counting my blessings

HAD A MARVELOUS WEEKEND

2 day 1 night spiritual convocation

felt so good to finally do some catching up with God after falling behind so much over the semester. we listened to like 8 sermons over the whole duration of the convocation. each and every one of them were all so edifying, i really liked it, especially the sermons on peace. // John 14:27 - Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. // i had some good fun catching up with my church friends too. i nearly forgot how crazy they could be

manna choir sang the hymn that julia / amanda / rachel / elle / kevin chen / wilson and i learnt together back when we were all in the choir 5 years ago. rachel told me, ‘be prepared for a surprise’ just before they sang it. when i heard zihuan play the first chord on the piano a wave of emotions overcame me. it sounds a little wimpy but i thought i was going to cry. so much has changed over these 5 years. i have done the stupidest things, i have found so many new friends, i have been blessed, i have gone through so many rough patches, i have done so many things against God, i have learnt so much from spending a total of 12 weeks in church for camps and have made so many good memories, i have grown in faith, i have lost my faith, i have believed, i have doubted, AND I HAVE BEEN SO, SO LAZY. yet over this 5 years God has never failed me. He has blessed me, He has given me the Holy Spirit and He has taken so much care of me despite everything. when i thought work was going to overcome me in year 3 and the past semester, He kept me calm during the storm. i have never faced something so major nor studied so hard and yet remain so………. serene. i have found so much joy in listening to sermons, and i can’t count the number of times God has comforted me through prayer. every time the worst news hit me……. i know He’ll be there

the choir sang on the sunday afternoon and my favourite one was this hymn called 主爱. the lyrics are really moving.  one of the deacons in our church wrote the lyrics, and this other brother wrote the tune. though it may not have sounded perfectly pitched or whatever, it was so beautiful. they sang the hymn before holy communion, a perfectly apt occasion and reminder of greater and better things.

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anyway. THIS IS ME AND DANNY BOY!!! we have been friends all our lives and most of my memories of such spiritual convocations as a child have her in it. come to think of it she really is my longest friend. she makes me feel like i have a responsibility to care for her regardless of how often (or not) we talk to each other, and it just feels like we have this tie (or God’s blessing, really) that has kept us together over all this while. she is really one of the most beautiful people i know inside and out. amazing how we have both grown and matured so so much over all these years xx

 

thank God for a blessed weekend, really. so glad i had a chance to go for it.

tonight’s the kind of night

HI it’s been a while

there’s a blog i read every time i don’t feel like updating, and the blogger is great at making me come back each time. i love how he summarizes his life so well / the pictures he takes of his daily life / his willpower to blog so consistently. exams ended 3 weeks ago and i have been doing so much more now that the work load has diminished by so much + life is less tumultuous, so here’s a image-heavy update.

1. raffles runway
my first time at a runway show ever and my first time watching rproject creations being strutted around on stage, complete with a latin theme memento mori, which is latin for remember your mortality (or in simpler english, remember that you’ll die). they had this black and white theme going on. i thought the creations from the darker end of the color spectrum were more interesting. i zoned out quite a bit when they were showcasing the white outfits i didn’t think it was all that exciting but i know it’s probably the first time some of them have made anything and i’m proud nonetheless. plus i probably couldn’t have done a better job anyway. i got bored uploading the pictures so if you’re dying to see more go on my facebook/flickr

the models weren’t particularly amazing or anything, they barely stopped to pose for any onlooking cameras to snap some shots or for anyone to properly appreciate all that hard work, sweat and money the designers making all that.

despite saying all that i’m definitely going next year and if i can i’d love to go as one of the rproject designers

this is yuming and i thought she and the dress were a gorgeous pair

 this was by the winning designer. if i’m not wrong it’s a silk shirt painted by the winner him/herself. i also learnt that the model’s name is abraham, that’s pretty cool

this hottie merissa over here was my date for the night. we fought over who was going to wear the black skirt since we both happened to get one. BUT meh, she won so i wore my green dress from oakham market.

 and SURPRISE SURPRISE munlin, yihui and siling happened to be at the show too

the second girl is shawna and i thought she should’ve won. she did the two dresses below and two others which in my opinion were really original. a big fat kudos to her creativity,  i doubt i will ever be able to achieve what she has

that black dress is part leather and part sheer, one of my faves

and this is min yi in what i thought was the most intriguing white outfit (it has fake bugs on it)

that’s amanda kuan and i think she made the dress she’s in

yarp that dress has a dream catcher on the back

merissa is one of my favourite people to photograph in the world
2. ORA aka our school carnival
which i think they might have renamed to raffles fest this year since that’s what the shirt says but i can’t tell. best ora out of my 4 years in rgs. i did the walk-a-jog with humaira, amelia, faith and ryushda and then we all just hung around till it more or less ended.

THIS IS AMEAZ she is my most favourite lab partner in the world and a really good friend, i am so glad i have her in my life.

AND HI MEET MY GANG. never a dull moment with them. we got bored and so we started piggybacking one another + running up and down the hall, it had to be the best thing i did at ora.  can’t believe i only discovered how fun piggybacks were then (yes my first time being properly piggybacked not as a child and yes im deprived)

i really cant imagine how jc will be like without them consistently around SIGH guys i’m going to miss you

this is tessie : ) she came for ora and we had fun yay. don’t you think we look alike?? we used to have this thing where we’d tell people we were long lost twins (helped quite a bit that our birthdays are only 4 days apart). and in primary school we used to play catching and all that and she wouldn’t stop sweating, it was pretty gross (also i remember nat and ang being way to slow and always getting caught). and how we’d go to the counselling room to get pancakes with sugar because free food is good food. those were some fun times

and this is teddy : ) he’s an amazing friend and we’ve been through so much together that it’s hard to believe i’ve only known him for a year. one of my favourite people to be around. check out his shirt hahaha

the prospect of seeing mr angullia dunked/in a wet shirt drew so many people it was quite scary

june set up a tattoo booth @ ora to raise funds for an old folks home. i’m really proud of june and nat for taking time to scour for the machine and designs, set the booth up and sit there for such a long time working on all the sweaty arms all for a good cause. june if you’re reading this I HOPE YOU KNOW THAT I’M PROUD OF YOU

come to think of it i think we barely go anywhere without a guitar of some sort, which brings back memories of our not-exactly-existent GUITAR STRUMMING REBEL CLUB (the brainchild of amelia and i while we had one of those ‘night high-ness’ things going on)

@_bhadgirl and i wanted to tattoo bump each other in class so we did it on opposite arms hahaha

THIS IS WEILER he is the new side view for sky bubble tea

3. OPEN HOUSE
since barely anyone actually checks the table tennis booth out year after year we had some fun among ourselves. my juniors have an amazing knack for making laugh really hard, sometimes i do wonder what things would be like if i were born a year late

good morning and welcome to our booth says mel

‘let’s pretend we’re laughing’ ‘okay go’

yeah now imagine these sort of pictures in a billion other varieties

RICHARDSONIANS R U REAAAAAAADY?!?!?!
also my impression of the song superbass has been very greatly transformed by them, i can never see it the same way again

WE BUCKLE CHEERIOS R HOT TO GO AND WE’LL TURN UP THE HEAT

come let us waddlian cheerios give you a hug
4. HOUSE

since exams ended we have been having house practice one a week and boy i think i really enjoyed myself. in retrospect i think house has really impacted my life more than i thought it would these 4 years. i wish i had taken mass dance more seriously / been less serious during house practices or (‘siaaaaaan’ like we always put it) in year 1 because those were actually some good times. my first year in house committee in year 2 was really the best year though, i thought that year had the best sec ones. this year’s comm has improved so much compared to my previous years as a commer. everyone’s so full of energy and all that, really love it. also i realize how much i love doing the cheers from other houses.

since this year we learnt the mass dance for what makes you beautiful, every time the song comes on i can’t help but feel like dancing to it. all the 1D-ness of it all has rubbed off and now i am okay with 1D songs. i surrender, they are beyond catchy

LAST HOUSE PRAC sob

maria’s teeth 2 kool 4 skool

GO BUCKLE
5. my happy place

topshop @ raffles city 

second best

‘live with the humility that there are always people better than you, work with the faith that you can beat anyone if you put your heart to it’

runway love

spring 2010
alexander wang
louis vuitton
chloe

/ a.wang girls / vuitton hair / chloe pockets

spring 2012
haider ackermann
/ the drapes

jil sander
/ texture

stella mccartney
/ paisley prints

proenza schouler
/ cutting + the prints

been spending my time on harper’s bazaar checking out old runway trends. the site shows so many sweet runway collections, really wish i could design or make stuff like these someday.

opening was just the start

one red thread
3 rounds and a sound

i think i’ve posted these before, but they really bring wonderful memories back. one of the best nights of my life. what a gem, really, this band.

you make it real
dream on hayley

when his voice started playing from my speakers last night i stopped in my tracks and was stunned; his voice is too beautiful. i can’t believe i only just heard him.

fire

i did a post and hated it so i got rid of it

this is me saying hi

been having great great days

unintentionally went to esplanade yesterday (long story), and ended up catching two gigs, one by local band ‘cross culture’ (THEY ARE AMAZING), and another by a local blues band which name i didn’t catch. really enjoyed the music and the atmosphere. best part of the night was probably running through city link mall like a boss because it was pretty late, and half-hating myself in advance for the blisters i thought i might get from my shoes (i got none, thank God). really liked spending all that time alone too.

this is cross culture’s first single, ‘will you’. they are a christian music ministry based in Singapore, and they have pretty sweet voices. check out their song! i really like the voice of the girl who sang the chorus. they sounded even better live at esplanade. the lyrics really got me thinking about my journey as a christian this year. i hope they post more videos.

one of the best friday-sundays i’ve had in a while

so basically

these two weeks have been insane and i have emerged unscathed GO ME

glad im getting to know my deskmates mira and humaira better (HUMIRA YAY) they make my days at school so much more fun. i shot a bullet (with a nerf gun) at ms loh (chem teacher) on friday, it felt freakin good and beyond liberating and we were laughing so hard because it flew sliiightly above her head and she didn’t realize a thing

edited 200 odd pictures of 24th april’s finals ///// heart aches a little knowing that it’s the last season i’m spending with rgtt / cant stop smiling remembering all the things we did that day

4 more weeks till the holidays I CANNOT WAIT!!!! so many things i have in mind that i want to do, eg. sign myself up for some sewing classes, spend time with good friends, FLY KITES AND HAVE A PICNIC (i really want to) and maybe go to bankok or something i dont know

yeah okay this is a post with nonsense in it

wonderful day today

bye

junk of the heart

do your best and forget the rest

thought i might feel more liberated than this but i was wrong

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listening to episode one of the uk audio comedy ‘the unbelievable truth’ now. in the midst of lies they hide true facts, while a panel try to distinguish what’s fact and not. this is really funny, it’d be so cool if local culture was pro-humor like this

also: did you know that bees have 5 eyes

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catching the kooks in july when they come. psyched!

steal some cover shed some skin

Sundays are the best / favourite day of my week

it’s nearly been a year like this and i hope next year things stay the same. it’s amazing how some things in life you never expect to happen turn out fantastic

who are you

4 hrs career workshop in school today with the class. we got results for our personality quiz back

i am ‘communicative’, high in influence, enthusiastic, expressive and spontaneous. also i like talking and i am always texting. though ambitious i hardly ever follow through with projects that i embark on. i tend to lose concentration and miss out important details while analysing information. the dominant person shoots her hand up to answer a question, but people like me shoot their hand up and then wave it around. we’re the kind of people who shout the answers out, and its from people like us that usually where you hear all the wrong answers shouted out from

anyway…. IT IS ALL SO TRUE. humaira and faith were laughing at the speaker’s examples of I(nfluential) people because i am the epitome of one // all my other aspects (dominant, stable, conscientious) are so much lower in comparison. in some of the graphs they turned out negative in relation to ‘I’

it was interesting seeing what everyone else got and the kind of people they really are. we saw one another’s secret fears, motivations, possible career choices and stuff like that, and everyone was screaming “YES” “THAT’S SO TRUE” etc, it was amusing.

what we thought was going to be extremely boring turned out to be an a pretty amazingly spent saturday morning after all. love my friends and how we all complement one another when we come together