Birthday! お誕生日おめでとございます！

Received many blessings this year! =D

Celebrated with my jc girlfriends on 7 June 2008 Saturday. Ate at Marutama-Ramen at The Central. 美味しい! Had a great time catching up, and also did window shopping together, then finished up with a drink at TCC, with many many presents. Laughed so much that night :D

My bro-in-law bought a photo album for me... really timely, coz I'm finishing up my current photo album very soon, and I'm going to wash the trip photos le... Thankies! :)

CG also celebrated my birthday last Thursday. Had a really scrumptious peppermint-chocolate cake! Also received 2 pairs of really beautiful earrings! Thanks Louise for 'eyeing' them as presents... very useful for choir... 感謝します :D Ziwei and cell group also prayed for me. Really hope to find a passion that I'll want to pursue for life!

Went to my parents' house yesterday to celebrate my birthday. Mummy whipped up a really mouth-watering array of dishes. Slurped up all my 熬很久的补汤 and ate till I was round :p Mum's cooking's the best! Pa wanted to eat out again today to celebrate, but I reassurred him home-cooked food is enough. I can eat out anytime, but I don't always get to savour mum's cooking. Adrian also bought a bottle of Baileys for me. Interesting concoction of whisky and milk. Really expensive man. Eyes popped out when I saw the price tag (he forgot to remove it only till later :p) Thanks bro for the tasty but really expensive wine! Sorry that I forgot to buy it at the duty-free after Perth trip... Totally slipped my mind. Don't even remember I forgot about it =p Will not forget it again the next time I fly back :p

Jinhong blessed me tremendously for my birthday. Even I feel pinched for him... And he's skipping today's RT to celebrate birthday with me, despite my repeated suggestions to celebrate on the more convenient coming Friday instead. No words can express my appreciation. Thanks dear :)

Received many sms and msn birthday blessings today... Thanks for remembering my birthday =D

Despite her hectic preparation for her wedding on Saturday and her honeymoon this Wednesday, my sis-in-law also bought a birthday present for me... really appreciate it! 感动 =)

My colleague, Jasmine also bought me a birthday present. Didn't expect it, coz I don't remember telling anyone at work my birthday date. Must have let slipped unconsciously =p Really unexpected and pleasant surprise. 谢谢谢谢 :)

幸せな誕生日がありました。私はとってもうれしいです。皆，ありがとうございます！ ^_^
[Had a happy birthday. I'm very happy. Everyone, thank you!]

Birthday Month...

Yes people, it's the time of the year again... -_-"

This is the first time in my whole life when I anticipate my birthday with uneasiness, coz I'm passing a quarter of a century, and I still feel somewhat aimless...

I DO NOT have a definite destiny/vision for my life!!

I have many interests, I like singing, I like watching tv, I've done relatively well in my studies both academically and physically since young, I survive at work... but somehow, I just feel lethargic these days. I used to be passionate about what I was doing. What had I been doing? What does God want me to do?

Wondering what wish I can ask cg to pray for when Ziwei asks me about it during the upcoming birthday celebration... *sweat*

Still don't feel like I have something I really really want to do, something that I will forgo sleep and pleasures and food for... *moody*

Getting crazy with nothingness :|

CosCon @ Singapore Toy & Comic Convention 2008

http://www.sgtoyandcomiccon.com/abtstcc.html
http://www.sgtoyandcomiccon.com/coscon.html

" In conjunction with the first Singapore Toy & Comic Convention 2008, the organizer PI Events and costume specialists Movie Mania are holding the CosCon @ Singapore Toy & Comic Convention 2008 for fans of all things otaku and pop-culture! "

" Fans and future-fans are welcome to attend the convention and be part of the melting pot of pop-culture. Activities include autograph signing sessions, live demonstrations and workshops with your favourite world-renowned artists and designers, a cosplay culture showcase and competitions, as well as the latest and greatest that the toy, comic, design, gaming, animation and cosplay industries have to offer! "

" In line with the international flavour of the Convention, the Competition will fall under two main themes over the course of two days (i.e. Saturday and Sunday, 28 – 29 June):

a) MOVIE (Single & Group/Family)
b) ANIME (Single & Group/Family)

The MOVIE theme will include entries from Western pop-culture (e.g. characters from Superman, Star Wars characters, Harry Potter, Lara Croft of Tomb Raider etc.). Contestants may choose to dress up in costumes related to Western comics, cartoons, gaming and other common mediums of pop-culture.

The ANIME theme will include entries from Japanese pop-culture (e.g. Naruto, Cloud of Final Fantasy, Full Metal Alchemist, Bleach, Pokemon, Death Note, Sailor Moon, Neon Genesis Evagelion etc.). Contestants may also choose to dress up in costumes related to Japanese manga and gaming as well. "

There's cosplay competition, cool! And best of all, it's free! ^_^

Australia, Perth :)

Flew to Perth with my mum and Jinhong to attend my cousin's wedding during 24 May - 2 June 2008 :)

Wasn't keen on going initially, especially after a series of events that preceeded the trip, such as expensive airfare on Tiger Airways, lousy exchange rate, winter season, heavy workload etc, but God turned everything around for good! :)

1. Expensive Airfare
Paid an extra $600 on airfare. The following Monday after I booked my tickets on a Saturday in Feb/Mar 08, there was a promotion on Tiger Airways tickets to Perth. If I had booked my tickets just 2 days later, I would have saved $600, and shortened my trip from 10 long days to 6 days. Also, it was only a very long time later that I realised my mum didn't mind the extra $100/pax to take Quantas instead, while my mum had the same misconception towards me. *sigh*
On hindsight, it wasn't as bad as I thought it was. The plane that we took wasn't full, so there were quite a few seats for us to space ourselves out, and my mum got to sleep lying down on the seats during the trip, which eased the toll of the long trip on her legs.
Further, in the end, the first few days after the wedding were spent on visiting our relatives in Perth, so if we had booked our return flight on Thursday/Friday, we would only have had 1-2 days left to visit the tour spots in Perth, which by the way, was the case for my aunt and her family. So much for the long pukey flight to and fro, right? =p

2. Lousy Exchange Rate
For the first time in my whole life, I started tracking the Auzzie dollar from mid April 2008 all the way till the day before our trip. I was usually unconcerned with the exchange rate prior to trips, but I didn't really know why I was suddenly reminded during mid April to start tracking the exchange rate. Silly me witnessed the Auzzie dollar climbing up all the way from S$1.26=AUD$1 to S$1.31=AUD$1, waiting hopelessly for it to come down. A stronger Aussie dollar of 5c would mean losing out on $40 for every S$1K one trades. Despite prayers to bring the Auzzie dollar down to S$1.27=AUD$1, the Aussie dollar peaked during the week we were travelling to Australia, due to the holiday season and an announced high interest rate in Australia. Winz right?
However, miracles happen in unexpected manner. For some strange reason, the shop that we went to exchange our currency had a miscount and gave us an extra $50, which we only realised later. This brought our exchange rate miraculously to S$1.27=AUD$1, what we prayed for!

3. Rainy Weather
The whole week that we were in Perth was supposed to be rainy rainy rainy, with heavy rainstorms peaking during the weekends. However, we were caught in heavy rain only on one day when we were at the Perth Zoo on Wednesday afternoon, and that was after a river cruise that day, with the witnessing of two wild dolphins visiting the dock where we got off from the cruise, frolicking and entertaining us for some time with twin stunts and fast swim! By the way, going south to view wild dolphins in action would cause us AUD$50/pax just for the entrance fee, not to mention the additional cost travelling all the way down, and having to wake in the wee hours of the morning so that we will be in time for the tour at 8.30am. Praise the Lord for sight-seeing wonders at a more accessible convenience :p
In addition, that cold rainy day was more than made up by clear cool cloudy skies the following day when we went to the wildlife park. We even got to rub kangaroos and koala bears! 幸福 ^_^
There was very heavy rainstorm on the Saturday when we visited the aquarium up North, but we missed all the destructive action in the safe refuge of the underwater world! :p Only knew of the extent of the destruction made by the rainstorm when I was watching the news at night. Smashed houses and squashed cars loh... *shivers* Praise the Lord for safety!
Sunday was supposed to have heavy rainstorm too, but we were supposed to go to Fremantle that day, so God blessed us with clear skies that whole day. Absolutely no rain at all, it was even a bit hot that day, HAHA, praise the Lord! :D

4. Wilful Action
On the last day that we were supposed to come back, Jinhong went to Perth City in the morning, while my mum and I met up with some relatives for lunch. Didn't know that we were meeting them initially, only thought we were out shopping, so I only brought my money pouch with me. Didn't bring anything else, no umbrella, not even my handphone. I was quite fed up with all the neverending talk-cock at the eating place (which lasted like 1h after we were finished eating?!!), and told my mum I would walk back to my aunt's home first while they continued talking. Pride comes before a fall.
Singapore is really puny in comparison to Perth. I thought the house wasn't that far off when we were driving out to the tim sum place. It seemed like just across the road. In the end, I spent almost 1h walking back. The park that is just beside my aunt's place is bigger than Singapore's Bukit Timah nature reserve! Shouldn't it be called a nature reserve or something instead of a park? Initially asked for directions to the park, but after walking super long around the park edge still didn't see any familiar landmarks. *Faint* Asked some passersby along the way and somehow got my way back to the house. From what one passerby remarked when I was asking for directions to some landmarks near my aunt's house, I must have walked a few km. Australia's housing proportion and Singapore's housing proportion really cannot be compared. The residence area that I was living in must be quite a few km in size... Jinhong was shocked after he returned from Perth City, when I told him I walked back =p Thank God for safely, and for kind people who directed my path, else I might not be able to catch my flight back to Singapore that night.

5. Relatives' Driving Blessings
Really blessed with relatives who drove us around, so that we were able to cover areas that we would not have been able to cover by ourselves. Visited famous places at the Swan Valley such as the Caversham Wildlife Park (where we rubbed the cute huge sleepy koalas), Margaret River Chocolate Factory (yummy!), and Mondo Nougats (yummy yummy!). Relatives also drove us to the Aquarium up North in the rainstorm, and thereafter brought us to the King's Park, where we took photos of the Perth riverline and walked the famous Glass Bridge. These were places we had considered cutting back on due to the limited time we had and the inaccessibility of travelling by public transport. How much we would have missed if we had really forgo them!

Perth's pace of life is more relaxed than Singapore. The people there are also more friendly, and they are more ready to offer a helping hand when one is in need. I really need to do some soul searching to walk more slowly and extend a helping hand with a smile from now on too :)

Interesting Animations

Read about DigiCon awards from one of the recent issues of Digital Life and went to take a peek... most of the winners are really quite good :)

Here's the link: http://www.tbs.co.jp/digicon/award/

Singapore has a place of honour amongst one of the winners this year... so happy :D

The success of an attractive animation is not solely attributed to superb animate effects, but also to the concept, storyline and music used by its creators.

Really well done! ^_^

Bangkok!

Just came back from Bangkok trip with Jinhong last week, and praise God for a fruitful trip! ^_^

It was really good to break momentarily from the usual hectic and draining lifestyle. No distractions, no problems, no troubles, just time spent alone with Jinhong and Jesus :D

The last holiday that I had was during my honeymoon, and since then, I've been working, working and working. Didn't notice that I didn't have a really hearty laugh for a long time until Jinhong pointed that out to me after this trip.

Had great fun shopping, shopping and shopping! :p I must say the stuff isn't as cheap as I thought they were, but nonetheless, still generally cheaper if you bargain enough ;)

I really appreciate Singapore much more after this Bangkok trip. Singapore is so much so much better in so many aspects. Really appreciate our orderly roads. Thank God for law and order. I found the roads in Bangkok quite terrifying. Motorbikes zoomed in and out in any direction. The air is so much dustier. My tee was soiled after I cleaned my spectacles on it X\

Shopping was quite fun though. Smiling is generally a good passport in bargaining, what's more in the Land of Smiles. Really thank God for good bargains, for favour and His protection on us as we toured the places :)

I must remember to eat dinner earlier next time though. When the shopping centre states that it closes at 8pm, they really mean close. Even the entrances were barred up and we had to exit the mall by the back door after dinner :p

Think my biggest obstacle during the trip was finding dinner. Other than the high end shopping belt, there's generally not much food around. The only affordable eating outlets I found around my hotel were 1. MacDonalds (It's called McThai in Thailand. Really cute seeing the Ronald MacDonald statue in Sawatika posture :p), 2. a Novotel cafe, and 3. my hotel restaurant. Even at the Platinum Center shopping mall near my hotel, there's only a food court, Swensens and a cafe. And that mall closes at 8pm sharp.

And Thais really love pork =p I can smell the pork smell even before I enter ANY of the food court. Even at 7-11, the only cup noodles I found were Tom Yum and pork flavour =p

Japanese food is cheaper and really filling though. Ate at this Zen restaurant at MBK Center. Think it's considered high end to Thais though. Most of the eaters that I saw at the restaurant were foreigners :p

One interesting thing that I learnt about Thailand is that the people there really respect their king. Can find his portrait on all the dollar notes and coins, and on and inside many buildings that we passed by or visited. Jinhong told me that if you crush a Baht note in front of the Thais, it's considered very rude, coz their king's portrait is on the note. Phew... good thing I never did such a thing. Only folded it into quarters to put into my money pouch :p

Mathematics

Was very inspired by the Maths Olympiad students during weekend service.

Sometimes, I blame our educational system for instilling a rote learning behaviour in students that stifles creative thinking. However, exploratory learning can be acquired.

I was stumbled by a number puzzle that my sister-in-law posted on her blog, and being unwilling to admit defeat, I tried to google for the answer :p
During my search, I came across this "Ask Dr. Math" forum website. I was really amazed by the elementary questions that were posted to the forum. Some of the questions I only encountered when I got to Secondary and JC, whereas they had the chance to try them out at elementary level. What's interesting was that these rules and formulas were not handed down to the students as learning mantras. Instead, they got to try some interesting "simple" questions from which they themselves later derived at those formulas unknowingly, which will help to make the connection between exploratory and understanding when they later progress to higher levels of education. Of course, some effort was also required on the students part to bring the questioning spirit further enough to ask and know more :p

I was particularly intrigued by this question that an elementary student posted to the forum : Chessboard Squares :)

At the forum, I also came across this fun game called the Polar Bear Club :
The game is in the name of the game, invented in the days of Genghis Kahn, polar bears around an ice hole. Like petals around a rose, you can count each bear's nose. (Toss a handful of dice -- about 6.) How many polar bears do you see?
Once someone guesses the riddle and can say the right number of polar bears for three consecutive tosses of the dice, he or she takes an oath not to reveal the secret and becomes a Certified Polar Bear.

I'm now a certified polar bear :D Took a long time before I managed to see it though... My colleague was much much faster... maybe I gave too many clues =p

This is the number puzzle that my sister-in-law posted : Using these numbers only once- 5, 5, 5, 1. Form a total of 24 using +, -, x or %.

Have fun :p

Detoxification

Some time back, Jinhong shared with me this revelation on my face: What's manifested in the physical is first manifested in the spiritual... What's manifested outwardly is first manifested inwardly...

That was during the time when we made up after another of my mood swings. I was then getting really frustrated with my work, with my face, with myself, and was virtually like a dynamite that exploded into dark clouds and thunders at any inclination of getting probed.

Jinhong also shared with me that God loves me, and He misses talking with me. The series of events finally drove me to action, to overcome the flesh and make a decision to do quiet time at 7.30am daily. Quiet time in the morning wasn't easy. Most of the time, I (still) find myself speaking in tongues in half-sleep mode.

My spirit is happier nowadays. Jinhong said I am more cheerful visibly, even during work. Any hatred or bitterness that I used to have is just gone. People do not annoy me as much. I'm more forgiving. My capacity also increases. I find myself more alert these days. Yesterday during choir practice, my mind didn't drift into distracted/knockout mode during prayer. I could speak in tongues the whole 15 minutes. And I was focussed on the prayer the whole time. Thank you God for giving me focus, for helping me overcome the plague of tiredness! :)

Ziwei shared during cg on Saturday that God gives 2nd chances. It takes tremendous conscientious effort for me to forgive people and not ever bring it up again. I'm glad God gives me so many 2nd chances.

Jinhong had been praying some time for my face to get better. Ever since the outbreak in March last year, my face condition had further worsened since marriage. I had tried many products, but my face just kept worsening. I even recently got antibiotics from the doctor, but the improvement was slow. God is very timely. Xiaowei recommended Avalon, a vitamin for detox, and I started taking it this week. PTL! My face condition improved tremendously.

My face got better, so I'm more cheerful. What's manifested outwardly is first manifested inwardly. I'm more cheerful, so my face got better. So Jinhong told me to be more cheerful. Haha :p

God is good all the time! :)