see it. Personally, I don't really like how schools in Singapore are becoming so commercialized. In my time, marketing was unheard of when it comes to public schools. But I guess times have changed.

So all the clubs and CCA's (Co-curricular Activities) must display their stuff and showcase themselves to the visitors as well.

This is us - the Girls' Brigade 5th Singapore Company. Here's what my gals did :-

Display of our past awards...actually we've been getting Gold awards for good performance. They are all kept in the school's display behind the showcase cabinets.

Gals explaining to visitors (prospective students), about our CCA, what we do, etc.

My right hand and left hand women, Jiawen and Valerie. They were ex-GB gals themselves. Thank God for wonderful helpers. They helped the gals prepare and put up the displays.

Valerie trying to act cute...hehe. (the background is intentional)

The weather today was awesome! We're back to the typical Singapore weather. Hot Hot Hot! being out there at the parade square for almost for 5 hours....I'm burnt!

I won $200 cash!

Today I received an email from the Singapore Tourism Board saying that I won $200 cash for voting online for their photography competition. I remembered doing that alright, one of my offdays, many months ago, while I was surfing the Net at home, just for fun. I was very wary at first, with all the stupid spams and hoax emails these days. But called STB to verify and it was for real!! Never won a 'lucky' draw other than over company dinner & dance (where everyone gets something anywayz). Exciting! I was grinning from ear to ear as I sat in front of my computer.

It's not a lot of money, but it's like a treat from heaven. I can use the extra cash for stuff I want to buy. Or to finance my trip to Cambodia, or treat my parents to a nice meal...or just pamper myself a little.

But at the same time (so timely), I also received 2 personal 'invitations' to support full-time workers financially. I also remembered looking at World Vision and other NGO sites and wishing I had extra money to sponsor a child, even for a few months. Andrew and Grace Home is also raising funds for the ministry because they are in the red. Hmmm....How should I use this money? I need to remind myself that it's God's money.

Alamak. No money also headache, got money also headache....sigh! And it's only $200 I'm talking about...can't imagine what would life be if I have tonnes of money to manage!

たこういい！ （Takouii）

たこいい　reads as 'tako-ii'.
You won't find this in a Japanese dictionary becos it is a word my friends Seth and Sabrina made up when they were serving at Northstar. It means 'Stoked.'

Since たく(taku) means 'to stoke' literally, and かっこういい(Kakkou-ii) means 'Cool', they sort of decided to combine the two to make たこいい 'takoii'.

But then 'tako' can mean 'octopus', and 'ii' means 'good'. So it might be mistaken as good octopus...which is totally uncool. Haha!

So guys, I'm suggesting adding a 'う’to make it たこう （多幸）, Takou, which really means 'euphoria' - an extremely strong feeling of happiness and excitement that usually lasts only a short time (oxford advance learner's dict) .

Which makes it to be たこういい（Takouii) ！！How about that?　Am I brilliant or what?

ありがとうございます！*bow*

Casting Crowns is coming to Town!

They are one of my favourite bands!! I started listening to them early last year when 2 of their songs caught my ears and heart! Voice of Truth and Who Am I. I love the words of the songs, plus Mark Hall has a great voice. I'm so looking forward to meet them on 6th Dec for a Youth Pastors/ Workers' seminar and 7th and 8th Dec for their concert. I'm stoked!!!! たこい！

BLue Skies...I can breeeathe

Over the past couple of weeks, the skies were pretty much like this. Grey, gloomy & hazey. Not only that, it was stinky! The air was bad due to the illegal burning of forests in nearby Kalimantan, Indonesia. It's an annual thing which countries in South East Asia need to bear with, but this year's haze seems to be really quite unbearable. The winds kept blowing all the smother and smoke over here. There's alot of talk from govts of different nations to take care of this, but so far it's all talk and no effective action.

This morning was the first time I saw blue skies in many many weeks! I could actually see the contrast colours of blue and white! Look at that! It was so beautiful. A breath of fresh air is so good for the soul! Is the haze gone for good? I dunno...hopefully the winds will keep taking them away.

Talent Trek 2006

November Criminals...winner of Talent Trek 2006. Sang Chasing Cars from Snow Patrol and I'm Not Okay by some band...haha.

Talent Trek was a singing competition i coordinated for Presbyterian High School. Besides just the competition, we weaved in drama to bring up issues that matters to kids these day. It was held on 20th Oct, just this past Friday.

It was a very stressful event to coordinate. The week before Friday was very intense for me. We didn't have a proper run-through of the entire program. Due to the difference in schedule for all involved, I could only rehearse portions of the program with different groups of ppl at different times and just pray that on that day, all will be smooth-going. I couldn't sleep at night cos i would be trying to think through the entire event and see if i've missed out anything. So not enough sleep, my brains were practically fried by the end of the week.

And God did work through all the imperfections as I laid down all my concerns at His feet. He made the whole program so smooth. Wasn't totally perfect, but there weren't any major technical faults or mistakes or boo-boos.

The crowd were super responsive. The contestants were giving their best. So it was a pretty awesome event. Everyone had fun! At least I did, although i was fried. Had a super bad headache the next day and feeling light-headed on Sunday...

This is probably the last time i'm gonna do something like this. Think my body cannot tahan (endure) liao(singlish). haha!

Me, Inez(MC), Sandra(one of the judges)

My actors : GuangRui, Chee How, Clement, Serena, Sharon. All except Sharon were former PHS students. They were very excited to be wearing their alma mata's Uniform again and performing on stage in their own school(no chance to do that when they were kids)!

Blogging does help...

I realise that i'm kinda hooked on blogging this past week. I think i know why...it helps me to destress!!! It really does help take my mind off the intensity of coordinating Talent Trek for Presbyterian High School. I just finished helping the Zion Zone kids put up the decor. They were at it since 11am. Great bunch of kids! There's so much details to look into for just this one event. Two nights ago i couldn't get myself to sleep even though i was soooo fried. I kept thinking, 'who's gonna help me open draw the stage curtains?', 'who's gonna help me work the stage lights?', ' will my sound person know what to do?', 'what if the monitors don't work?', etc, etc,etc.
Until I had to stop myself and ask, "will worrying abt all these solve the problem now? if not, then go back to sleep!"

Tomorrow is it! After it's over, i think i can be normal again...:)

My Youngest Nephew, Luke Carter

Luke Carter is the latest addition of our family. My sister, Stella, is his mom. He turned One on 16th Oct (same birthdate as my other nephew, Jonathan) . I think he looks like Tiger Woods!!

His older brother is Emmanuel (my parents have a hard time pronouncing). He is Two.
This is the Carter Family: Dad Keith, Mom Stella, Emmanuel and Luke. They live in Long Beach, New York.

Why I love Ubin so much? Let the pictures speak...

This is Chek Jawa. It's a spot on the east of the island that is very charming and teeming with lots of marine life. But it's closed now to the public and open only to scheduled guided tours during the low tides. Ubin has salt-water mangroves all around its coast.


I was standing on a carpet of sea grass or some kind of kelp.
They smelled like nori.


Lone fisherman in his really tiny boat casting nets at a swamp.




At the beach, lots of snails you can use for escagos maybe?




And other weird stuff growing on rocks.

Other things you might get to see ....
pelicans...


lizards...(the one on all fours)



chunks and slabs of clay on the beach which you can use
as play dough if you were bored...



gigantic ants...

bugs mating...

huge spiders...

domesticated boar...

very interesting-looking trees...

Oh, there are also monkeys, crabs, tonnes of mud-skippers, stray cats and dogs, mosquitoes(needless to say), all kinds of birds(hawks in the winter!) and i believe a lot more interesting stuff around if you'd take time to explore and observe.