Surely I come quickly.

Nothing is so strong as gentleness: nothing so gentle as real strength.
-Frances de Sales

Thy gentleness hath made me great - Psa 18:35

this is a good description of ISTJ. a very true description.

just had yuanyang during dinner. the high-ness is over. now i'm jittery. i am becoming more disorganised - it shows in my posts too.

anyways, updates about what i've been up to: had a 'kickstart for career' workshop, orientation outreach, had indian food, went ikea, bixia came back, visited her mouse-hole-place, measured out tofuman's garden after a long walk getting lost in east kew (thank God for the nice sunny weather!), found out that le petit gateau is actually right opposite my old place at collins, had a heffalump party for waiye-ahma, went skiing and had a traumatic experience and thankful for a God who answers prayers :)

the new sem starts this week! but i have no lessons on mon and tue! do not covet!! hehehe

always look on the bright side of life!

was skimming through my previous blog while searching for my previous personality type record (which i didn't find in the end), and that is my conclusive note to self.

i thought i was an ISFJ last time. now i'm ISTJ.

Introverted 89%
Sensing 25%
Thinking 25%
Judging 56%

as a result of my new resolve, i shall not be frustrated at my noisy indian neighbours partying during my bedtime. instead, i shall attempt to learn some indian accent and if all fails, try to achieve the zen-ness. no matter what, i thank God i have nice coffee available to wake me up the next day.

Thank God for all who have laboured for the orientation outreach, whether in strength or in prayer. God sees your labour of love and will reward accordingly.

semester 2, my final semester! is starting soon. time to recall and wrap up my hols.

had fun at agnes' birthday
had a few boardgames night
fell sick and went to camp
a few shopping trips
road trip to border of adelaide
workshops and seminars by ss
gymania in adele's absence
started designing a bit here and there, for church and tofu-man job
started on the long journey of preparing a decent resume
organising orientation outreach
start learning to plan my own meals again
excessively active on fb
sleep accumulation program
going skiing this coming sat!

mantoman - i always read mantou man. haha obviously i love buns :)

i finally did my laundry yesterday after piling for more than a mth. still trying to accumulate the whites so i can bleach them.

rockclimbing is so fun but so expensive. swimming is so fun but so destructive for skin and hair.

if this had happened before the camp i could have shared during my turn for the red (if i rem correctly) m&m. an embarrassing thing in your life. in short, i pressed the red emergency button in order to start the jacuzzi jets. being blur and blind (without specs) and deaf (couldn't hear instructions on top of the sirens), as usual, so i don't feel very embarrassed actually (cos i cannot see the expressions of people all around). but the next time i went there, i saw another girl who did exactly the same thing, so i guess it's quite common. but still, i'm quite sure i got the honour of being the first one every to press that button, since i went on the first day the gym opened. haha!

ah! i am so dumb! i just denied myself the chance of going for 'Design Guidelines for Licensed Venues' - a world first publication to help designers, planners, architects, decorators and licensees improve safety in licensed venues through innovative design approaches.

sads. so many things i wanted to do. so many places i wanted to go to. i just missed the shelter exhibition at fed sq. so many other exhibitions i want to go to but so many other things are weighing me down. u say i could've asked for help? i tried but no one was interested. those who are able wouldn't. those who are unable would. the irony of life.

so many other things, often forgotten and recalled at a wrong time. i shall just let them float away into space.

i had a dream. we were all packed up and ready to move.

the neighbours. the singaporean accent. then the chinese accent. then the noisy indians. then the chinese accent. then singaporean accent. then chinese accent again. recently it's the indians every night. their life starts at night anytime when it's best to irritate you. agnes and i have a theory that there's a squatter settlement living next door.

why can't people just talk at a normal volume? hmmm i wonder if this is how graces and heidi's neighbours feel.

i smell like chlorine.

it's been some time since i had raisin fingertips. but i prefer to have the sky and the sound of wind and water, rather than some weird lousy music pumping away. i think they have a weird taste of music.

my fingers hurt. especially the fingertips. they are sore. and cold.

state of design festival just started.
roadtrip

it's a weird and perverted world out there.

i have a cupboard choked full of beverages, nuts and chocolate. loading up on fruits tomorrow. yays. linjiejie and waiye ahma is back today with weilinjiejie. yeays.

light festival 09

i realised this is quite an arty street. will be nice to visit during daytime some day.

it is an interesting shopping experience with huien, carol and candy at bridge road today. i spent more on food than on clothes. think it tells a lot about the people i shop with ;)

the first shop we visited was the tofu shop, where i got myself a job offer! to design a garden (which i've never learnt but everyone expects me to know how to do) for the tofu shop boss (whom we refer to as the tofu-man. haha). think it's a really great opportunity cos he seems really keen to have me do the design even though i think he knows way more than me about gardens. and he's willing to do digging and let me just concentrate on doing what i learnt in uni - to draw out the plans. and he's willing to put effort into maintenance etc, unlike all previous 'job offers' i've had which basically wants a 'no-maintenance garden' which is impossible cos all plants need maintenance. if there is no care given then it is not a garden - it is wilderness. but anyways, i don't know if i'll have the time and commitment to take up the job. as usual i'm very hesitant and afraid that i'll not be able to pull it through. will pray about it.

after that i got a high-waisted belt at dotti. i realise i've procured 3 high-waisted belts within half a yr and they are all the same shade of brown. it's the 'i need a high-waisted belt' mindset and my obsession with that reddish brown tone. now i need to convince myself that i've got enough belts to last me a lifetime and hope my reddish-brown phase blows over soon. arrr.

then we took a break and had coffee. i've been sleeping lots yet still felt sleepy so i wanted coffee, but felt so cheated by that $3.50 latte from that greek shop with the very fierce lady boss. humph!

after that i got this totally patterny-indiany-dress (i have no idea how to describe it. lets just say the style is really special) which carol convinced me that i look good in. hope i'll dare to wear it in singapore.

i lost my superman-voodoo-doll during my jog ytd :( it has been with me every time i went running, wedged against my sweating palm or jiggling from my waist. it had its share of rolling in the mud when i did my cool-downs. it comforted me when i thought i forgot to bring my keys or left my usb on the computer. farewell, superman.

yesterday while walking to drummond for bible study i realise the moon is so bright and so round and the sky is so clear.

i like the feeling of your mind being detached from your body when u run - is that the runner's high? it feels like your body is just a vehicle and your mind/eyes are riding on it, absorbing the beautiful surroundings. the fibrous fingers of the deciduous trees brushing the gradually darkening skies.

i like the rhythmic sound of hair brushing with each step, feet thudding through asphalt, dried leaves or grass. i like the warmth that steals over you despite the cold wind blowing in your face. i like the feeling of my lungs full of air. i like the peaceful stillness during cool down when you notice the still night air, when the lamps light up. i like to look at the world upside down, with the blood rushing to your head, to see the trees and people hanging off the green and grey sky and the sea of fluffy baby blue. it seems magical at times :) i like to stare off into the distance at the streetlights and headlights against the backdrop of the reddish orangy sky as the backdrop. i like how light glitters off the water, how light shimmers like stars from a city in the night. i like to lie down on the grass and feel it is alive, feel its dewy freshness, smell the earth and remember OBS, when nightfall means rest.

i realise that i like the sound of wind in my ears, when i run through the dunes. and i think it's the only place i can enjoy it cos it's the only place where u can close your eyes and run like mad and not worry about falling cos it's soft sand all around and you won't get hurt even if you fall over and roll a few times.

i realise also that it is such a luxury to be able to feel safe and comfy in the car, listening to nice music, in the company of your loved ones, enjoying the passing scenery. it is one of those feelings that i enjoy but i can never describe.

so many things to do, so little time. holidays always fly past really quickly. redeem the time!!!

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 :)