Hidden Away

New Blog

2009-11-02T01:23:00.002+08:00

Hello, my new blog can be found at www.adelyn-dot-sg.blogspot.com

Sex! And the Church

2008-10-30T22:22:00.005+08:00

To all those ~~lazy bums~~ out there who have nothing to do this Saturday, do come down for our Theology of the Body talk at the Immaculate Heart of Mary Church. 8pm, after All Saints Day Mass. If you are wondering what it will cover, well, it will touch on the topic of Catholic sexual ethics.

Maybe you can guess already. I'm largely promoting this because I'm in the committee for organising this talk and one of the main reasons why this talk came about in the first place. =p

However, do take note that this is an NC16 talk, so kiddos below 16 (ie. UNDERAGE)... stay home and study please.

Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

2008-10-26T16:44:00.002+08:00

My arms are aching from playing Wii at my colleagues's home. She opened her new home for a housewarming party for us today, and one great entertainment she has at home is of course, her Wii. Last year, we bought the PS3 over Wii. Now I'm beginning to think Wii has its pros too. Its more family and party-ly. And its good exercise too. I totally sweated it out, testing out the boxing, bowling, tennis, fitness, fishing, shooting. I think I overworked myself totally, doing more exercise than I've done in two whole years put together. I can literally feel my calories burning off.

Ohhhhh.... I need to rest my arms.....

Random Mumbling

2008-10-07T22:21:00.002+08:00

Some things are better left unsaid. Wounds may heal, but the scars will never fade away.

World Youth Day Sydney 2008

2008-10-01T21:45:00.006+08:00

Okay, after so many months, my World Youth Day photos are finally up on the blog.

10 July 2008 - 21st July 2008

3 reasons why I signed up for World Youth Day Sydney.

1) I will not be young forever.
2) I wanted to experience something out-of-this-world.
3) I needed a break from my regular life.

~Brisbane – Days in the Diocese~

We stayed at Pedua College – it was a nice school for boys. The kids were having their winter holidays, so the school was left all alone for us.

We slept in classrooms and in our sleeping bags.

We had thermal sleeping bags so it was really quite warm at night. The only problem was that we had to pass this really open-air big basketball court to get to the bathroom upstairs. It didn’t really help that Australia was experiencing one of their coldest winters ever. Even Brisbane was freezing. So it was pure torture to wake up early in the morning and step out into the winds.

Of course the first thing we did when we arrived was to check out the little town of Kedron.

(The water cooler reminds me of a toilet bowl)

And tried out the food.

Shopping was obviously a must.

I think one of the most spectacular features of WYD is the fact that every nation and every tribe can gather together to worship. At Pedua, we stayed with the Namebians, Syrians and Philippinos, amongst others. Not to mention that since I signed up with to be part of the St. Mary of the Angels’ Singapore Contingent, we stayed with the International Franciscan community. Our Singaporean Franciscan friars were there too. There was quite a mix of spiritual sessions and relaxation, really. We had prayers, Mass, and then we had concerts and food.

Singapore - St Mary Contingent

Brisbane events.

See the backpack the girl is carrying in the background? That's the pilgrim backpack. The streets in Australia were packed with everyone carrying the exact same bag!

So during that week, people were just walking on the streets like this, all carrying banners and flags, singing and yelling.

Me and Bishop.

Me and Archbishop.

Cathedral of St. Stephen

Father Vince, from the Jesuit order of priests.

Off to Sydney for World Youth Day itself!

Pasta stall!

We had homestay in Sydney. So we were all split up and sent to people's homes (like foster children). Diane and I stayed with a family of 4 at Bondi. Bondi beach is beautiful!

Everyday we will gather at the Church of St. Francis of Assisi for mass and catechisis.

One thing they have, that we don't. Altar girls!

On the way to Barangaroo for Opening Mass.

Opening Mass!

Somehow, this picture reminds me of National Day.

Pilgrim food. And no... its not curry.

Franciscan Gathering at Bondi Beach - Come to the Waters

I have a photo taken with Cardinal Napier!

Lame moments with the camera.

Brother Desmond OFM and myself.

Heh. The police boys actually posed for me. How cool is that?

"Pick up your cross and follow me..." - The IHM group actually brought the cross over from Singapore and carried it all over Australia.

Guess who we bumped into? Father Brian!!

And Sister Jessica!!

Official Arrival of Pope Benedict XVI.

His Holiness, Papa Benny - in his popemobile.

St. Mary's Cathedral

Stations of the Cross

Sister Anthony from the Missionaries of Charity.

My 9km walk across Sydney

We walked for 6 hours straight and finally reached our destination. We camped out in the open, in winter. Thank God it didn't rain, though showers were predicted. Divine intervention? So anyway, we woke up for final mass celebrated by the Pope. We were part of the 500,000 people crowd.

My homestay family.

To end off, we sat the A380 home. Nice!!! I got to sit on the upper deck!!!

PS: I made this video for the RCIY kids to watch. I used the themesong for WYD 08.

Letting it all pour out

2008-08-12T22:46:00.002+08:00

I finally let it all out. I feel much better, though I feel my energy totally drained. All I need is a good night's sleep. Tomorrow will be another day.

Back from WYD

2008-07-29T23:41:00.002+08:00

Yeah, I'm back. If you don't already know.

I haven't had the heart and mind to post an entry on my blog.

World Youth Day had been a wonderful experience. If I can make time and money to go for the Madrid one in 2011, I'll definitely choose to go again.

I think I'll post a more concrete WYD post another time, when I'm not too sleepy.

Long Hols

2008-07-09T19:44:00.002+08:00

I'm going off in a few hours time!

Goodbye till 2 weeks later!

Visa, visa, visa

2008-06-25T21:03:00.002+08:00

I got my visa.

Something good finally came out of this week. Finally.

Leave a message, please

2008-06-22T22:04:00.004+08:00

There was one day my colleagues asked if they could read my blog. I told them no. Actually, come to think about it, its perfectly fine. I don't write anything sensitive here anyway. So, anyone of you who happen to come across my blog, - Welcome! However, do drop me a note on the tagboard to say hey, ok? I'd love to know you've been here.

WYD Preparation

2008-06-21T23:20:00.000+08:00

Over 1 million communion hosts and 120 bottles of wine will be prepared for this year's World Youth Day at Sydney. We were told today, at the WYD commissioning at CAYC. The Archbishop came and gave us his blessings.

I am beginning to have mixed feelings about WYD. Up till now, just 3 weeks away from leaving for Australia, I haven't received my visa yet. Oh help. Not to mention, I haven't given much thought as to what to pack, and what to buy.

Help. I need my visa!

Camwhoring

2008-06-20T22:45:00.006+08:00

I think I MIA-ed from my blog for quite a bit. Last I entered an entry was before my lasik. I've been camwhoring quite a bit lately - but too lazy to post the pictures up. I've finally gotten down to uploading a few.

The last picture - My colleagues (and my boss) and I. Hopefully they won't mind me putting their faces up here. Heh.

Goodbye, glasses!

2008-05-28T22:48:00.004+08:00

After years of consideration, and after so many guinea pigs before me, I have finally made up my mind.

I'm going for lasik surgery tomorrow.

Hopefully after the surgery, my myopia and astigmatism will be gone forever. I'm going to miss my glasses though. I've been wearing them since I was seven. Erm. I don't mean the SAME pair of glasses. I mean I'm going to miss wearing glasses. In general.

Did the tree fall?

2008-05-27T22:01:00.003+08:00

If a tree falls in the forest, but no one was around to see it fall, did the tree fall?

Hidden away

2008-05-22T20:46:00.004+08:00

I just want to crawl to my bed, huddle under my blanket and hibernate with my bolster.

Easter Hols

2008-03-25T00:27:00.002+08:00

I had a wonderful, long Easter holiday, though I didn't have much rest, since I spent most of my days in church. I skipped the Maundy Thursday march, which lasted the whole night. I heard from those who went, that they only returned back on Friday morning at 7am. It must have been spiritually fulfilling but physically draining. Though I skipped the march, I attended Maundy Thursday Mass. I was late as usual. Only arrived at the Gloria. After which I went for my company function, which was very well planned, I must admit. I was very entertained.

Good Friday was spent at the children's service instead. Rather than the usual Stations, we had the passion play which incorporated everything - Stations, homily, veneration of the cross, communion. Passion play wasn't too bad, though the service was seriously tailored for kids. I would have preferred the adult service.

Holy Saturday - attended the morning prayer and baptismal rehearsal early in the morning. It was Kwai's big day and I was proxy godmothering her, so I had to attend the rehearsals with her. I realise Fr. Joe recycles his baptismal jokes every year. Well, I guess that's all right since the audience is different every year. (Catholics can get baptised only once.) I managed to do my pre-Easter confessions on Saturday too. Then of course I attended Easter Vigil - the mother of all Masses. It started at 8pm and ended at 11.15pm. Surprisingly I wasn't bored and didn't find it long. Maybe it was because I anticipated it? Mass was good. Watching the Catechumens get baptised one by one really brings back memories of my own baptism - one of the happiest days of my life. Anyway, congrats, Kwai (if you're reading this...) on receiving the Sacrament of Confirmation. Oh yeah. Fr. Luke was having a wild time with his holy water. I heard his enthusiasm with the holy water lasted till the next day and the same thing happened at the Sunday Masses. The Sponsors and Kwai had supper after that. The food was so much and so good. ~~Well, maybe a little too much and too good.~~ I was dead tired by the time I reached home.

Fell asleep and didn't wake up for Mass on Sunday. Of course, Easter Vigil fulfills Sunday obligation, so it was generally alright. First time in a 4-month history, I had a day to myself. I woke up in the afternoon. It was darn good, I tell you.

Oh oh. Did I mention, I bought my PDA phone on Saturday? After such a long time of hunting and deliberating, I finally bought one. Sunday was spent analysing the phone, of course. I had to make sure I knew how to at least answer calls/sms before I go to work on Monday. I could kill myself if I fail to know how to use the phone while at work.

Okay. I'm going to catch some sleep now.

Maundy Thursday

2008-03-20T23:31:00.002+08:00

Wireless down

2008-03-12T22:19:00.002+08:00

My wireless was down the past few days, so I was utterly upset. Came home, watched a little television and went straight to bed. I haven't been able to keep my eyeballs open after 11.30pm recently anyway. Must be the working-life getting into me. Yes, it has been 3 whole months since I joined the working world. I miss school. A lot.

I do not have messiah-complex

2008-03-04T21:42:00.001+08:00

I do not have messiah-complex.
I do not have messiah-complex.
I do not have messiah-complex.

What's up so far?

2008-02-24T22:56:00.008+08:00

Ooo. I've been too lazy/tired/busy to post lately.

So lets see what's up so far.

Adelyn has been busy! Especially with work and RCIY. The commitment to both has increased significantly over the past two months. From this, I realise I need three things. One, I need rest. I haven't had a day of sleeping in late in two months. Two, I need more time. Three, I need a PDA phone. I cannot keep track of what I'm suppose to do and where I'm suppose to be, anymore.

The sponsors finally had our session with Sister Christina at the Canossian convent yesterday. Excellent session, all thanks to Evelyn who coordinated this for us. I know myself better now. =)

We had our second St. Mary WYD prep course session yesterday evening. I think I've gotten to know some more people a little bit better yesterday. It's quite fasinating, I started learning sign language yesterday from Friar Rowland, who's joining us in Sydney too. I got a feeling I'm going to be a pro at this! Haha!

American Idol is back, back, back! (Cheers!!!) This season, almost everyone is excellent, and there's quite a number of really cute guys. Like Jason Yeager has a really brilliant smile, and David Archuleta is like a god-sent, cute right to the bones. Gosh. I think its going to be a great season.

Jason Yeager singing "Moon River"

David Archuleta at Hollywood week singing "Heaven"

The veteran Hong Kong actress, Lydia Sum passed away. Okay, I guess its expected, right? With all the health problems she's had in the past year. Still, it saddens me (and many others) to know we'll no longer get to see her chubby face and infatuating smile on television any longer. I grew up watching her on tv. Fei fei like the embodiment of the Hong Kong entertainment scene. Now, HK has lost a good actress. We will no longer see her on tv, but her name lives forever in every chinese household.

Edison Chen. Scandal! I've been checking out the papers for juicy gossip on the sex scandal for weeks. The hottest in HK thus far, I believe. Its amazing to see how an innocent mistake of not being able to keep your private photos private can lead to such devestation. More and more women are finding themselves dragged into the scandal and having their lives ruined and Edison is finding it increasely difficult to walk down the streets without protection. Edison, how careless! Such mistakes cannot be condoned in a conservative Asian country such as HK. You should have been more careful.

Singapore has gotten the rights to host the Youth Olympics. Finally! After so many months of talk! Now that is some thing we, Singaporeans can all look forward to, apart from the F1 hoohaa.

In the year of the Rat

2008-02-09T23:31:00.000+08:00

Here's to the bright New Year, and a fond farewell to the old; here's to the things that are yet to come, and to the memories that we hold. ~Anonymous~

The new year holiday is long this year, but not long enough. I don't feel like I've rested enough. I'm going back to work on Monday. (boo.) I can literally envision me dragging myself out of bed. (boo. again)

New year had been pretty routine. I did the things I do every year, visit grandma, grandpa, and grandpa on my maternal side. Hang around grandma's place with the cousins. I realise quite a few things have changed this year. There are additions to the family, all in a span of one year. I mean, it started with Kiat and Litsa getting married, followed by Ben and Jackie. Then Justin and Jennifer. Even Kelvin has a girlfriend. Amazing what one year can do.

Oh, I went to St. Mary's this evening for the prep course for WYD. First session and I was late. Nothing unusual for those who know me well. Poor Evelyn probably didn't expect it and waited for me at the MRT station for quite a while. Sorry, Eve, for making you wait till you were plastered to the wall!

So anyway, I finally got a glance of the people I'll be hanging out with for the next 5 months at St. Mary and 12 days in Sydney, Australia. Shoots. Most of them are St. Mary parishioners, so they probably already know each other quite well. Hey, lucky for me there are 3 other IHM parishioners tagging along. Eve, Ash and surprise, surprise. Jacob's sister is in the group too! It was by a stroke of luck that she mentioned she was from IHM, and another stoke of luck that I mentioned we were from RCIY.

"Then you might know my brother lar."

"Who's your brother?"

"My brother's Jacob."

Eve and I practically squealed in astonishment (or horror?). I guess we didn't expect this. Pleasant surprise.

Okay, going to bed now. =)

Ash Wednesday

2008-02-05T23:09:00.000+08:00

Remember, O man, that you are dust, and unto dust you shall return. ~Genesis 3:19~

Turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel. ~Mark 1:5~

It's Ash Wednesday today. Well, technically its Ash Tuesday, since this year's Ash Wednesday mass and fasting are pushed forward to Tuesday instead, to avoid the Chinese New Year celebrations.

It's the first day of the season of Lent and is a day of repentance. It's a day where Catholics will go to church to get their foreheads marked with the sign of the cross by priests, using black ashes.

I attended mass today. I felt really grateful to be able to head to church today after work. A bad day at work. It's probably no one's fault but mine and I'm too exhausted mentally to think about all of it any more. Numb? At least ending the day off with mass made it all seem better.

I got advice from Fr. Luke and its making me think things through. If I say he's wrong, am I actually deluding myself? Is Fr. right, after all? Even so, for everybody's sake, including my own, I don't want to make that step, and I don't dare. At least not now. Not yet. But if I don't do anything, I shudder to think of the days ahead.

Memento homo, quia pulvis es, et in pulverem reverteris. ~Genesis 3:19~

Holy hour and a good today

2008-01-31T23:04:00.000+08:00

I just came back from church. I am super tired, but I feel great, spiritually, that is. I really have Father to thank, for suggesting the idea of attending holy hour with him. This monthly activity is really helping. The recent days of ups and downs have really drained me out, physically, mentally and spiritually. I've been ill twice within a span of two weeks and work hasn't been all that smooth-sailing recently.

Things, however, have picked up today. I'm glad. I'm recovering, though still coughing quite a bit. I've been very busy, but happy because work has progressed today and everything worked out at the end of the day. Then, holy hour essentially forced me to slow down, to stop, and to reflect. It's spiritually refreshing, so I'm happy that we get to do this every month.

Four of us are conducting the session this Sunday and we were discussing it after holy hour. I think its a miracle we got everything planned out so late at night and that inspiration just kept flowing in.

I have nothing but praises for today. I can only hope tomorrow will be a better day, and that next week will be even better.

Well, of course it will be better. It's Chinese New Year next week!!!

Don't be sick because the new year is coming!

2008-01-30T22:57:00.000+08:00

I haven't been updating my blog lately because I've been lazy. Yes, lazy with a capital L. Essentially, I get brain-dead whenever I get home everyday. I can now fall asleep before midnight. Whatever happened to night-owl Adelyn?

Anyway, just when I said I can't and I won't get an MC, I got myself one two days after. Had a long weekend and really had a good good rest. Skipped work on Friday, french on Saturday and church on Sunday. It did wonders for me. I was up and hopping by Monday. (Yey.) It seems like everyone is falling ill recently. It must be the flu season again. So take care and stay healthy, everyone! Chinese New Year is coming! Food, food, food. Ang pow, ang pow, ang pow.

This reminds me. I haven't bought my new year clothes yet. (screams!) This is horrific. I've been putting it off for weeks and it seems that the new year is just around the corner. What am I to do?! I would have to indulge in crazy shopping this weekend, by hook or by crook.

Oh, just a reminder. Ash Wednesday fasting is held on Tuesday this year to avoid the New Year eve reunion dinner. Mass is compulsory on Tuesday!

Which is kind of strange because we're fasting on Mardi Gras! Mardi Gras (french for Fat Tuesday) is a day of festivities usually celebrated in some western countries. Mardi Gras is the day before Ash Wednesday, which of course, is the beginning of the Lenten Season. Originally, the Tuesday before the start of Lent was the day where cows would be paraded in the streets to remind people about fasting and abstinence during the next 40 days. Also, I guess people used the day to get rid of all the meat in their homes. How to do that? By eating them up, of course. Over the years, I guess it evolved to become more commercialised and less of a Catholic holiday.

Okay. It's sleep time. I will have a busy day at work tomorrow. A long night too, since the sponsors will be having our monthly holy hour. Father has invited the entire YM to join in this time.

So... good night!

Sick again

2008-01-23T21:30:00.000+08:00

So you shall serve the Lord your God, and He will bless your bread and your water. And I will take sickness away from the midst of you. ~Exodus 23:25~

Sick.
Sick.
Sick.

Again.

Fever is back. I can't take MC this time round. There's just too many things to do and no one else available to cover.

My stable life

2008-01-20T22:35:00.000+08:00

Life is full of beauty. Notice it. Notice the bumble bee, the small child, and the smiling faces. Smell the rain, and feel the wind. Live your life to the fullest potential, and fight for your dreams. ~Ashley Smith~

Before I begin my entry proper, let me wish Sharon a very Happy 23rd Birthday. So, girl. How does it feel like to be 23? That is, of course, a nonsensical question. Being 23 probably feels the same as being 22.

Anyway, I was reading Juliet's lastest blog entry when it hit me. She was talking about how routined her life has become. How true it is for me too. Ever since I started work, my life has been very stable. Well, "stable" is a positive way of saying things. ~~If I wanted to be lousy, I'll say its mundane.~~ My week is the same, week after week after week.

Work, french class, church. Work, french class, church. Work, french... ahh.. you get the idea.

Am I unhappy with my life? Nope.

Am I hoping to have more time to do my own stuff? Yep. Definitely.

I want to sleep in. I want to snuggle up in my bed. I want to read my novels. I want to play my PS3. I want to go shopping. I want to spend more time with my parents. I want to hang out with my friends. I want to stay up late. I want to slack without worrying about anything.

I had half a year of all that. It isn't enough. I want more of it. (wishful thinking)

Maybe if I had 30 hours a day.....?

Oh. Guess who I bumped into while I was out buying something earlier this evening? Hint. Someone tall, lanky, full of lame jokes and oh-so-health-conscious.

No prizes for getting the correct answer. =p

Zilch

2008-01-16T21:17:00.000+08:00

Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. ~Matthew 11:28~

Tired.
Sick.
Drained.
Sad.
Zilch.

(cough)

On MC

2008-01-15T23:30:00.000+08:00

The best way to cheer yourself is to cheer somebody else up.
~Mark Twain~

I've been lying in bed since yesterday. Down with fever and throat infection. Queued at Aunty Angela's clinic yesterday, and waited and waited and waited till I couldn't wait anymore. Then went home and napped. Then went back only to realise my turn was over. Bleahx. Luckily the receptionist slotted my number in. If I had to queue again, I think I'll just flip over and ~~die~~ on the spot. Then I got a two-day MC. Stayed home, slept and relaxed. It seems like old times when I wasn't working yet. Minus the fever and minus the sore throat. (Cough)

Time passes so fast. Soon its going to be Chinese New Year. I haven't started shopping for clothes yet. (Screams!) This year's New Year holiday is extremely long, starting with a half day on Wednesday, right till Sunday. (Cheers!)

That also means Ash Wednesday is coming. Fasting is scheduled on Tuesday this year to avoid reunion dinner on Wednesday.

Okay. Going off to sleep. I have to work tomorrow.

(Cough)

On rubik's cubes and WYD

2008-01-11T22:35:00.001+08:00

We had a short day at the office today. All senior exectives had to attend a function. So we went. Then halfway, we sneaked out for a little shopping. I bought a rubik's cube, just for the heck of it. I have one in the office. Not mine, though, but I play with it anyway. I found it quite fun, so I decided it should be nice to get one of my own to play back home. It's like re-living my childhood.

So anyway, I was playing with it when I got home and it broke to pieces. Bleah.

Then spent a good number of time piecing the rubik's cube back together. I mean this literally. Mum was complaining about how she use to play it for ages and never once had a rubik's cube fall to pieces before. Well, I managed to piece it back, after an hour and a half. Hey, actually piecing the pieces back together can be quite fun too. Still, I was mightily upset.

On a lighter note, after a long, long period of discerning, I've finally made up my mind.

I will be going for World Youth Day '08 after all. I've got my big name in the going list for this worldwide event already. Parents said yes (since I'm paying for it myself anyway). Boss said yes. Already informed the youth worker at church of St Mary of the Angels. Only short of filling up the form and sending them the check. Preparation for the trip starts next month right till July at St. Mary's. Then its Australia! here I come! Yet again. St Mary's programme starts in Brisbane and ends in Sydney. Twelve days in total. Since its a Franciscan church, I suspect the programme is full of nature.

To check out WYD'08, click here.

Anyone wants to join me?

Work life in the new year

2008-01-10T23:49:00.001+08:00

Work is starting to pile up. I'm no longer a paid slacker, okay? Holiday season is over. I'm gonna get busy, busy and even busier. Boss is starting to get stressed. She's still nice though.

RCIY bbq '08

2008-01-05T13:33:00.000+08:00

I woke up late today, and totally skipped French class. Got up at 9am to read Esther's message before plonking back to bed again. I think I'm getting a sore throat.

The RCIY bbq ended at midnight. At the very least, it was held at my place, so I needn't worry about getting home. Hey, thank God, the weather was beautiful last night. It rained in the late afternoon and totally freaked me out. We planned no wet weather programme. Thank God, by the evening there was no rain, and by nightfall, it was breezy. Excellent bbq weather.

Lots of people actually worked for this bbq so it was great that we could actually go ahead with it.

We had lots and lots and lots of food. So much that we couldn't finish. Lets see. We had curry, bee hoon, chicken wings, beef steak, sweet patato, corn, sausages... did I miss out anything else?

Big thanks to...

Matthew - for his curry and beehoon.
Crystal - for booking the pit and getting the spoons and stuff.
Father Luke - for preparing and bbqing the TLC. (TLC = tender loving chicken -_-")
Jerome & Amanda - for preparing the food and drinks
Glenn - bringing the chicken wings.
Everyone - for taking time off to come by.

Did I miss out anyone?

Starting the fire...

Fooddddd....

Fr Luke preparing chicken wings.

MORE chicken wings.

Fr Luke's TLC

SuperGlen

Ouch!!! Evelyn... stop!!

"I am eating my sweet potato." - Fr Luke.

"Something's not right today." - Uncle Jacob

"Ah, I know. It's my hair!"

2008 & Grandpa's birthday

2008-01-01T00:30:00.000+08:00

Its 2008!

As like every year, my family will gather to celebrate my grandpa's birthday, which is on 1st January. I've no idea how old he is exactly, but he's eighty... plus. This year's celebration is held once again at Singapore Island Country Club. No surprises there. My cousin, Kelvin brought his girlfriend over for the first time. Surprise, surprise.

My grandpa got a really sweet birthday cake. Sweet, in every sense of the word.

Dinner started really late, so it ended late too. Totally missed Thanksgiving mass today. I think the youth ministry, or at least Zion's Joy had some really good stuff going on today before and after mass. Oh well.

Okay. I tried to do up a resolution list for 2008. Ended up with a list of 10 things I want to do or change in the new year (in no order of preference).

1) To be punctual (or if possible, early) for mass
2) Enjoy life more
3) Have a more fruitful spiritual life
4) Improve my French
5) Increase collection of lame jokes
6) To be a better sponsor
7) Stop gossiping
8) To make people’s lives happier
9) To have a more successful working life
10) Make more friends

Ah. See. see. I didn't put any material things (eg. new PSP, ipod, etc) in my resolution like what most people will do. I just wanted to get the better things in life.

Okay, I'm tired. Happy new year, peeps.

To Jeraldine, Esther and Menaka, the photos from this afternoon's lunch.

Facebook

2007-12-30T20:41:00.000+08:00

I've been spending lots of time on facebook and neglected my blog, hence the slow update. However, hey, thanks to it, I've managed to find and link my friends. Its similar to friendster but much more interesting (not to mention stupid). I've received all kinds of silly invitations from everyone and I've been poking people. It seems almost every one on earth has facebook now.

I've been in contact with Brother Andrew via facebook and it seems he has completed his seven year course at the St Francis Xavier Major Seminary and is back home in Klang waiting for his ordination. Congrats, Brother. Soon we'll have to call you Father Andrew. Well, you're right. Until then, its poking spree!

Oh, I'm thinking its about time I end my break from Alliance Française. Everyone seems to be going back this January, so it seems like a sign that its time for me to continue. I'm reluctant though, because Saturday's the only day I can sleep in now. I'm not enthusiastic about waking up early for 9am classes. However, I've been in and out of it for so many years of my life that I realise I do miss AF and the culture there. A lot. Should I sign up??

Merry Christmas

2007-12-25T03:18:00.001+08:00

For unto us a child is born
Unto us a son is given
And the government shall be upon his shoulders
And his name shall be called wonderful.
Counsellor, the mighty God.
The everlasting Father.
And the Prince of Peace is He.

After a half day of work, I headed down to Vivo to do some last minute desperate shopping. The crowd of desperate people was huge. Amazing how some people like to do last minute shopping. Tsk tsk.

Christmas is always so pleasant. I headed down to church for midnight mass. I love midnight masses. The atmosphere is just so different.

Fr. Luke celebrated mass and did the homily at midnight. I think we all kinda waited in anticipation for his cold joke to come, just as he promised it would.

His homily ended beautifully. He said he couldn't give each and every one of us a present even though he wanted to. So he ended up giving us something which he could. His voice. He sang The Christmas Song. Thank you, Father. It was beautiful.

After mass, the group of us headed for supper at Serangoon Gardens till 3am. Thank you, Matthew, for your treat and the ride back home.

For JY who has asked me kindly what Catholics believe in, I don't think I can tell you here in one post every single thing we believe in, but I guess I'll just state the basics and clear the common misunderstandings. I know just exactly what you want to know. If Catholics don't worship Mary, then why is it whenever you think of the word 'Mary' you automatically think of Catholics?

So here goes. *Takes a deep breath*

Catholics believe in the Holy Trinity - Father (God), Son (Jesus) and the Holy Spirit, and that Jesus is the only son of God, sent down to die on the Cross for us all. Since its the holy trinity in one, Jesus is both God and Man. The Virgin Mary is the Mother of Jesus. Catholics do not worship Mary but respect her for who she is (Mother of God). We ask her to pray for us, just as we would ask a friend to pray for us, but we never pray to her for stuff. That's only reserved for God. The same goes for saints. Saints are there to pray for us as well.

Okay, this little paragraph is not exhausive. This is probably only scratching the surface of Catholicism, but 4.30am now and I'm tired.

Have a Merry Christmas, people!

God Bless You.

Gaudete Sunday

2007-12-16T22:56:00.000+08:00

My body has officially re-adjusted its sleeping hours. *jumps for joy* I haven't been sleeping before midnight for a long long time. Thats because I haven't had to wake at 7am in a long time. Ah. The last time I had to get up so early was when I was in JC. NUS had been flexible. I grew smarter by the first semester and scheduled as many of my classes to the afternoons as I possibly can. That left me time to sleep in right till 5 minutes before class started. Now I have to wake early because I'm a working individual.

Oh. I learnt something from Fr. Luke's homily, today, on Gaudete Sunday - there is no such thing as a white lie - lies have no colour.

One conversation I had with a colleague of mine.

"Oh, you're Catholic?"
"Yep."
"Catholic.... means you worship Mary, right?"

I don't blame her. She's from a totally different faith. She doesn't care hoots if I worship Mary a not or if Mary is suppose to be worshipped. The thing is, she did say she was from a Catholic school. Primary through to secondary school. The point was never clarified in school, so many people like her grew up thinking Catholics worship Mary.

Catholics do not worship Mary.
Catholics do not worship Mary.
Catholics do not worship Mary.

All repeat after me.

Catholics. do. not. worship. Mother. Mary.

The thing is, this is such a stale misundertanding that Catholics probably just gave up clarifying a long time ago.

Adelyn - out!

Rain, rain, go away......

2007-12-11T22:30:00.000+08:00

Come again another day. Maybe when I'm tucked up in bed and sound asleep.

It has been raining, raining, raining, raining and raining. Oh. Did I mention it has been raining?

Yeah, it has been so gloomy recently. Not to mention, it has made it so difficult for me to travel out.

I look out of my office window and all I see is rain. All I feel is cold air. The aircon in the office is blowing like mad. The worse thing is we need higher approval to change the temperature. Bleah. Now what we really need is another 2 jackets, a pair of gloves and long johns.

Oh, for people who don't know, Colin's news hit the New Paper and wanbao. Click here for the New Paper article.

Death is a real thing

2007-12-08T22:08:00.000+08:00

I attended Colin's funeral.

As we walked and said our last goodbyes at the crematorium, I looked at him, and amist all the heavy makeup, I saw a peaceful Colin resting.

As I saw him for the last time, an image of him sitting on the floor laughing happily just two weeks ago in church flashed through my mind.

I guess it is when someone passes on that we start to realise the fragility of life. We start to find that death is a real, real thing, much as we would like to delude ourselves.

The pastor and his son

2007-12-04T21:53:00.000+08:00

~The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.~ Lamentations 3:19-23

Someone forwarded a story to me and rather than forwarding it to everyone else, I thought I'll just stick it in my blog instead.

*** *** *** ***

Every Sunday afternoon, after the morning service at the church, the Pastor and his eleven year old son would go out into their town and hand out Gospel Tracts.

This particular Sunday afternoon, as it came time for the Pastor and his son to go to the streets with their tracts, it was very cold outside, as well as pouring down rain. The boy bundled up in his warmest and driest clothes and said, "OK, dad, I'm ready."

His Pastor dad asked, "Ready for what?" "Dad, it's time we gather our tracts together and go out." Dad responds, "Son, it's very cold outside and it's pouring down rain."

The boy gives his dad a surprised look, asking, "But Dad, aren't people still going to Hell, even though it's raining?"

Dad answers, "Son, I am not going out in this weather." Despondently, the boy asks, "Dad, can I go? Please?"

His father hesitated for a moment then said, "Son, you can go. Here are the tracts, be careful son."

"Thanks Dad!"

And with that, he was off and out into the rain. his eleven year old boy walked the streets of the town going door to door and handing everybody he met in the street a Gospel Tract.

After two hours of walking in the rain, he was soaking, bone-chilled wet and down to his VERY LAST TRACT. He stopped on a corner and looked for someone to hand a tract to, but the streets were totally deserted.

Then he turned toward the first home he saw and started up the sidewalk to the front door and rang the door bell. He rang the bell, but nobody answered. He rang it again and again, but still no one answered. He waited but still no answer.

Finally, this eleven year old trooper turned to leave, but something stopped him. Again, he turned to the door and rang the bell and knocked loudly on the door with his fist. He waited, something holding him there on the front porch! He rang again and this time the door slowly opened. Standing in the doorway was a very sad-looking elderly lady. She softly asked, "What can I do for you, son?" With radiant eyes and a smile that lit up her world, this little boy said, "Ma'am, I'm sorry if I disturbed you, but I just want to tell you that *JESUS REALLY DOES LOVE YOU* and I came to give you my very last Gospel Tract which will tell you all about JESUS and His great LOVE."

With that, he handed her his last tract and turned to leave. She called to him as he departed. "Thank you, son! And God Bless You!"

Well, the following Sunday morning in church Pastor Dad was in the pulpit. As the service began, he asked, "Does anybody have any testimony or want to say anything?"

Slowly, in the back row of the church, an elderly lady stood to her feet. As she began to speak, a look of glorious radiance came from her face, "No one in this church knows me. I've never been here before. You see, before last Sunday I was not a Christian. My husband passed on some time ago, leaving me totally alone in this world. Last Sunday, being a particularly cold and rainy day, it was even more so in my heart that I came to the end of the line where I no longer had any hope or will to live.

So I took a rope and a chair and ascended the stairway into the attic of my home. I fastened the rope securely to a rafter in the roof, then stood on the chair and fastened the other end of the rope around my neck. Standing on that chair, so lonely and brokenhearted I was about to leap off, when suddenly the loud ringing of my doorbell downstairs startled me. I thought, "I'll wait a minute, and whoever it is will go away." I waited and waited, but the ringing doorbell seemed to get louder and more insistent, and then the person ringing also started knocking loudly. I thought to myself again, "Who on earth could this be? Nobody ever rings my bell or comes to see me." I loosened the rope from my neck and started for the front door, all the while the bell rang louder and louder.

When I opened the door and looked I could hardly believe my eyes, for there on my front porch was the most radiant and angelic little boy I had ever seen in my life. His SMILE, oh, I could never describe it to you! The words that came from his mouth caused my heart that had long been dead, TO LEAP TO LIFE as he exclaimed with a cherub-like voice, "Ma'am, I just came to tell you that JESUS REALLY DOES LOVE YOU." Then he gave me this Gospel Tract that I now hold in my hand.

As the little angel disappeared back out into the cold and rain, I closed my door and read slowly every word of this Gospel Tract. Then I went up to my attic to get my rope and chair. I wouldn't be needing them any more.

You see---I am now a Happy Child of the KING. Since the address of your church was on the back of this Gospel Tract, I have come here to personally say THANK YOU to God's little angel who came just in the nick of time and by so doing, spared my soul from an eternity in hell."

There was not a dry eye in the church. And as shouts of praise and honor to THE KING resounded off the very rafters of the building, Pastor Dad descended from the pulpit to the front pew where the little angel was seated.

He took his son in his arms and sobbed uncontrollably. Probably no church has had a more glorious moment, and probably this universe has never seen a Papa that was more filled with love & honor for his son... Except for One.

Our Father also allowed His Son to go out into a cold and dark world. He received His Son back with joy unspeakable, and as all of heaven shouted praises and honor to The King, the Father sat His beloved Son on a throne far above all principality and power and every name that is named.

Blessed are your eyes for reading this message.

Don't let this message die, read it again and pass it to others.
Heaven is for His people!
Remember, God's message CAN make the difference in the life of someone close to you.

First day of work

2007-12-03T23:38:00.000+08:00

Okay, I know everyone is dying to know how my first day of work went.

I know you want to know.

So let me tell you now.

My first day went on fine. It was pretty relaxing in the morning but came afternoon, I actually had work coming in. On my first day. The people are fine. Friendly. Guess I'm gonna enjoy it here.

I guess my only problem is I can't exactly wake up easily. It has been years since I last woke at such an ungodly hour. Even in NUS, I refrained from picking 8am modules, because it's just crazy to do so. I guess I have to learn now...

So darn sleepy. Zzzzz.

Advent Sunday & Enchanted on Friday

2007-12-01T15:04:00.000+08:00

Anyway, I finally got to watch the movie Enchanted on Friday. I just had to watch a movie before I head for a life of no life... but Juliet stood me up, Crystal was busy with her final year project, Esther, Jeraldine and Menaka all watched it already. I dragged Esther out anyway.

Enchanted was okay. Sweet, as it is, though I could never understand why the two teenage girls seated in front of me were laughing hysterically at any possible moment. Even Esther, the ultimate fairytale fanatic looked confused.

The first part of the show was way beyond me. I absolutely do not and can never understand cartoons in fairytale style, with birds chirping and bimbo in blonde hair singing.

I guess my interest picked up when we, together with Giselle, came into the real world. It became a clash between fantasy and reality.

I guess that's one big reason why I don't enjoy fairytales much. Fairytales are naive, and for people who are still clinging on to 'happy ever after' - abandon your thoughts. Fairytales are fantasies which people create simply because its just not going to happen in the real world.

Oh, am I the only one to notice, from this movie, a flaw with fairytales? The first part of Enchanted was meant to be a mirror of the more traditional stories like Cinderella and Snow White. The love story of Giselle and Prince was based on naivety. They met and fell in love and decided to get married. Then when they entered the real world, they realised, if they hadn't made a hasty decision, they had more than one choice. A relationship cannot be built on blatant naivety. Fairytales are a utopia. An unachievable state of perfection. However, can a relationship be sustained by perfection? I guess it's kind of funny but so true, that Giselle only understood the true meaning of love by actually experiencing other emotions like anger, other than blissful love and happiness.

Oh, watching Father in purple today reminded me that its Advent Sunday - the first day of the liturgical year. We can all start anticipating Christmas.

Alrighty, I have to go rest. Working tomorrow. Kyrie Eleison.

Few days more of freedom...

2007-11-29T23:40:00.000+08:00

I only have a few days more of freedom before I head for a life of no life.

My appointment to the post is subjected to the result of the medical test I have to undergo before I start work. This is nothing new. All the employers require new staff to undergo this procedure. I called the clinic yesterday in hope of making an appointment with the doctor. Instead, I was directed by the receptionist to their hotline instead. I absolutely hate hotlines, especially if it’s made up of automatic phone operators. Aw. You know. For ABC, please press 1. For XYZ, press 2. This one was exceptionally long and complicated, with up till 7 choices or more (I couldn’t be bothered to listen to the ‘press 8’) at a time. Not only that. Each choice contained medical terms which I bet no one sane can even pronounce because even the pre-recorded voice hesitated a while. So after pressing button after button, choice after choice, I finally got what I wanted (yey!) – the pre-employment medical examination services – only to hear the polite pre-recorded voice tell me that I only need to walk in and there is no booking scheme anyway. (boo...) Grrrr...

So I walked in today and finally did my medical examination.

After that, I decided to be good, and went for weekday mass with Crystal and Amanda. Mass ended early, because halfway through the gospel reading, half the main church hall immersed in darkness and the mic went off. We couldn't hear Father JJ at all, so he skipped homily altogether. First time I attended mass with no homily. Quite a shame actually, because at times, I do enjoy listening to the priests' homily.

Oh, this reminds me.

Last Sunday we conducted a church tour for our new inquirers and Fr. Luke did the tour of the church interior. I tagged along and learnt a fair bit too. Especially when he brought us into the sacristy - where the altar boys and priests prepare for mass. I had some of my queries answered too. Stuff which had been bugging me for a long time - like why priests in some countries wear black cassocks, while priests in other countries like Singapore wear white ones.

Anyway, I'm starting work soon, people...

How I wish I were back in school.

Employed

2007-11-27T23:53:00.000+08:00

Thanks to all my family and friends who have been rather concerned for me these few months, worried that I'll turn into a permanent bummer. Now I can shout to you guys. NO NEED TO WORRY ANYMORE! Adelyn is officially off the bummer list. I am no longer part of the 1.7% (as my mum so often points it out) of the population who are unemployed.

Confirmation

2007-11-24T21:48:00.000+08:00

Finally Confirmation Day!

I think the 102 of us did work pretty hard to get here somehow. At least I know the RCIY and sec3 confirmands did. After endless catechism classes, camps and mission trips, we are finally declared prepared to receive the gift of the holy spirit. I guess with all the preparation, confirmation became more meaningful. Oh yeah. Not to mention we had to go through two face-to-face confessions (horror!)- once during confirmation camp and once last week on the Day of Recollection. So confirmation is essentially not just about today but about the journey.

So anyway, we all came dressed in white, for the big day today. After today, we will all end up at different places. I guess some will disappear from church forever. Some will be Sunday Catholics. Others will join the ministry and be even more active in church. (We don't want to be confirmed pigeons.)

We all came today dressed in white. Now, we either look like a bunch of nurses (good!), or a bunch of young and eager PAP members (bad!).

My parents and godparents came. See how happy my godpa is?! Yes. He's so happy to be here listening to archie's history lesson.

So anyway we waited for His Grace, the archbishop of Singapore Nicholas Chia to come confirm us and celebrate mass. Apparently he got caught in a traffic jam or something.

I think from this photo the hat looks like some onion looking thing.

Father Luke (left) and Father JJ (right).

His Grace in a nice hat and frock. Okay, I just found out the stick he's holding is called a crosier and his lovely onion hat is called a miter. Both given to bishops during ordaination.

Oh look at what we got for confirmation!

Finally confirmed!!! Proof!!!

Erm. Ok. Why do I keep seeing Uncle Jacob in all the pics?!

Birthday guppies

2007-11-14T23:55:00.000+08:00

We celebrated Esther's birthday today. A few days early because her birthday falls on such a common day. So Esther, Jeraldine, Menaka and I spent the evening extravagently dining at Vivo's Swenson Earle.

Of course the bulk of the day was spent actually looking for a suitable present for the birthday girl. We each got her something different.

So this year I tried looking for something unique. Since she has learnt jewelry making for me, I couldn't get her anything remotely like jewelry. Bleah.

I ended up getting her two tiny little fishes. Guppies, to be exact. In a small bowl. With pebbles. Inclusive of fish food.

Of course I had to top it off with some anti-bitch pills which she so needs.

Instructions:
Take one capsule to stop complaining.
Take two capsules to stop constant whining.
Take three capsules and maybe your friends will start returning your calls.

Anyway, back to the guppies. I think Jeraldine, Menaka and I took a very long time deciding on the names. We ended up with the most brilliant names of all. The end product - Esther is now the proud owner of two guppies named LeSushi and LaSashimi. LeSushi has a deep, dark, royal shade of purple. LaSashimi has a bright, elegant orange colour on its tail.

I'm crossing my fingers, hoping they'll survive at least a week in Esther's hands. She isn't exactly the best pet owner in the world. Hopefully, by God's grace, the two can mate and give birth to babies. Of course Esther is now incharge of making them mate. So if all else goes well, we can expect baby fishes in about a month's time. Then we can just take some from her.

Oh shucks. Totally lesbian photo.

Deepavali photos

2007-11-11T21:39:00.000+08:00

Quote of the Day: When the world gives you a lemon, make lemonade.

Alrighty. Deepavali photos are up.

Menaka was kind enough to let we, three miserable folks into her house for the Deepavali celebrations on Thursday and her mum cooked like tons of delicious dishes for us. Curry. I love Indian curry.

Esther: Yey...! Going Menaka's house... so happy! Must make a funny face.
Jeraldine: Heehee. Esther's like so funny la.

Ok. Jeraldine, you can view your long-awaited preggie photos here now.

Deepavali and a wedding

2007-11-10T23:55:00.000+08:00

I know. I have MIA-ed for the longest time. I've been too lazy to blog.

Deepavali photos at Menaka's house will be posted up soon, so don't bug me too much for it. I'm still deciding if I should post up the unflattering photos. Unflattering meaning Jeraldine's fat photos. If you know what I mean.

It's Saturday and I just returned from a cousin's wedding. They had mass in the morning at the church of St Francis Xavier. First time I entered SFX and I left with a great feeling. Nice church they have there. Father Anthony was an excellent choice of celebrant too. Oh. Many people attended mass. Almost filled up the sanctuary. Even Fr Anthony commented on the number of people. I think its because everyone from Christ the King's RCIY and YC turned up.

Oh yeah. I know I've told some people that I don't have many Catholic relatives. It's true in the sense that the closer relatives aren't. I do have Catholic distant relatives though. It's like the kind who turns up during Chinese New Year and stuff and they probably don't even know my name. However, the coolness of it all is that my relationship with them kinda stepped up after I entered church.

Anyway I got some photos of the church as well as the dinner, though many aren't very well taken. Not that there were many photos anyway.

Isn't SFX beautiful?

Statue of St. Jude the Apostle. My patron saint.

Dinner at Orchid Country Club.

Erm. I know this photo looks like an abstract art of some sort. What you are suppose to see is the waiter flinging a long towel of fire round and round and round in the dark.

Halloween

2007-10-31T23:07:00.000+08:00

Happy Halloween. I hope people have been going trick-or-treating or dress-up parties, because I haven't. I've never been for a single Halloween party for the past 22 years of my life. Ever. Never. So this year's just another boring Halloween for me again. Well, not that boring actually. Went down Novena church today for lunch mass with Juliet. Yep. Two bored, unemployed, Catholic graduates going for mass together. Hmm...

Oh yeah. Then shopping at my recent favourite hangout spot. Chinatown. Okay, I'm not a Chinatown person. Ever. Never. However, I got addicted to the bead shops there and those at Arab street and Clark Quay and... whatever. Anyway, yeah. Okay. I'm hooked to bead making. I think I got Esther hooked to it too. (yeyness!) Oh hell, I'm trying to get everyone hooked. Okay. Whatever.

Oh! Oh! Oh! Talk about coincidence... Esther's birthday hunk is LIVING IN MY CONDO. Erm. Not in my unit of course. I meant, he's living in one of the seven hundred plus units here. I think I nearly died when I spotted him. Can the world get any smaller?

Rosaries and so on.

2007-10-22T23:55:00.000+08:00

All thanks to Andre. Now I'm hooked on making rosaries and now, costume jewelry as well. I've been going up and down Chinatown and Arab street recently. Yes, Andre. Thank you very much for burning a hole in my pocket and wasting so much of my time.

Well, okay. I got to admit. It has been quite fun making all these stuff, though I spent quite a bit on the tools, beads, wires and instruction book.

Tools and stuff.

The first rosary I've ever made. Nice right???

Ohhh.. I'm getting so good at this.

Five Loaves and Two Fishes

2007-10-14T23:28:00.000+08:00

The Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew.

They said to Him, “We have here only five loaves and two fish.” And He said, “Bring them here to Me.” Ordering the people to sit down on the grass, He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up toward heaven, He blessed the food, and breaking the loaves He gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds, and they all ate and were satisfied. They picked up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve full baskets. There were about five thousand men who ate, besides women and children.

Matthew 14:17-21

Eve was playing a Corrinne May song in catechism today.

Its quite funny because its my first day as sponsor and attended my first sponsors' meeting, so this song is quite motivating. So, to all of God's servants out there. Listen to the lyrics of this song with all your heart. If you are weary, or if you feel you are insignificant in God's eyes, well, just remember that even if you only have five loaves of bread and two fishes to offer up to Him, he will use it to feed His thousands. (Yey!)

Five Loaves and Two Fishes
Corrinne May

A little boy of thirteen
was on his way to school
He heard a crowd of people laughing
and he went to take a look
Thousands were listening
to the stories of one man
He spoke with such wisdom,
even the kids could understand

The hours passed so quickly
the day turned to night
Everyone was hungry
but there was no food in sight
The boy looked in his lunchbox
at the little that he had
He wasn't sure what good it'd do
there were thousands to be fed

But he saw the twinkling eyes of Jesus
the kindness in His smile
and the boy cried out
with the trust of a child
he said:

"Take my five loaves and two fishes
Do with it as you will
I surrender
Take my fears and inhibitions
All my burdens, my ambitions
You can use it all
to feed them all"

I often think about that boy
when I'm feeling small
and I worry that the work I do
means nothing at all

But every single tear I cry
is a diamond in His hands
and every door that slams in my face
I will offer up in prayer

So I'll give you every breath that I have
Oh Lord, you can work miracles
All that you need is my "Amen"

Take my five loaves and two fishes
Do with it as you will
I surrender
Take my fears and inhibitions
All my burdens, my ambitions
You can use it all
I hope it's not too small

I trust in you
I trust in you

Take my five loaves and two fishes
Do with it as you will
I surrender
Take my fears and inhibitions
All my burdens, my ambitions
You can use it all
no gift is too small

Therefore...

if you have non-Catholic friends out there who want to know more about God and more about the Catholic church, do urge them to join us in the RCIY journey!

NARF!

Brainstem! brainstem!

2007-10-07T23:58:00.000+08:00

Check out this Pinky and the Brain academic piece, man. If I had seen this before my psychology exam, I would have aced it. I think this is so informative even for bio students, man. Its darn funny too. I can name all parts of the brain now.

Oh yeah, please shut off the background music from my blog first before listening to it.

BRAINSTEM (Episode P3)
Lyrics by Tom Minton.

Sung to Camptown Races by Stephen Foster.

Pinky: And now, the parts of the brain, performed by The Brain!
Brain: Ye-e-s!

Brain: Neo-cortex, frontal lobe
Pinky: Brainstem! Brainstem!
Brain: Hippocampus, neural node
Right hemisphere.

Brain: Pons and cortex visual
Pinky: Brainstem! Brainstem!
Brain: Sylvian fissure, pineal
Left hemisphere.

Brain: Cerebellum left!
Cerebellum right!
Synapse, hypothalamus
Striatum, dendrite.

Brain: Axon fibers, matter gray
Pinky: Brainstem! Brainstem!
Brain: Central tegmental pathway
Temporal lobe.

Brain: White core matter, forebrain, skull
Pinky: Brainstem! Brainstem!
Brain: Central fissure, cord spinal
Parietal.

Brain: Pia mater!
Menengeal vein!
Medulla oblongata and lobe limbic
Micro-electrodes...
Pinky: Naaarf!
P+B : THE BRAIN!!!

Brain: That ought to keep the little squirts happy. Ye-e-s!

RCIY

2007-10-06T23:50:00.000+08:00

Evelyn called me up this evening while I was at White Tangerine with Sharon and Andre watching a rugby World Cup match. I had been not-so-patiently awaiting her call the whole day, because Eve is Very Important Person. If Eve says yes, I am in. If Eve says no no. I am not in.

Soooo... I am in! (*insert applause*)

I kinda chatted with her for a while, and she finally invited me in RCIY. So yeyness! Congratulate me. I'm now a new sponsor in RCIY.

Quick. Let me hear your congratulations.

Louder.

Louder.

Louder.

Yes. Thank you.

Rugby tomorrow night?

Super belated birthday presents

2007-10-05T23:50:00.000+08:00

So about two months have passed since my birthday, and finally I receive my presents from my two best-est friends, ya? Haha. Thanks anyway, gals.

I got this real nice perlini silver pendant from Sharon.

Nice. I got Father Joe to bless it on Sunday. Took him quite a while to realise he was blessing a calvary pendant. Funny.

Oh yah, and Esther got me this t-shirt.

Its so me, right? With the words and all. My mum was amused by it. My dad was glaring at the shirt. That's because a new shirt means having to buy a new jacket to go with it. Buying a new jacket means having to buy a new handbag to match. With a new handbag, I need new shoes. Ooooo... headache.

Sooooo, anyway, Esther's present came with a birthday card.

7 Reasons why women prefer wine to men.

1. You can share wine with your friends.
2. A good wine isn't hard to find.
3. You can have more than one glass of wine and won't feel cheap.
4. You don't have to keep telling a glass of wine that it's the best you've ever had.
5. You don't have to sleep with a bottle of wine just because you have had dinner with it.
6. A glass of wine won't show you up in front of your friends.
7. If you don't fancy a glass of wine it won't think you're a lesbian.

However, let me tell you, girls, there's something a guy can do which a bottle of wine can't.

Men can catch cockroaches. Your wine can't.

So don't let go of your man.

Yeah!

Homophone

2007-10-04T23:00:00.000+08:00

Baiwei asked me, Adelyn, so what is a homophone? So I answered his question according to the Most Concise Adelyn's English Dictionary (best dictionary in the world).

Homophone [hom-uh-fohn]
- noun
a phone which is attracted to other phones of the same gender

Example: My phone, which is a homophone, is in love with her phone and keeps calling her.

Cheers.

Phonecall, interview and argh.

2007-10-02T23:44:00.000+08:00

I got awaken early this morning with Father Luke's phone call. IHM is starting the Kovan Melody SCC so he called to confirm my address.

Then I had my CIAS interview this afternoon. I don't mind this job, though the airport shift is a killer. I seriously don't know if I can withstand the graveyard shift, because... well... I've never done a graveyard shift.

Oh, Andre was exceptionally nice today. He came to pick me up, have tea and drove me home. (Yey!) Thank you, Andre!

Okay, the 9pm show today on Channel 55, the one I'm obsessed about, was so heart wrenching. I'm like so depressed now after watching today's episode. Oh man, I nearly cried. Okay. Spoiler warning. Dongxiao died. Argh. Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? I should have prayed before watching the show. Maybe Dongxiao might have survived? Haha. Kidding. Kidding.

Going to sleep!

Fun Stuff

2007-09-29T23:12:00.000+08:00

Does this sum up my cooking skills, or what?

Random mumbles

2007-09-27T22:19:00.000+08:00

Random Mumble No.1

The Dance of Passion 火舞黃沙

I'm in love with the 9pm HK drama on Channel 55.

I'm totally infatuated with, crazy over, obsessed about that drama.

I think Ada Choi might have just usurped the position of my favourite actress from Maggie Cheung Ho Yee.

I've found Juliet who likes it too. She happens to like my favourite character, Jiao Yu as well. (Yey!)

I've dragged Esther into watching it and I think she hates me for it. (*Shrugs*)

Random mumble no.2

Honestly, its pretty scary how adults can sometimes treat kids. Whether its their own kids or someone else's kid.

My mum and I were walking down Heartland mall yesterday evening after dinner and there was this woman with this boy in front of us. The boy really didn't do anything wrong because the area was crowded and squeezy. Well, he accidentally knocked into the woman.

It wasn't even a severe knock. Just a slight bump. Something which I have to admit, I'm guilty of doing, most of the time, because I can't walk straight.

So anyway, the boy bumped into the woman accidentally right? The woman got real mad and yelled at him in Mandarin, something to the extent of "要撞就去撞!" (translation: Want to knock/crash/bump, then go knock/crash/bump.) And she smashed him into the wall.

Now, this happened right in front of us because we were just directly behind them. You should have just seen the horror on my mum's face. For Pete's sake, this boy was like what? 10 years old? Anyway, the boy didn't even utter a word. Maybe he's just used to such abuse? I think she's his mum, though, but my mum said that woman looked too old to be his mother. Grandmother, perhaps? I hope not. It spoils my image of grandmothers. To me, grandmothers are cookie-baking, kids-spoiling women, not wall-smashing monsters.

Random mumble No.3

Oh, my dad and I were at KFC today.

Dad: (points at delicious-looking drumstick picture board) I want that.

KFC woman: Which one do you want, Sir? The spicy BBQ or the Lime chicken.

Dad: I want the spicy one.

KFC woman: Both are spicy. So do you want the BBQ or Lime?

Dad: Erm. Ok. I don't want the Lime one.

KFC woman: But the Lime is spicy too.

Dad: I know. But I don't want the Lime.

KFC woman: But its spicy!

Dad: ..........

Me: (to KFC woman) Just give us the damn BBQ chicken.

Random mumble No.4

Million Dollar Question: RCIY or Catechism???

Dying cactus

2007-09-25T22:37:00.000+08:00

The cactus in my toilet is dying. That is like so sad because I have no idea why its dying on me. After pondering for a while, I came up with 3 possibilities.

A) Someone pulled it out by the roots. (Cactus murderer! Argh!)
B) I added too much water.
C) I haven't watered it enough.

Sheesh. Who said cactuses are easy to handle?

New blog skin

2007-09-24T01:15:00.000+08:00

I finally changed my blog template after a long while. Somehow, I just got tired of looking at the old one. My preference is still however, still simple. Therefore a simple blog.

Lost my phone =(

2007-09-07T23:58:00.000+08:00

For the very first time in my life, I lost my phone. In a cab. I still find its quite a pity considering firstly, its a darn new phone. Only 2 weeks old. Secondly, I could have gotten it back because I realised I lost it almost immediately after I got off the cab. I called the cab company and provided them with every single detail, even the cab number. It's their fault by coming up with some excuse like "the driver didn't pick up his phone". I was just so damn irritated especially because every time I call their hotline, they put me on hold and made me wait and wait. Bunch of idiots. They managed to get hold of the driver only after Esther told me someone switched off the phone already. How dumb is that?

Forget it. I guess I can only blame myself for being careless, careless, careless.

Then the trip down to the police post was another frustrating matter. I spent over an hour there trying to make my report, but the guy just couldn't get the sequence of events right. Like how tough is it writing a half page report? He took like forever to type something with spelling mistakes and grammatical errors some more. Well, I corrected his spelling, but decided against correcting his grammer. I guess I didn't want to embarrass him further. Not to mention I was so bored out of my mind that I just took out my novel to read while he typed away.

Actually I think part of me feels lousy because I never take what doesn't belong to me. Not that I can remember anyway. I always return handphones to the rightful owner. Once I picked up a couple of hundred dollars near the lecture theatre, I surrendered it to the prof even though I knew no one would ever find out. Unless of course the amount isn't big and there's no way to find the owner. So why should this happen? Lesson of the day: Honesty never pays.

Boo boo of the day

2007-08-30T23:32:00.000+08:00

I don’t know how popular Mistral Air was in the past but it sure is now. At least for those people who actually read the papers. It’s the first Vatican-backed chartered airline, recently contracted by the Vatican to fly pilgrims to holy places. So essentially it flies people from Rome to everywhere holy.

That is like so cool. Finally, our very own chartered airline, but I heard it’s a low budget carrier though. So probably nothing fancy but definitely safe, because I’m pretty sure they blessed the aircrafts. Wonder if they conduct masses in there though. Like some in-flight service, maybe?

Anyway, I thought it was a pretty decent idea. Pretty cool, actually, imagine popping into one of those, whenever you are feeling holy, and it’ll bring you to a place where you’ll feel even holier.

Then I read the Straits Times today.

"Airport officials barred several other pilgrims on the Mistral Air flight from taking holy water from the shrine back to Rome, the Italian news agency Apcom reported. The pilgrims protested that they had waited in long lines to fill up their bottles with holy water from the grotto."

Amidst all the excitement, everyone forgot about the strict airport rules. People had to surrender bottles of holy water because liquids weren't allowed on planes. Yes, holy water from Lourdes is considered suspicious liquid as well.

"'All passengers are obliged to respect the rules and not go over the quantities (of liquid) permitted' on flights', said Franck Hourcade, an official at the Tarbes-Lourdes-Pyrenees International Airport."

Apparently, some poor man had to surrender his bottle of Lourdes water at the French airport. It’s such a shame because part of the fun at Lourdes is to queue up at the grotto for hours and hours to fill up your bottle and bring it home, after which you can proudly tell everyone you went to get it yourself. I mean, nobody comes home from Lourdes empty handed, right? It's like going to Paris and not buying an LV.

It certainly doesn't make things better that the airline prepared replacement holy water packed in bottles shaped as Madonna for every passenger on board. Well, theun just isn't there anymore, isn't it?

Alright. Enough about Lourdes water and suspicious liquids. Jeraldine, Esther and I went to the Comex Fair today. Jeraldine wanted a laptop, but after viewing like a hundred different models, she still couldn't decide. Esther wanted a new ipod, but didn't even have the chance to view a single one because they were like sold out before we even reached.

Damn.

Nuisance calls

2007-08-27T11:34:00.000+08:00

For the past week, I've been receiving this same phone call at home.

The person calls my house and cuts off after the first ring. This, of course, makes it impossible for me to run to the phone in time, no matter how big my foot is, or how many feet I've got. So anyway its damn irritating because she normally calls at around 10.30am, sometimes earlier, sometimes later. This is, of course, the time when I'm still snuggling in my nice, warm bed, enjoying what's left of my time of unemployment and, most importantly, getting my beauty sleep.

I hate phone calls in the morning, because they wake me up. Unless, of course, you are calling to tell me I got a job or something. That, I don't mind. Bother me all you want, and I'll still say "I love you". Or maybe, if you're this really cute guy who dialed the wrong number, its okay too.

Okay, I'm digressing.

The point is, she woke me up every darn morning for the whole of last week and today. Okay, I hear the question coming. How the hell do you know its a woman who called and not a guy if he/she hung up on the first ring? Because I called back, okay? Bless the Father, Son and Holy Ghost for this invention called the caller ID. I called back and this woman picked up. Actually she sounded like a teenage girl, but of course she could have been seventy and dying, for all I know. So anyway I called her back and got right to the point. I said, excuse me, lady, but would you stop calling me and hanging up on me, everyday?

I think I frightened her, though, and she apologised.

Now hear her version of the story. She called my house, because she wanted to call Serangoon JC. I think when she said that, my brain emptied itself into the toilet bowl for a while.

Who the hell can call the same wrong number for a whole blardy week? Anyway she claimed that she called this other number and the automatic operator goes "Welcome to Serangoon JC" and directs her call to my number. She seemed to figure out somehow that when it starts ringing after the operator, it means it isn't SRJC already and so she hangs up immediately.

Pardon my french, but what shit is this? Does she honestly think I'll buy that story? Do I even want to believe it? I mean, I seriously find it hard to believe that she's the only person in the whole wide world trying to contact SR in the past week. If what she said were true, then the whole world would be bombarding my house with stupid calls. Secondly, even if she's the only one who entered this 3rd dimension phantom phone call where it directs SR calls to mine, then who, with half a centimetre of brain would keep trying the same number over and over again for a whole week when she knows the number will get her no where?

Let me give you some advice, girl.

Check and double check and triple check to see if you're dialing the right number.

If u are completely sure,and the person on the other line says "wrong numberrrrr....", chances are, it IS the wrong number.

If you do want to try your luck for a couple of times, thinking you might get lucky, say on the 30th call, FORGET IT. This ain't no poker table.

You should try searching for an alternative number, like either from the web, or by dialing the 100 number.

Should this fail, email or snail-mail them. Chances are, hotmail and Mr Postman will get it right.

If you are living in the stone age and you don't have a computer, or you have a phobia of emails and therefore you really need to make that call, then privatise your phone line. That way, the annoyed person on the other line, can't call back or call the triple nine hotline.

I'm kidding! Don't privatise your line. I hate nothing more then a privatised phone line because you don't know who's on the other line, and that annoys me full time. All the time.

But seriously, girl, if after trying a whole week and you still can't get the right line, forget it. Go back and sleep, okay?

I'm getting....

2007-08-23T23:02:00.000+08:00

younger... Yep. I'm so not gonna say the dreaded 'O' word.

Tonight's dinner was a nice little quiet affair with my parents at Swensons. Nice.

Argh. I have to go for a psychometric test early tomorrow morning. The things we have have to go through just to get a job. *tsk tsk*

So anyway, its Happy Birthday to me.

Night!

Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

2007-08-15T23:57:00.000+08:00

"Whoever does not wish to have Mary Immaculate as his Mother will not have Christ as his Brother." - St Maximillian Kolbe

I attended Assumption Day mass yesterday and today until my mum was like, "why do you keep going to church?" I had a hard time explaining that its a holy day of obligation, but she understood my English perfectly well when I said "mass is compulsory". So that was the end of it with my mum.

Anyway, Happy Assumption, people!

Carmelites

2007-08-12T22:07:00.001+08:00

We went to visit the religious today after mass. It was like so cool. We took the NEL and bus all the way to St. Theresa's church, which was near Harbourfront, to visit the Carmelite sisters. It was a long journey and if you leave it to me, I'll take a cab there and back.

Some of them went to see the Franciscan Friars and Jesuits, but as I said, I went to visit the Carmelites. Well, at least one Carmelite sister. Oh, and we went to the church instead of the monastery, because some of the sisters are living in the church temporarily. Apparently the Carmelite monastery got infested with termites or something and droved all the nuns out.

Beautiful church, right? Great place to get married and be buried. Haha. That's what I told my friend.

So anyway, Sister Angeline was telling us all about her daily routine. They wake up at like 5.30am or something and pray. They go for morning mass and pray some more or something. Oh, I thought it's funny that they can't sit down for breakfast. They got to eat standing up. Anyway, I think the rest of their day consists of prayers, prayers and more prayers. Then meditation and more mediation. Then your own free time. Then more prayers.

I thought Sister gave a pretty insightful view of sisterhood which I felt was pretty interesting. Wonder if they watch tv too.

Anyway, Sister wanted us to pray for her because she's leaving for Myanmar on a mission trip or something. "Just one hail mary a day", was what she said.

So here goes, Sister.

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you.
Blessed are you amongst women
And blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God,
Pray for us, sinners, now and at the hour of our death.
Amen.

Oh yeah. The prayer is for my grandparents also. Especially my grandma who fell and hit her head yesterday.

I just found out about it today when my aunt messaged me earlier on. So I went to visit my grandparents after dinner. Apparently my grandma fell and hit her head and it started bleeding. She got like 3 to 4 stitches on the back of her head. My grandfather also injured his arm or something while trying to save her from falling, apparently.

Thank God both of them are okay. My grandma was super chirpy while I was there. Thats good.

Let's all thank God and glorify the trinity.

Glory be to the Father,
to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit.
As it was in the beginning,
its now and ever shall be, world without end.
Amen.

Happy, happy, happy

2007-08-09T22:27:00.000+08:00

birthday, Singapore!!!

Our dear little island is forty-two years old.

This year's parade was held at the Marina Bay waterfront instead of the usual national stadium. Everything else was about the same. Parade, then those dancing programmes, lots a people and lots of bright lights.

However, I still think the stadium is still better... but we still have to wait five years or so while they rebuild it.

So anyway, I stayed home and watched the parade. No tickets this year. Heh. Its okay though. I'm not exactly a NDP fanatic or something.

Oh, my dad bought a fan for me to put in my room. How cool is that? (note the pun.) Anyway, just in case you are wondering why I need a fan in a room with aircon, I'm allergic to aircon at night when I'm sleeping. I can't sleep with the aircon turned on because I'll wake up feeling extremely uncomfortable. Nevertheless, isn't that great? I get to save a lot on my electricity bills, unlike my parents who have to blast their aircon every night.

Okie, time to watch tv. =)

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

2007-08-05T23:24:00.000+08:00

Alright. I finally bought it and read it and finished it. I couldn't stand the temptation anymore. I wanted to wait till the Harry-woo-haa died down and the price dropped. BUT I couldn't stand the it anymore, with all the people threatening to reveal the ending. Argh. Little devils.

I shall not reveal the ending here, or comment about the contents of the last Harry Potter book because I do not want people stumbling upon this blog and reading spoilers unintentionally. =p

However, I would like to comment on general stuff like my all time favourite Potter characters. My favourite characters areeeee....

*drum roll*

The Weasley twins, because I so love guys with a sense of humour; and
Hermione Granger, because I embrace intelligence.

My most hated characters are....
well... there's actually only one, and that is James Potter.

I kinda detest him more than anyone else actually, for some reason. I think its because he's overrated. To me, he's just like an older Draco Malfoy the school bully, minus the fact that he's in Griffindor rather than Slytherin. (big deal) I am particularly sickened by the fact that everyone keeps going on about how James and gang were only having some HARMLESS fun with Snape. Argh. Whatever.

Anyway, I guess since so many days have passed since the release of book no.7, everyone is getting over the Potter syndrome now. However, I suspect the aftermath of it will be just as horrifying.

I can just imagine the bunch of children born in the near future having names as horrifying as...

Potter Tan.
Dumbledore Goh.
Hermione Lim.
Weasley Tay.

Totally crazy. Argh.

Interview

2007-08-02T22:23:00.000+08:00

I went for an interview today. I guess it went alright. I'm finally getting on with the job finding.

The afternoon was great. Relaxed by the pool under the afternoon sun.

Ahh.. C'est la vie...

House warming

2007-07-28T23:57:00.000+08:00

We finally had our house warming party today. I think we had quite a number of people and my dad's relatives stayed from the early afternoon till evening. That was because my dad smsed the wrong timing to everyone and they arrived like at 1pm instead of the expected 5pm. Haha. Nevermind. I guess we were still quite okay. I think the food was quite okay too. Hey. In fact it was good... because I was the one who ordered it.

So Esther, Sharon and Jeraldine stayed till like 10pm because we had too much fun. Too much fun watching Esther exotic dance in my room while the dear neighbours watched on from their balconies. How nice is that? Thanks, Esther, for the free entertainment. You dance well. *thumbs up*

Anyway after her exotic dance, we all felt we needed to cleanse our souls a little, so we played some praise and worship songs till we felt it was becoming like a mini cell group. Haha.

*Yawn* Gotta rest. Tomorrow I have my usual Sunday rush for church. =)

House blessing

2007-07-22T21:58:00.000+08:00

The RCIY gang came over to my new place this afternoon for a small little housewarming party. Pretty cool. Father Luke came over to bless the house. I think many of the parishioners stay here because he seemed to know his way around pretty well, and when Fr Joe and Fr Luke first heard where I was moving to, they both had the same reaction. "Again?!?"

Anyway, I thought the party thing went pretty well.

Fr Luke was lame and corny as usual. Shared lame jokes. Did a little bible sharing and prayer session. Shared more lame jokes. Haha. Fr Luke is fun. I think my parents were quite amused by him. Just as he himself said - that's his trademark. Then he did his dumb blonde/smart blonde joke again, all because of Liting.

Liting: Father, father, can u tell me the dumb blonde joke again?
Fr Luke: Don't want la. You won't understand it anyway.
Liting: Oi... Father!!!
Fr Luke: Have you heard of the smart blonde joke?
Liting: No?
Fr Luke: Well, there isn't one. When they write one, I'll tell it to you.

Father can actually be funny.

Oh, we all crashed Melanie's place too. My new new neighbour opposite. Yey, then I kinda realised Crystal's gonna be my neighbour too! Now what was that I said about IHM parishioners staying here?

Oh yeah. I kinda feel bad for Kelly's little sister. I think we bullied her a little too much today. Honestly, it can't be helped... She's such a cute kid.

Juliet is also so cute. She rushed from her keyboard class, which is located at the other end of the world, carrying her keyboard stand all the way here and back home.

Anyway, thanks guys, for coming, and thanks for the gifts too!

Article on the cockroach

2007-07-08T14:58:00.000+08:00

Remember that cockroach blog entry?

Finally found the article. They wrote in to complain that time. Do take a look at the Stomp article.

So you see, I didn't make up that story or something.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Restaurant apologises for cockroach in soup and bad service
29 June 2007

The owner of a restaurant which received a complaint from a customer because of a cockroach found in its soup and the subsequent bad service by the manager, has issued an apology.

"Yes Mr Alvin, his wife and their guests were dining in my restaurant on Thursday night. Unfortunately a cockroach was found in their soup and my restaurant manager was very irresponsible, rude and passed very discourteous remarks. I have spoken and apologized to Mr Alvin today over the telephone. Mr Alvin was very nice, patient and courteous and accepted our apology. However I would like to also apologize to his wife and their guests for the very bad experience. Immediate actions have been taken so that such incident cannot happen again."

At about 8 pm. on 28 June 2007, Mr. Alvin, his wife and their Japanese guest, were dining at a restaurant in Rochor Road, opposite Bugis Junction.

Halfway through their steamboat spread, the 36-year-old assistant bank manager found a 'blackened' cockroach in his soup, hidden among the vegetables.

Although flabbergasted, he kept his cool and approached the restaurant manager quietly.

To his astonishment, the manager immediately became very defensive instead of apologizing.

He denied that the cockroach had came with the soup, arguing that if it had, the insect would have disintegrated.

What provoked him further was when the unapologetic manager said that the cockroach 'most like came from somewhere' implying, according to Mr. Alvin, that the customers were responsible for it.

However, Mr. Alvin told STOMP that if the cockroach had fallen into the soup during the dinner, it would not have looked so 'black' like it had been 'cooked'.

The manager then added that in certain instances, 'cockroach is used as tonic', before walking off.

Mr. Alvin's upset wife then decided to take a photo of the insect.

As she was snapping her pictures, the manager returned, picked the bowl of soup up, pushed it nearer to her and said, "No need to take picture...you can take it along with you as a gift."

Mr. Alvin told STOMP that more than the cockroach issue, he was outraged by the way the restaurant manager handled the situation.

He has urged the public to think twice before going to the restaurant.

"Service lousy, cleanliness is really questionable," he said.

"The place is air conditioned! How can they allow such incident to happen? And worse still, the kind of service...it's so embarassing with a guest around! Terrible...ridiculous! Free tonic...Cockroach!" Mr. Alvin added.

Commencement 2007

2007-07-07T22:47:00.000+08:00

Convocation is finally over! I've officially graduated! Yey...

Convocation ceremony started at 3pm, so we arrived around 2.20pm. Met Juliet at the entrance and headed to the robing room. We almost only stepped foot into the robing room when they started blasting announcements that the robing room was closing already. Drats. They didn't tell us in advance that the robing room would close so early. Made us panick and started dressing at full speed.

Anyway, our presiding officer was Shih Choon Fong, the tawkay of NUS (NUS President). We were kinda joking and daring each other to grab him and give him a kiss and hug when we went up to receive the degree scroll. Haha. No one dared to do it in the end.

Oh. Eunice Olsen, the MP was there. She gave a speech. Yeah, I guess she can be considered my senior, since she graduated from Arts with a major in political science and philosophy.

Graduating class of '07

Convo lasted a long long long time, and finally we got to take photos!!!

My parents. I have no idea when they took this pic.

You know, outside the University Cultural Centre, there's this huge thing which says "I was here"? Well, its a nice place to take a pic, so my dad took a pic for me. He made me pose for a long while, angling his camera seriously and making sure that all the words were in. Finally he took the pic and was satisfied, and he told me proudly to check it out.

What I saw was this...

Like hello?

I pointed out to him an alphabet was missing and he was quite embarrassed. Haha.

So he took another one.

Adelyn was here. 07/07/07.

Graduating Class of '07, FASS, NUS.

Aussie Pictures

2007-07-02T18:58:00.000+08:00

Picures are finally up. I took well over 400 photos but finally decided to post only some of them up because I don't think my aunts will appreciate if I post too many of their pics up without their approval. Not that I didn't try to get their approval.

Day 1

Off to Melbourne.

Day 2

We arrived in Melbourne very early in the morning and the hotel wasn't exactly up for check-in. So they brought us round and round the city, making us go sightseeing and shopping till we wanted to bang our heads on the wall. Another thing was that it was darn cold. 3 degrees when we arrived in Melbourne airport.

See? It's so cold that my mum has to pretend to be an Eskimo.

Off to Queen Victoria Market early in the morning.

Oh, this guy claims to be the brother of Phua Chu Kang. Looks a little like him too, huh? He charmed the socks off us to buy nougats from him. =p

St. Patrick's Cathedral, Melbourne.

The black stone posing behind me is St. Francis of Assisi.

The interior is gorgeous.

A life-sized statue of Our Lady of Fatima.

Conservatory.

View of Melbourne City.

Foggy.

Finally off to the hotel.

Oh yeah, guess what was the first thing we did when we got to the hotel room? We spent the entire time trying to open the lock to my luggage. When it didn't work, we sawed it off.

Melbourne City night scene. Oh. We gotta cross this bridge to get to the restaurants and casino from our hotel.

Day 3

Scenery taken from the bus.

Warrock Farm.

They made us sit in this weird truck thing. I think we wasted more energy going up and down that, than if we had walked all the way.

Definition of sheep shearing:

To turn this..

Into this.

Now let me give you a 10-step sheep shearing demonstration.

Step 1: Get the tools ready.

Step 2: Hold the cutter properly like this.

Step 3: Drag the darn sheep out.

Step 4: Stick him between your legs.

Step 5: Shave.

Step 6: And shave.

Step 7: And shave.

Step 8: Keep shaving.

Step 9: Don't stop.

Step 10: A little more to go...

And voila! A shaved sheep. As clean as a man with a shaver in the morning.

Kangaroos are cute.

And gentle.

And tasty. Haha. (I took this in Sydney later on, when we had our lunch in some Chinese restaurant. Kangaroo meat.)

Wombats are lazy. Didn't see much of them.

Lunch!

Oh, we went to some optical illusion thing. What's it called? Theme park? Hardly.

Defying the law of gravity.

Mirrors everywhere.

Look who's on the menu!

That's me up there. Got sabo-ed by my mum and the boys from my group. Grr... The top half is actually vertical. That means you got to let yourself free-fall for a while.

3D train.

Where's the exit? Where's the exit?

We don't knowwwww........=(

Next stop. Koala Conservation Centre!

Koala stopped to pose for photo. =)

After Koalas we headed for Philip Island to see the little penguins swim home. Apparently, the penguins will swim out to sea during the day and return home in the evenings back to shore - to their babies, eggs and holes.

So anyway, the penguins smsed our tour guide or something to say they'll be home by 5.30pm. So we went at 5.00pm and waited for almost an hour.

Sorry. No picture of penguins because they didn't allow cameras. I secretly took some pics of ourselves, but still no penguin. =( They said we'll scare the penguins and they'll get lost and won't be able to find their homes. Whatever.

Anyway, this is the pic of the beach of which the penguins swim back to, everyday.

Day 4

Going to see the twelve apostles.

Long long long journey... Got down for lunch and took some pics along the way.

Just a casual pic of a signboard of some medical clinic.

Finally reached the twelve apostles - Port Cambell National Park.

"And so I tell you, Peter: you are a rock, and on this rock foundation I will build my church, and not even death will ever be able to overcome it. I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of heaven; what you prohibit on earth will be prohibited in heaven, and what you permit on earth will be permitted in heaven." Matthew 16:18-19

Aren't cows suppose to be one of the most hardworking animals around? Why are they all slacking?

Day 5

Off to Sydney.

Not my first trip to Sydney though. Been there once when I was a little kid in kindergarten, because my dad got posted there for a while. I think we stayed at some apartment just off Darling Harbour.

1 hour domestic flight.

Darling Habour. Sydney Opera House. Sydney Harbour Bridge.

We're sitting on Mrs Macquaries Chair. Apparently there's some story to it. Something about the governor's wife having nothing to do so she just sat on the grass patch and watched the scenery everyday. So eventually they got the convicts to build some stone chair for her.

Taking a cruise down Darling Harbour in Captain Cook III... erm.. ship? Yacht? Cruise boat? Whatever.

Sydney Aquarium

Sydney Tower.

The view from Sydney Tower is beautiful.

Day 6.

Fish Market.

Echo Point.

Strong winds and drizzle.
Taking a peek at Blue Mountains.
Forcing my smile for the camera in the cold.

Day 7

Free day.

Monorail.

Tram.

Downtown Sydney.

St Mary's Cathedral, Sydney.

Queen Victoria Building.

Day 8

Home...

(Mis)adventure at the restaurant

2007-06-29T23:03:00.000+08:00

Okay, this is dumb.

My mum came home from work today, telling us all about her good friend/colleague's (mis)adventure at some restaurant. Apparently this friend was having dinner last evening with her husband and another 2 friends when they spotted a cockroach in their soup. Like omg. Can you believe it? A cockroach in the blardy soup, and they were like half way through already. So naturally they called the manager in and informed him. I would have thought the manager would have been apologetic, but no... guess what? The sonofagun told them it was no biggie and that there are people who eat cockroaches too. He also proceeded to point out to them that the cockroach couldn't have dropped into the soup for too long because... oh listen to this... because the cockroach would have disintergrated into the soup if boiled too long.

Oh my gosh. Like hello?

Anyway, the husband kinda made a big fuss at the resturant and my mum's friend whipped out her hp and started taking pictures of the soup. At that, the manager told her not to bother. She was welcome to take home that bowl of soup as souvenir. Oh yeah, he even offered them a discount for their meal, which they rejected, and paid in full. Then they headed home and immediately informed the health authorities, who took immediate action. Oh yeah, I think the manager was sacked too.

Just in case anyone is wondering, yes, this happened in Singapore. Last night.

Ben's big day

2007-06-24T00:54:00.000+08:00

Just came back from my cousin Benjamin's wedding dinner. Yey, Ben is finally married. God bless.

For people who haven't heard it from me already, my new cousin-in-law Jackie is a Korean. Actually the wedding took place earlier in the week in Korea already - which was essentially the church and traditional Korean ceremony. I didn't attend the wedding at Korea but I did watch the video today and it was darn cool. The church wedding was the most elaborate church wedidng I've ever seen in my entire life, with a congregation of about a thousand or two, together with a FULL orchestra AND choir. It looked as if I was watching a symphony orchestra concert at an enlarged Victoria Concert Hall. Darn cool. The traditional ceremony was darn cute too, with the couple donning on the traditional costumes.

Oh oh oh... apparently there's this tradition in Korea where the newlyweds have take a bite each out of a chestnut. Then they have to see who got the seed. Okay, this is the most interesting part. Listen to this. The one with the seed will get to manage the finances of the family in the future. The bride got it, of course, since she was waving this stack of money into the cameras.

The dinner in Singapore was organized by the Singapore side. Our side, essentially. Jackie's parents and sisters flew over from Korea, and I got to practise my Korean again. Haha. Oh, our dinner was held at Hilton Hotel. Nice place, nice food, nice guests. (The president of our country came) I thought grace was said pretty well before dinner. The bride's father said grace in Korean, since he's a Korean presbyterian pastor. Blessed the food, blessed the president, and blessed the country.

Oh, I was talking to one of my uncles from APB and I said I just graduated, still looking for a job and I want to join his company and be a beer taster. Haha.

Photos, photos, photos...

Lunch at Aunty Hannah's place.

Wedding dinner.

Aussie photos will be out soon...

Back from down under

2007-06-21T23:52:00.000+08:00

Just got back from the airport. The air in Singapore feels so hot. Gosh. I think my skin got used to the Melbourne/Sydney winter weather and temperature.

I'm like so tired and I still gotta go down town to hunt for a dress to wear for my cousin Benjamín's wedding on Saturday.

Will post up the Aussie pictures soon.

Night!

Leaving for airport

2007-06-14T13:18:00.000+08:00

Heading to the airport in 3 hours time, but still packing my suitcase. Going on winter vacations are such a hussle.

Back from con camp 07

2007-06-11T22:14:00.000+08:00

Yey! Finally back to my good old bed! Feels good after like 3 nights of the hard floor and crazy waking up hours. Like everyday we had to wake up at 6.30am. Who wakes up at such an ungodly hour?! Sleeping hours were at 11pm. Earliest in like at least 5 years for me, and its like Father Brian really made sure we slept. Sat there and stared at us in the dark for like a long long time, and flashing his torchlight at those who dared to defy the sleeping orders. -_-"

Okay, I hate camps in general, but this one was more than tolerable. I actually enjoyed it somehow. =) The games weren't bad, though we got like super wet during Fr Brian's station. It was like we were suppose to hold up this basin of water with our legs in the air. The basin fell on my group like 3 times, drenching us with water. In the end, Fr was like "thank you very much for wasting so much water." Grrrr....

Sessions were quite nice too actually. I loved Fr Luke's session on explanation of mass. He made the mass like as low as possible. It was like so cool and he was so funny.

The camp was fun but very tiring. I'm so not accustomed to long days anymore.

Its like day one we had sessions, games and more sessions. Ice breakers and stuff.

Day two, more sessions, more games and more sessions. We had wet games and dry games too, and we had praying-over sessions, which was really cool. Many of them were crying by the end of it. Then since it was the feast of Corpus Christi the day after, we had the exposition of the Blessed Sacrement.

Day three was like even more sessions, even more games and even more sessions. Haha! We had the scavanger hunt, in which we rummaged through the rubbish bins around church trying to find rats and cockroaches and big fat red ants. Then we had reconcilliation wif parents and washing of feet. Mum and Dad came down. Like they scared the hell outta me with their letter and they actually came down to church on both nights!!! Then I washed their feet and they washed mine. Haha! So fun and super touching.

Day four was a little more relaxing. We had a long long breakfast at my facil, Andre's house. We tapao-ed from Hup Seng. So nice..... Andre's house was like so big and his mum was like so nice. Then we had reconcillion back at church. So I did my confession to Fr Brian, face to face. I guess it was okay, since it was Fr Brian. Make me feel less nervous about face to face confessions. Anyway after that it was party time. Haha, and cleaning up.

So okay, I admit, the camp was fun. I didn't think I'll survive the 4 days in camp, but I did! At the end, I think we all felt kinda sad to end the camp, partly because Fr Brian's leaving. This is like his last con camp with IHM church. At least I know I did feel kinda sad. He's a good priest, I feel. Strict, but still good and fun and I'll miss his sweets. Those he will distribute to the kids after Sunday mass. Yeah, I'll ask for some sometimes. Of which he will say no... because I haven't been good all week. Haha!

So its goodbye, Fr Brian and welcome, Fr Luke.......

Hmm... By the way, I think i should start thinking about which ministry to join after confirmation...

Okay, gotta sleep. So tired out. Sheesh...

Trinity Sunday

2007-06-03T11:21:00.000+08:00

Its Sunday today, so the natural routine is going to church in the morning. No class today so ended up going for Trinity Sunday mass today.

Someone told me (I think its Uncle Jacob) that I gotta book a priest for house blessing, so I went and talked to Father Joe about it. I think I'm like so kiasu. The new place is like not ready yet and I'm like trying to book a slot with Fr. Haha. Anyway, I think he was quite skeptical about it when he realised my parents are not Catholics. Kept asking me to get permission first. I think he was worried, probably envisioning this scenario where he dresses up nicely, armed with holy water and bible or something and walking into this house, with people glaring at him and ultimately kicking him outta the house or something. Erm... haha. Okay, that was what I was envisioning, not him. Anyway, my parents are non-Catholics, not anti-Catholics, so house blessings are essentially a-ok. After all my parents did attend not only my baptism but also sat through Sunday mass throughout the Lenten Season. Plus, my dad was the one who kept bugging me to remember to ask Fr. about house blessings. Great parents, huh?

Anyway, we spent like the whole afternoon downtown, with my dad settling the electrical appliances and my mum and I buying the winter clothes for the trip.

Oh, I realise my stamina is bad. Like really, really bad. After shopping, I had to head home and straight to my bed. For my dad, he put on his swimming trunks and headed for the pool and gym. Can u believe the amount of energy he has? Crazy. Like totally.

Eh... I think I have to go buy a sleeping bag tomorrow. Sheesh. Mummy threw mine away ages ago. Argh.

On languages, shopping and canned drinks

2007-06-02T11:31:00.000+08:00

Yey! My Korean class has ended after 10 lessons. I don't think I'm going on to the higher levels though. Esther want to start on Spanish - her love, apart from French. Why she loves the language, I don't know.

However, I do realise that we already know half of the official languages of the United Nations. Which means we can mingle with half of the important people in the UN if we enter a UN cocktail party one day. The other half, perhaps we can just use sign language, perhaps?

Anyway, for people who are absolutely apathetic politically, the UN has 6 official languages - Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish.

3 down, 3 more to go?

Oh, I got down to the library @ Orchard. I love that place, essentially. They have an excellent selection of books. I so love the school holiday periods too because library extends borrowing items by double. This means double the books. Yey... Yes, I hear you calling me a bookworm... but so what?

Anyway, I went shopping today with my parents for electricial appliances for my new place. No choice. Interior designer was bugging us to get it done like soon.

I just realised con camp is just round the corner. I have camp phobia. How? (Erm. con = confirmation. Not convict or whatever.)

Oh, I so want to try out the Anything and Whatever drinks. I haven't got the chance to get my hands on them yet. I heard from my mum its really anything in that can and whatever flavour you get is just your luck. The thing to note is anything is carbonated while whatever is not.

Hmmm... Okay, shall zoom out now and have my maggie mee supper.

Shopping...

2007-05-31T23:49:00.000+08:00

So my mum and I went shopping today. Bought a couple of sandals.

The salesgirl serving us was quite funny. Unfortunately, I don't think she was deliberately being funny.

Mummy: (waves salesgirl over) This is a size 5. Its slightly tight. Do you have a larger size, say, a size 6?
Salesgirl: (smiles politely) Yes, this is size 5. We have bigger size. Size 9. You want?
Mummy: (blinks eyeballs at her).........
Salesgirl: (continues smiling politely).......
Mummy: You only have size 5 and 9? No size 6?
Salesgirl: Yes, we also have size 6, 7, 8 and 9.
Mummy: I want a size 6.
Salesgirl: Okay. (runs off to take size 6)
Mummy: -_-"

Oh yeah, this reminds me. Later on in the evening I had an intense conversation (like real...) with mummy on marriage encounter retreats and marriage counsellings in churches, and she started pondering over an important question.

Mummy: What does a priest know about marriages anyway?
Me: A lot. Thats why he got out of it.

Grandma's birthday

2007-05-30T23:49:00.000+08:00

Just came back from my grandma's birthday party. She's like what? 21 this year? Yeah! Haha.

My dad is like so cute. He booked the function room at my new place for the big event when we haven't even moved in yet. So essentially it's like having a party and getting people to tour your empty house with no furniture or whatever. So weird, but it was quite fun. My dad went early to work on the treadmill to get rid of the extra fats. He needs it, I guess.

Anyway, I think the function room was quite a good suggestion though. It was right next to the pool and had glass doors facing it, so the ambience was nice. Especially when the lights came on. Quite relaxing.

This is the view from the balcony of my new place.

Oh, there was also like so much food. I think my dad booked for 30 people when there were only 17 of us there. So we tapao like tons of food home, and I think we stayed much longer than we were suppose to.

On other news...

Big scandal. NKF's former deputy director, Richard Yong has disappeared. Gone missing since May 21st. Last spotted in Kuala Lumpur. What I want to know is why he was allowed to leave the country in the first place, since he was declared a bankrupt and is in the midst of the NKF scandal court case.

Yesterday night I was also reading an article which some parent wrote to the newspapers ranting about how the local universities have rejected this daughter's application. Valid complaint or just sour grapes?

Alrighty. Adelyn, out!

Hors de Prix

2007-05-29T23:15:00.000+08:00

For the first time since ancient history, I actually woke up on a non-Sunday in time for breakfast. Whoopee! Had a Big Breakfast at Macs with Esther and then headed down to PS for movie.

Esther wanted to watch some French movie called Priceless (Hors de Prix), so we went to watch it. There were English subtitles to go with it too, so everyone could understand it and laugh at the appropriate moments. Yeah, romantic comedy.

I think I read some review on the net somewhere that its an NC16 movie because of brief nudity. Now thats weird, because I seriously don't recall any nude scenes, whether brief or prolonged. Hmm.. c'est un peu bizarre. Sure, there were one or two rolling-on-the-bed scenes, which was expected since its made by the French, but nothing obscene or artistically abstract.

Anyway, the plot is about the love story between a gold-digging hooker and a waiter-turned-toyboy. Absolutely great, because we got to see a whole lot of caviar and champagne and high French living. Ah.. my kind of life, man.

So then, after the movie, we went back home, and I went straight back to bed. That's suppose to be the life after exams, isn't it? Eat, sleep, sleep, eat, eat, sleep and champagne, non?

Results Day

2007-05-25T23:11:00.000+08:00

I was telling Esther and Juliet that if today were Good Friday, it must be the most meaningful Good Friday in my entire life.

I woke up at noon and spent the next 3 hours in utter agony till 3pm when the results were finally released. Yeah, the same 3 hours of the same day of the week which Jesus spent in utter agony on the cross.

I did everything I could to keep my mind off the frustration and horror, from praying the rosary to reading the bible.

Not forgetting asking for the intercession of:
1) The Blessed Mother
2) St. Catherine of Alexandria (patron saint of students)
3) St. Jude the Apostle (patron saint of desperate situations)

Many people don't know. St. Jude is my patron saint. =p

So at the holy hour, my agony was finally lifted because the first sentence I saw was "Congratulations on your graduation! We will be printing your degree scroll soon."

Fine. Two sentences. Like I bother to count.

So essentially, the point I'm trying to make is... I have officially graduated.

Woohoo! Juliet!...... We have finally made it!!!!!!!!

Looking forward to the Commencement Ceremony on 07/07/07!

Thank God!

Get a job!

2007-05-19T23:11:00.000+08:00

"Get a job. Get a job. Get a job."

I've been hearing that from everybody everyday.

One example.

柏炜: every friday is good friday mQ9h says:
get
柏炜: every friday is good friday mQ9h says:
a
柏炜: every friday is good friday mQ9h says:
job
Adelyn Bernadette ~is unemployed.~~ says:
yes
Adelyn Bernadette ~is unemployed.~~ says:
hello
Adelyn Bernadette ~is unemployed.~~ says:
i
Adelyn Bernadette ~is unemployed.~~ says:
hear
Adelyn Bernadette ~is unemployed.~~ says:
you

Sheesh. Can't a lady get a month of peace?

I will go look for one. Eventually. Okay?

Why do we have to work so hard?

2007-05-03T13:47:00.000+08:00

My mum emailed me this. I'm assuming she wants to inspire me to work hard, since she sent me this on the day of my last paper. -_-"

On the very first day of the world, God created the cow.He said to the cow:
"Ah Gu (cow), today I have created you!
Your job is to go to the field with the farmer all day long.You will provide the energy to pull things!
You will also provide milk for people to drink!
You are to work all day under the sun! In return, you will only eat grass. For that, you will have a life span of 50 years."

Ah Gu objected.
"What.. I work all day in the sun and I get only to eat grass!
On top of that, I have to give my milk away!
This is tough and you want me to live 50 years! I'll take 20 and you can have the remaining 30 years back!" God agreed.

On the next day, God created the dog.
He said to the dog.
"Ah Kow (dog), I have created you for a purpose.
You are to sit all day by the door of your master's house!
Should anyone come in, you are to bark at them!
In return, you will eat your master's leftovers.
I'll give you a life span of 20 years."
Ah Kow objected.
" What !
I have to sit by the door all day and will need to bark at people, and what do I get...LEFTOVERS...
This isn't right, I'll take 10 and you can have the remaining 10 years back!"
God agreed again.
On the third day, God created the monkey.
He said to the monkey.
"Lao Kao (monkey), your job is to entertain people.
You will make them laugh, act stupid and make faces!
You will also do somersaults and swing on trees to amaze them.
In return, you will get to eat bananas and peanuts.
For that, I'll give you 20 years to live."
Naturally the monkey objected.
"This is ridiculous,
I gotta make faces and make people laugh let not even come to the part about the trees and somersaults.
Tell you what, I'll give 10 years of my life to thank you for my
existence and I'll take 10.
What do you think?"
God agreed again.
On the forth day, God created humans.
God said to the man.
"You are my best piece of work, for that, you will only need to sleep, eat, sleep, play, eat, sleep again and do nothing else.You will get to eat all the best things and play with the best toys.

All you need to do is enjoy all your life.
For this kinda of life, I'll give you 20 years."
Just like the rest, the man objected.
"What, all I need to do is relax and enjoy myself and I have only 20 years to live?
Tell you what, you've 30 years back from Ah Gu, 10 years from Ah Kow and another 10 from Lao Kao and you probably don't know what to do with all those lifes. Why not I take them all and I'll have 70 years to live?" God

being such good natured, agreed with a smile.....
AND THAT IS WHY.....
We eat, sleep, play and enjoy for the first 20 years of our lives when we are growing up.
Work like a cow for the next 30 to raise our family.
Sit outside the door and bark at people for the next 10 when we are retired.
And finally, we make faces and perform monkey tricks to entertain our grandchildren for the final 10 years.
GET IT ?????

Joining the ranks of the unemployed

2007-05-02T23:45:00.000+08:00

It’s over.

I mean the exams.

And I mean really over.

*pops champagne*

Good sense of humour of simply moronic?

2007-04-09T12:30:00.000+08:00

With the war being fought in Iraq and many people dying, this is what's happening in the White House. Alright, ladies and gentlemen, let's put our hands together for George Bush Junior and Steve Bridge. *claps*

Oh, by the way, I've found something else, though George Bush probably has nothing to do with it. Lolx. It's truly hilarious, though.

My Testimony

2007-04-08T02:38:00.000+08:00

Saturday Easter Vigil.

Just came back from my baptism not too long ago. The rest of the RCIY are probably still out celebrating at FX’s house now. One year has passed since we entered the RCIY as inquirers and about a year and a half since I first got the desire to want to know more about the Catholic faith.

I don’t remember ever blogging about how I came into join the Catholic faith but I do tell the people who ask me about it, the same thing. About a year and a half ago, I woke up deciding I wanted to know more about Catholicism. I didn’t know much about it and neither did I know many people from the Catholic Church. To me, Catholicism was just something very foreign. I grew up in a Methodist environment for about 13 years, since nursery when I was put into Covenant Kindergarten down at Paya Lebar Methodist Church, and later moved into the PL Methodist Girls’ School, where I studied for 10 years. Despite the constant evangelizing of the faith in school, I never really felt close to God. Well, I did believe that there was a God and I believed in Jesus Christ and I really wanted to attend church too. I made an effort once or twice, but always failed to maintain this motivation. The interest always died out after two to three weeks. I also got very uncomfortable talking about religion and about God, and would tend to move away whenever someone comes up with the topic. Two years ago, I think I did try to go to church once, but still lost the motivation after 2 weeks.

About a year and a half ago, when I decided to give Catholicism a try, I went down alone to the church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary a couple of times for mass, before settling at IHM church which was nearer to my home. I still remember the first time I went for mass at IHM. I had never been associated with the Catholic faith and I knew absolutely nothing about mass. Mass to me was a whole new foreign thing. Nothing made sense. The congregation knelt, I knelt. The congregation sang, I tried singing too. At the end of Mass, I remember walking around the church looking confused and I bumped into Father Jo. (I didn’t know he was a priest at that time. Neither did I know his name was Joseph =p) I remember chatting with him for a while before asking him if there was anyone I could contact if I wanted to know more about the faith. I remember he gave me Kevin’s number and I messaged him. During that period of time, I think my parents didn’t bother much, because they know me all too well. I would give up after 2 weeks. Kevin invited me over for Christmas mass during Christmas Eve (of course!) and he explained to me some of the significance of some of the rituals done in Mass, like why do Catholics genuflect when they enter church. I was told that they genuflected to the body of Christ, which made no sense to me at all at that time.

One of my aunts said this was indeed a true calling from God, but I wonder if there's such thing as a fake calling from God into church. Hmm...

Anyway, after a while, RCIY started and I got to know the people there. The funny thing which happened was the person who called me to get information for the RCIY was Juliet. Juliet who happens to be in the same school, same faculty, same year, same department, same module, same tutorial, became my sponsor later on.

Journeying in RCIY changed me a little, I think. Well, firstly, of course, I knew more about the faith. Secondly, some people who know me, know that I’m a loner. Kinda. I prefer to do things myself, on my own. I love to have my own quiet time, to do my stuff, which probably explains why I refused to join the Protestants for so long in my youth. I never liked the community spirit and the interaction among people.

Yet for some strange reason, I managed to stick on to RCIY for so long. Yeah sure, there were times when I felt lazy, or was simply too busy doing my own stuff that I neglected church. Yet all in all, I still managed to find a certain desire to go and interact – something which I’ve never had the motivation to do before. Ever. Then the Rite of Initiation went by. Then I did an interview with Father Brian – something which every one of us has to go through before baptism. I remembered that clearly. Fr. was tired, or at least he looked tired that night and I remember arguing about the controversial issues of abortion and divorce. I wasn’t exactly in the mood to discuss these topics that day, but I realized a short description was written about each of us on a piece of paper by the sponsors and Fr. read it out. So I had no choice essentially. Lolx.

We had a baptism camp in church too. I think the camp was a good idea really. My favourite part was the adoration room really. It was the first time entering the adoration room where the Body of Christ is placed in the tabernacle for adoration. It is a room for reflection, mediation and reading of the words of God. I think that was the time when I really felt God’s presence. One thought just came through my mind over and over again. The same words just kept pounding into my head – “Just have a little faith.” It really was God speaking to me.

The problem I had throughout the RCIY journey was that I questioned a little too much. Personality plus a little training from the political science discipline really made me into a cynical person. I was skeptical about many things and many things I argued against.

It was at that moment I really felt I got the answer to all my questions. “Just have a little faith.” Sometimes you don’t really need to think too much. Just believe in God and his teachings and somehow things will fall into place.

Over the Chinese New Year period, I met up with my grandmother, who can’t see, hear and walk very well. She isn’t a Christian, though she was born with a beautiful Christian name – Mary. She isnt’t a Christian, yet she was happily telling me that someone came to pray for her. She seemed really proud and she kept telling me “Going to church is good. Believing in Jesus Christ is good. (in hokkien).” She doesn’t know much about God’s teachings or the Gospels or what the church stands for. She doesn’t know much, essentially, but the faith in Jesus Christ was strong. Blind faith? I don’t know, but sometimes I feel having blind faith in that sense may be a blessing. She could have such a strong faith without question, without doubt.

Anyway, the season of Lent was spent without much sacrifice on my part, other than the usual Friday abstinence and fasting on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. I guess the only other thing I did was read the bible more often, and prayed the rosary more intensely, especially the period nearing baptism. I did my own research too, learning more about the faith and customs, little by little.

I was pretty excited anticipating Holy Saturday which we would be baptized and the day finally arrived. Fr. Jo decided to do all the readings, hence the long long long Easter Vigil. Vows were made, water was poured, oils were anointed, candles were lighted, baptismal gowns were worn, and shouts of congratulations were thrown. I think this moment wouldn’t have been so perfect if not for my parents (who have been super supportive throughout the one year period), my godfather (who took time off to come for the scrutiny and baptism), his family (for being so understanding), the Fathers (for all the prayers and so on), my sponsor and the rest of the RCIY (for journeying with me throughout the year) and to all my family and friends who aren’t from the RCIY (who took the time off to come see me get baptized.) Thank you all. Yeah, I know. Trying to stay alert throughout a 3 hour long service is not easy. I know.

Okay, so now I’m baptized, I can’t say I’ll live a sinless life. Lolx, but I will try to make the effort to change myself, to glorify the Father in heaven.

Oh, Jeraldine might be going through her RCIA journey this year. I hope she does go through it with conviction and most of all, that she can experience God and the intercessions of Mother Mary, all the angels and saints, just as I had. Maybe next year, I can attend Easter Vigil in which she will be officially welcomed into the church.

This testimony is definitely inspired by God, okay, because its super late now (or should I say early in the morning?) and I'm dead tired from the hectic schedules of today. I am officially brain dead, and have no mental strength to write a testimony, much less one this long.

Alright I need to sleep now. =)

Good night.

Why do Catholics bounce on one knee?

2007-04-05T04:01:00.000+08:00

The dummy's guide to the Catholic mass.

data="http://grigaitis.net/articles/guide125.swf"
width="125" height="125">

An amusing way of explaining the very complicated (but very rich in tradition and meaning) rites and rituals of the catholic mass.

Oh, its Maundy Thursday today. Just 2 days away from baptism.

Karine's present and St. Jude

2007-04-03T23:25:00.000+08:00

I was reading Juliet's blog a moment ago about how she experienced the power of God through the intercession of Saint Anthony, patron saint of lost items, and it kinda reminded me of something which happened to me just last Friday. After class, I went to the Church of St. Alphonsus aka Novena Church to get a birthday present for Karine, but I didn't get it blessed. Since I was meeting her only in the evening at 7pm, I went home. I met Esther at 6.30pm and decided to go IHM to get the present blessed. So Esther and I walked all the way there. (Yes, Karine should be grateful.) We waited for mass to end at 7pm before dashing to catch Father Jo before he disappeared into his office.

Recalling back, I think the scene was all quite amusing, with me running, and Esther just behind, after Fr Jo like a crazy little girl, going "Father!! Quick! Bless! Bless! My friend's birthday present! Urgent!" Esther was pretty amused, and I think Fr Jo was amused as well.

Anyway, yes, we were late. Very late, so we dashed outside to catch a cab. Of course, naturally, according to Murphy’s Law - whatever can go wrong, will go wrong – We couldn’t get a cab. Yeah, it was the peak hours and the cabs were either occupied or simply refused to stop. I guess we were getting frustrated until I remembered to pray, and I did. “St Jude, (patron saint of desperate causes), intercede for us!” I cried out. Well, surprise, surprise. We got a cab almost immediately. “Thank you!” I said my thanks.

This isn’t the first time I’ve prayed to a saint for intercession to God. When I’m in trouble, (or when trouble finds me), I’ll make it a point to pray to the angels and saints, and of course to the Mother of God, herself, and I’ve never failed to feel God’s grace and the power of intercession.

4 days to baptism.

Learning Korean

2007-03-31T22:57:00.000+08:00

I've finally done what I've wanted to do for ages - learn korean! I just had my first korean language lesson today at Peninsula Plaza. Thank goodness my hangover from last night's drinks weren't too bad.

Talking about last night's drinks, it was Karine's birthday yesterday. The few of us went out for a celebration. Sort of. Dinner and happy hour. Dinner was great. Drinks were great too. Guess what? I met my prof at the drinking session. Seated right at the next table. "Fancy seeing you here," he told me. "I've done your essay," I told him. "So don't worry."

Anyway, back to korean. It's just so cool to learn another new language. It's just so refreshing. Korean is like so foreign, yet so familiar, because of the number of dramas I've watched in korean. Can't wait for the next lesson.

A breather from French. Phew! I like French, but when it turned into an academic subject, the interest just goes down the drain. I guess what was why I never liked Chinese too, when I was in school. French is just killing me right now. God, help me, please, that I may have the strength to continue this last semester. I need to (at the very least) pass!

Oh, its exactly a week to baptism. Yippee.

iRack

2007-03-26T23:59:00.000+08:00

Let me introduce our newest product... the iRack.

Lolx. Funny.

Just for charity

2007-03-21T00:44:00.000+08:00

Check this out.

A comedy starring Tony Blair and Catherine Tate.

Yeah. THE Tony Blair.

Funny stuff.

He should seriously consider acting.

Maybe George Bush should do something like that too. Bet he'll be better than his double from Jay Leno's show.

American Idol 6

2007-03-05T20:35:00.000+08:00

I think American Idol has been a family thing for me. My family watches it together and basically, my parents have their own individual idols to support and cheer on every season. So basically its always like a united activity, yet war zone in its own sense.

This season seems a little dull though there are some good talents.

Like my favourite - Melinda Doolittle. Great girl, great attitude, great voice.

And look! She's singing one of my favourite songs - My Funny Valentine.

Oh, Melinda is so going to win.

Do check out Lakisha's Midnight Train to Georgia too.

Singapore vs. Thailand and school

2007-02-06T23:42:00.000+08:00

The Singapore-Thai soccer match at the ASEAN cup finals received pretty good media coverage here as well as in Thailand. I don't exactly remember when people were this hyped up about Singapore soccer. Maybe during the Malaysia cup days. However, Singaporeans' interest in local soccer just simply dwindled away, and media coverage just grew less and less.

Maybe its because of the political tension between the two countries that has caused such a stir among Singaporeans and Thais alike. People wanted to watch some action. And they got it. The Thais walked out for 15 minutes of the game and the Thai papers slammed Singapore and Malaysia for the Thai defeat.

I expected a big hoo-haa on Sunday night when our Lions went to Bangkok to play the final match. Security was tight. Then I saw the number of people wearing yellow coloured t-shirts (King's colour) and I sympathised the handful of people in red (Singapore's colour).

Yep. Thailand booed. But who can blame them? We booed them too.

But what actually surprised me was that they actually kept very very silent when our national anthem was played. I hadn't expected such curtesy, and frankly speaking, I was a little impressed. Of course when I read the Straits Times, I also realised the Thais actually stood up then. I'm more impressed.

What also struck me was the unity of Thais. Yellow-shirted and a loud roar of the Thai national anthem.

Win or lose, they deserve a thumbs-up. Honestly.

We are well into the semester here in school. I guess the stress is growing now. I can feel it. Essays are piling up. I have a french test this Friday (which I haven't started revising for). Presentations are coming. Like soon. I have to organize the career talk.

What am I suppose to do? Work is piling up.

Classic french songs

2007-01-26T00:15:00.000+08:00

I was surfing around youtube and I found the all time classic french song.

Anyone who wants to know about the french language or culture must must must listen to this song first!

My opinion is that if you don't know this song, you don't know the French.

Enjoy Joe Dassin and the song Les Champs Elysée.

Songs like that just make me fall in love with France.

Another song by Joe Dassin as well.

Et si tu n'existais pas.

Not as catchy as the first one though.

Finally, Celine Dion's Pour que tu m'aimes encore. Everyone loves the song. Everyone loves the woman. Yep. She's one helluva singer.

The mtv seems a little.... bizarre though.

Freaky? Haha.

Est-ce que vous vous souvenez cettes chansons?

Merry Christmas!!!

2006-12-25T02:44:00.000+08:00

Yey, people! I just came back from midnight mass...

Have a blessed Christmas!

Kiat Huat & Litsa's wedding - 25/11/06

2006-12-16T15:12:00.000+08:00

"So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate."

~ Matthew 19:6 ~

After a long while, I've finally managed to finish uploading the pictures of the wedding. My cousin's wedding, that is. Oh, I've raved about the video to some of you guys, so, here it is. For those of you who don't already know, its a must-watch video starring none other than my cousin and cousin-in-law. (who else?!) They filmed it beforehand and aired it during the wedding dinner. It took us by surprise actually. Pretty hilarious.

The video just reflects one of their crazy days really. On normal days, they are just boring old medical doctors.

Anyway, weddings are the most appropriate times for us girls to show off our clothes. So we went on photo spree... My mum, aunt and yours truly. =p

My Daniel Yam dress

Then the crowd starts pouring in...

The church service begins.

The groom’s parents

The bride’s mum.

Finally the bride comes.

Why does the bride look happy on her wedding day? Because walking down the aisle with the man of the first half of her life, and the man of the second half of her life is waiting anxiously at the end it. Makes sense?

“I now pronounce you man and wife.”

Lighting of candle.

“As the head of the household, you shall now say your very first family prayer.”

Family photos

The traditional tea ceremony.

The pre-dinner make-up session

The Dinner.

“Whose job will it be to wash the toilets?!”

There was dancing too.

Yes, I can see I’m pretty short.

And yes, finally, my Daniel Yam evening gown. Tadah!

Star Awards 2006

2006-12-10T22:45:00.000+08:00

It's weird. I watch this show almost every year, but everytime, my focus hasn't been on the awardees. Maybe its because I seldom watch Channel 8 dramas and I don't derive much pleasure from them, therefore I don't exactly have a clue who deserves to win what. However, every year I still watch it for the endearing wit of the award presenters.

This year, Singapore managed to invite my favourites - Francis Ng, Jessica Hsuan and Nick Cheung. Gosh, pretty amazing and very witty despite their less endearing mandarin. They walked down the red carpet during the walk-in ceremony and my heart just dropped.

Nick came and showed off his bad mandarin again but still funny.

Surprisingly, Jessica's mandarin was good, and of course her english has always been good. She looked rather pretty in her gown actually, and it was kind of weird that Nick made her bend down to pick up a piece of paper in her tight, tight gown.

Francis Ng - georgeous as ever. His mandarin and english - bad as ever.

Bringing back old memories

2006-12-04T16:28:00.000+08:00

Exams are finally gone and gone and gone. Time for a break, have a kit-kat. (Okay, that's lame.)

Anyway, the papers weren't that great and I just pray hard that I won't get what I think I just might get. This is just what my university life is all about, isn't it? It's just stress, fear and disappointment. The cycle just repeats itself six times. Sometimes I don't know, I just don't know. I don't profess to be the most hardworking person on earth. In fact, I'm far from it. If you were to measure the distance between the most hardworking NUS student to a pig, I think I stand much closer to the pig. However, sometimes I don't think I deserve the marks that I do. Essays which I've really put in effort to do countless results always receive undeserving marks whereas, those which I expected to do badly always turn out much much better. Why? Why? Why?

Sigh, nevermind. It's all over. At least for now.

I really wish I were a kid again. I really miss being a kid. I remember the days where I stressed over my partner crossing the line we've drawn across our table, or who reaches the canteen first. I miss the times when my afternoons were spent watching cartoon network. I use to love this Japanese anime called Akazukin Chacha. I don't know if many people watched it, but I sure enjoyed it. I recently found it again on you-tube. Brings back good old memories.

I use to detest being a kid because there were many things which I couldn't do. Now, I can do basically anything but I have to do things which I don't want to do. They use to tell me that when I go out and work, I will miss coming back to school. I didn't believe them. Now I do. I can't stand the stress of handling work; but neither can I stand the stress of school either. So when people ask me what I want to do after next semester, I get so tired. I don't know. I don't know. Don't ask me.

Oh, whatever. I'm going off to sleep now.

I'm just so tired.