1 week to CA2

Notice:

--- 1 week studying break ---

P.S. doesn't mean i'm not checking this page.. =P means less frequent updates? =P

My grandfather entered hospital again. Makes me think about the frailties of life.

Back to my books.

Last Cell Group

Closed our last cell group session for this academic year yesterday. It was with mixed feelings as I led closing prayer yesterday..

- Relief, on 1 hand, that my foray into cell group was nearing the end of its 1st , and hopefully many, phase (for even though its been many sessions, i sometimes still find myself trying to hard to be.. someoneelse. Maybe i should be content with who I am? Then where does improvement come in?)

- Happiness, on knowing this wonderful group of friends!! The many pple who have walked in and remain in my life in Medicine - Maureen, Daniel, Leonard, George, Dyan, Mark, Ian, Chris, Teresa, Serena, Pearlly, Nat, Denise, Val, Ernest, and many others along the way. You all have played a big role in colouring my life in this first medical year.. =)

- Fun, on reflections of the wondering carolling experiences, and our many outings!! Autumn festival mooncakes, Christmas dinner, steamboats.. Couldn't have asked for more! =)

- Satisfaction, that i have ventured out of my comfort zone, to experience God's grace & working hand through my role as an RS. I feel that I have grown, if not, a little closer, to Him, and i feel that i have indeed made the right choice of volunteering in the capacity of RS. As Barry said, "How are you going to find Him, if you are not active in finding Him in the first place?" This further reaffirmed my decision. Thanks Barry!

and many other feelings of joy and happiness.. I really look forward to the many upcoming events after the CAs & 1st PROs, and in the new academic year!! =) I know that He will continue to guide me along his way..

Gosh.. I love the Citigems Ad featuring Fiona Xie & Joanne Peh. Though highly cliched and predictable, it is still very heartwarming. =)

CNY.. a time of fun & feasting? Let's not forget our families!! Had my family's reunion dinner yesterday.. =) was really great =) even though we do have sit-down family dinners quite often, somehow, the atmosphere is always different, more cosy and comfortable, especially during reunion dinners. Headed down to the River Hongbao @ Marina Bay close to Suntec.. Its kind of a yearly 'ritual' where we'd head down after dinner to catch the sights and sounds.. =) look at the exhibits on display, mingle with the crowds, wishing wells, sale booths, God of Fortune.. basically just to soak up some festive spirit! =)

This year's River Hongbao isn't as big scale as last year's though it held more content, which I thought was quite meaningful & interesting, especially the one on marriage traditions of various dialect groups.. =) Anyway, we trooped down to Chinatown after that!! Haha.. to join the crush of pple thronging the tiny narrow streets of Chinatown.

Managed to sneak in some last minute CNY goodies shopping.. =P the cookies, biscuits, pomelos, flowers and other whatnots were going at less than half-price than usual.. =) quite a steal.. =P of course.. the price to pay - getting a free slim wrap from the crowds thronging the place -_-"" there's almost no place to walk freely without stepping on someone's toes or your own toes being stepped on..

This year's CNY decorations @ Chinatown look much better than the previous years.. Haha.. =) must make it a point to bring my digicam down 1 day before the end of CNY.. =) And thank goodness for the NEL!! =) Since its inception, heading down to Chinatown has never been easier.. =) My family even made it back home quite early.. =)

Hhmm. First day of CNY. Cash registers weren't exactly ringing off the tills.. -_-" but then my mom reminded me that red packets aren't for the $$$. They're for the blessings!! =) how true indeed. * Must learn to count my blessings more ~ muses * Haha.. more blessing please!! Gosh.. i can be so shameless.. =P But seriously..

Stuffing myself silly from all this food.. Ack. Must drink more water.. bleah.

Oh yah.. AR6 just ended its run. Blast. My favourite team - Kris & Jon, didn't win. All because of a stupid cargo train crossing. -_-" Oh well.. The good news is that AR7 is coming!!! Yay yay yay.. Premiering in March.. Ack. AR7 vs CA. Sighz. Why me. Off to bed~ Another day of visiting & travelling tomorrow.. Actually in a few hours time. Wateva. XD

"New Year" - new beginning

Had ICS yesterday with Prof Ho TF. She surprised all of us by giving each of us a mandarin orange each, and she kindly gave Yeelin a box of biscuits, knowing that she wasn't going back to M'sia to celebrate CNY with her family. Wow.. Even though it was a small gesture, I was really touched and impressed with her kindness and thoughtfulness. Guess you can never judge a book by its cover, indeed. Appearing cold & fierce during lectures, Prof Ho is actually quite a nice person.. =)

Had cell group after that.. Keenan joined our cell group.. -_-"" eep. i was almost sweating.. Although I knew him more or less personally, it felt really weird. Maybe that's why I left most of the talking to Chris yesterday.. Thanks Chris!! Our spoof of "WWTBAM" went quite alright i tink.. Only that most of the people actually knew the answers! Or maybe Chris & i were not so good at coming up with substitute wrong answers.. lolz

Today's CNY eve already.. I feel time slipping by faster than usual. Had Anat tut with Prof Ling again. As usual, it was quite clockwork - he made things seem to easy to understand and so organised. Absolutely powerful. Wonder wat i'd do without him. We gave him a CNY card & a pair of oranges.. =) Could tell he was quite surprised and happy.. =) yayz.. =)

Haha.. Ben gave Prof Voon oranges too, and we accidentally disturbed his tutorial session.. =P Prof Voon was quite gracious abt it though.. =) he came out and offered his tutorial group and us "brains" - walnuts.. -_-" gosh. u gotta miss his corniness..

Oh well. CNY. Looking forward to reunion dinner tonight and stuffinf myself silly over the next few days.. Whee~ Wishing everyone out there reading this, a happy & blessed Chinese New Year!!

Photo Post!!

Took some time to put up a few selected photos of the class steamboat last Saturday. As i look back at the photos, i felt kinda wistful, looking at the fun we were having, and then tinking of the happy times in JC.

Life passes really fast indeed. Its just that we get so caught up in it, the things and people around us are gone before you know it.


Our 'stars' of the steamboat - Weileng & Anhui leaving for Aust and Matt's birthday..



Finally.. some food.. =)



And more food.. =)



A pic of Bing Kiat, George, Junrong & me.. Its been a while, but they still look the same! =)



2S03E's aspiring future doctors..

And a final photo.. The most important one!! =))



~ Life is short. Lose not your way. ~

Steamboat #2

Round 2 of the pre-CNY festivities got under the way yesterday @ Chris' house.. again.. Not that i'm complaining.. =P he's nice enuff to let us use his house, and my house isn't all that big either.

It was nice to see quite a lot of the pple from 2S03E again, especially George, whom I'm sure i haven see for at least a year. =) and i realised that some things don't change much.. Haha.. =) still "bridge-deprived", we played quite a few games of bridge.. Haha.. Even to the resort of having to be dragged to the steamboat dinner.. =P

Anyway, yupz.. Steamboat.. Chris' uncle from UK joined us in the yu-sheng tossing. *wonder if he though it weird that there was no base of carrots & radishes..* (I still insist that there should have been a carrot-radish base! =P) But oh well, it tasted quite nice all the same.. =P must be the peanuts and crispy bits and pieces..

Last nite's steamboat more a more massive affair than the previous Sunday's CMS one.. there were more pple, and things got quite messy after a while. On the upside, since i was sitting at the corner, quite a distance away from the nearest steamboat, Serine was really nice and helped me get food all the time~ Thanks Serine!~ Haha.. tai-tai training @ SMU has really proved invaluable.. =) so much that Dennis even commented that Serine has learnt the art of looking politely interested in a conversation when her mind was obviously wandering far away; and Cheryl and Anhui tot she'd make a great future mum (which i agree.. =D)

Oh yah.. anyway, last nite's steamboat was to send off Anhui & Weileng, both heading to Australia for further studies.. Here's wishing you all the best!!! Haha.. hope you have lotsa fun over there, study hard & play hard, and come back and haf more steamboats & dinners with us.. =P Although i rarely talked to Anhui in JC days, i must say that somehow, having not seen the other party for quite some time, you do chat a bit more than normal.. Nice.

It was nice too see the other guys too.. =) heh. BK & JR are still as humourous & wacky as before.. Glad to see that all of them are more or less "having fun" - ok, means not dying badly, in NS. George, CY & BK are even in the same camp.. Haha.. wat a coincidence.. =)) and we ended up crapping through the later half of the dinner..

Post-steamboat: back to bridge-mania.. Ack. Guessed my hands were quite itchy not having touched a pack of cards for such a long time.. BK, JR, George, CY and me were almost fighting tooth and nail to play bridge.. Haha =P.. so much that we ended up playing almost till midnite. Eep. Then again, many thanks to Chris' dad who drove us out to Clementi MRT.. Fortunately, managed to catch a train all the way to Outram Park.. to meet a closed NEL station. -_-""""""

Oh well.. cabbed home all the way after that.. not so bad. Wonderful night.. A pity nice things don't last as long as they should.


Another piece of art from Christopher's digital photo library.. =)

Busy Weekend Part II

Sunday was busy busy also.. Ah.. Early morning church service + piano lessons. Coupled with family lunch.. Highlight of the day was CMS pre-CNY steamboat at Chris' house!! =)

Met Teresa @ Bishan around 2.40pm.. Was gonna guide her to Clementi.. Fortunately we waited for Serena, then headed down to Clementi, albeit slightly late.. -_-" Haha.. at least Chris also late.. So we went Clementi NTUC to shop for food. Most of the food were already bought by Chris' mom, so we just bought the fruits, veg, and some other foods.. And lugged them back to Teresa's car. (Thank goodness for her car.. Couldn't imagine lugging such heavy drinks all the way to Chris' house..)

Yepz.. So after that.. Washing vegs!! Preparing food, slicing, dicing and peeling..


(L to R: Teresa, Serena & me)

and some mysterious hands?!



Yepz.. Then we played pictionary!! =) Haha.. Chris and I teamed up and were quite powerful.. We lapped the others, and was on our 3rd round while they were still on their 2nd rounds.. lolz Somehow, pictionary morphed into Charades, and i realised that my charades isn't v good.. =P was tasked with "fairy godmother", so i tot i'd act out cinderella, pretending to scrub the piano and pointing to my shoe.. and all of them thought i was a boot polisher.. -_-" Even worse! When i started waving my "wand", they thought i was a fisherman!! -_-"""" Of course, and the horror lists goes on.. Haha.. camels which look like sets of teeth, upside down mountains.. =) Had so much fun!! =)

Dinner started at 7pm after most of the pple arrived.. =) guest-list went smth like: Serena, Tracy, Teresa, Ernest, Denise + George, Leonard, Maureen, Daniel.. Quite sizable.. Yayz.. =) Tracy bought those delicious mochi ice creams that went for 21 for $7.90 with 7 diff flavours!! Yumz.. =) Luckily we managed to finish up most of the food.. =)

Oh.. and Chris' mum made this really special dessert - Coconut konnyaku jelly with coconut fillings.. really special and fragrant.. =) yum yum.. Haha. the rest will get to try it this Saturday..

And of course, after dinner, there's always the gossiping.. and photo-taking.. =)


(L to R: Teresa, Denise & Serena)

Taking foreva to settle for a nice pose.. -_-"


Finally!! (Guys, L to R: Ernest, Leonard, me, Chris, Daniel & George)
(Girls, L to R: Tracy, Teresa, Denise, Maureen & Serena)

Hhmmm.. Left quite early cos we had school the next day.. Oh well, i'm sure there'll be something equally fun after the exams.. Yepz.. Looking forward to this Saturday's Class steamboat, same time, same place.. =P