tuesday
it was a weird stressful period of no stress and then the last paper was over and it was alright to have no stress again. right after the paper we hunted for the cinderella gown for agnes-rella's birthday surprise (i wonder who's got the photos?) and had a totally hilarious birthday celebration combined with bible study that night, complete with the evil step-sisters, the glass slippers (cling wrap), the golden hair and the pumpkin carriage! the poor birthday girl thought she had appeased us by wearing a dress on sunday (because we made her wear a dress last year) but she didn't expect that we would upgrade to a gown! next yr she'll probably meet her prince charming and wear a wedding gown! muaahahha
wednesday
we had boardgames night at agnes' apartment where i had a tough time getting my laundry done. i like the wallpaper feel of the place! i rem xin wanted wallpaper and broken stone pavers in her dream home. i had to stay over in the end (with bixia and tiff) and stayed up till 3am just for the laundry. but still, i was glad that nothing shrank and the girly chat was quite fun :)
thursday
we woke up early the nxt morning to have macdonald's breakfast with tiff before she went off to work. i still think hungry jacks is nicer. then i trained up my biceps by carrying two huge bags of laundry home. had dinner at tofu shop again with adele, lynn and rodney and got told off by the anxious adele again when i revealed i think i might be falling sick. hahaha
friday
had breakfast with lynn and graces at cumulus. i was amused at the wobbly egg :) the morning walk was nice :) found out that agnes has suspected swine flu. so she couldn't go for winter camp in the end :( was instructed by agnes to sterilise my apartment by boiling water with a bit of vinegar in it. started to have an itchy throat. hmmm. so i went for a run - my own prescription for all kinds of illnesses. ok actually to prepare for the buffet and the large amounts of food intake over the next week.
saturday
went to buffet organised by jon liao. it was supposed to be grace and huien competing who can eat more, but both of them were sick so they decided to just eat normally. 4 of us were at the sick table. found out that lynn was down, william and keene were feeling unwell too. that night i struggled with the decision whether to go for winter camp as i was starting to develop a cough and getting phases of headaches.
sunday
went to church in the morning and found that william and grace decided not to come for camp as they were sick (just in case it was swine flu). was quite sad so many fell sick and couldn't come last min. winter camp started with a bang-bang game, whacko and m&m intro. then we had pizza-making competition! was really fun and it's like another buffet again! felt so stuffed and smelt like a pizza after that.
sunday-thursday
i love my group in winter camp. we are in love. as in we are in Love ;) and we have a khoo leader paul. 80% of our discussions are taken up by debates between the 2 pauls. haha ok that's an exaggeration. but anyway he is a dictator and he's just so hilarious in his own way. it was nice having mabel and zhikai with us for a while.
grace and william managed to come in the middle of camp after getting better. keene had high fever but managed to recover during the camp too and didn't miss any messages at all! my itchy throat was totally distracting the 1st day but it got better after the 2nd day.cong lin joined us right after she got back from adelaide on tuesday :) the new dorms were terrific! they were like chalet - you have to take off your shoes when u enter, and each room has its own ensuite toilet and heater. the main sliding door and the smell reminds me of ahyi's house - luxury and bliss :) camp messages were on Holiness, topical messages were on roles of men and women, and pain and suffering, and we had workshops on prayer. lots and lots of small lessons learnt, but think the thing that really touched me is the edification of the saints :)
thursday-friday
got back to drummond from camp, dropped some stuffs and off we went on a road trip to portland. weiyong drove all the way, with lynn and graces in charge of food at the back and me enjoying the view and at a strategic spot for deaf people at the front. it was the healthiest roadtrip i've ever been to, credits to lynn. we had 3 loaves of bread (olive bread, fruit and nut bread and a baguette from Browns), tuna, salad; cereal and milk for breakfast and oranges. weiyong's weather forecast was showers clearing whilst lynn checked hailstones, so we were really clueless what lies ahead. in the end, the weather was totally amazing. it rained whenever we were in the car but cleared whenever we were out and we saw more than 3 rainbows that day. it was a really fruitful roadtrip - we had karaoke, played daytona (in the car), watched a movie (at the cabin), toured around the world in a day (the landscapes we passed by resembled scotland, ireland, america etc), learnt the lesson of "On Christ the Solid Rock i stand, all other ground is sinking sand" (from the sand dunes), and lynn learnt how to drive manual! oh and it's the first time i actually saw hailstones on the way to the cabin lodge on thu night. thanks weiyong once again for planning! it was good daddy-training for him :)
see details here!
saturday-present
it felt really weird to be back in the city and back home. didn't manage to finish unpacking. was knocked out the moment i hit the bed. on sat, spent the whole morning checking my email accumulated over the week, then went to workshop conducted by ss for the rest of the day. ytd after choir we went for dinner then went to william's hse to play till late. think heidi's observation is true - flautists are good drummers. melody's the most steady drummer i know so far and she was originally from flute section! i wonder why. finally finished unpacking everything this morning at 4am and got groceries. still got to clean up the living area - the clumps of dust are starting to show. and i got to start doing my resume and get some work done soon. i don't think i can ever lead a jema-lifestyle. 'what style?' graces would comment. haha
was quite interesting trying to figure out whether agnes actually had swine flu and monitoring who's down and who's up once more. thank God for the answered prayers. He has done exceeding abundantly above all that i asked or thought :)