COSI: 2 to 7 Sept 2011

As we left COSI for the airport at 2pm, my heart was filled with mixed feelings. I was happy to go back to Singapore, yet at the same time, there was a certain heaviness in my heart that I could not comprehend. I wonder when we will ever see these children again, and I was reminded of what Dr Gerald Tan had shared 2 days ago.

Dr Tan first visited COSI in June this year with the Sunday School from his church, Grace Methodist. Since then, he has been making monthly visits to COSI, especially to help with the medical clinic for both COSI and the nearby villagers. We asked him what made him return so often, and he shared that after the first trip, he felt that he had to do something more for the children. With his compassion and love for the children, Dr Tan, in his unassuming manner, has been such an encouragement for the team.

The medical clinic

The prescription area

The villagers

When we first arrived at COSI, the children showed us much hospitality by running to the van and carrying our luggage to the rooms. We were rather surprised by this sweet gesture as they did not even know us yet. Throughout our 6 days there, this hospitality was demonstrated again and again.

Carol and Li Diang also shared with us the background of most of the children in COSI. Both of them are Singaporeans who have been with COSI for more than 10 years, and Li Diang had recently moved to the youth hostel about 11Km from COSI to be the in-charge for the older youths (aged 16 to 19) who are currently in high school. The children in COSI ranged from 6 to 15 years, and most are either orphans or had families who are unable to support them. Through funds provided by the Methodist Mission Society, COSI was able to provide them with food, shelter, education and most importantly, a place to know our Lord.

One of the children's dorms

Children acting out the birth of Jesus

For the most parts of our stay in COSI, it was packed with activities such as English and craft classes, talks, games and so on. On hindsight, I hoped that we had more time to interact with the children and I believed most in the team shared these sentiments as well. I also got a chance to speak to two young ladies who had just returned to COSI, from the youth hostel, upon the completion of their high school eduction and are currently waiting for application to university. One aspires to be an accountant, and the other, a nurse. They are probably the ‘first-generation’ COSI children, and it is always a joy to see these ‘success cases’ on how COSI had made a difference in their lives. However, for every one of these cases, we know that there are many more in Cambodia who are deprived of an education.

Besides COSI, we also visited the Emmaus Women Centre (EWC), which is just next to COSI. EWC provides a one-year stay-in program for young women to learn one of these two skills, dress-making or hair and beauty. With this skill, the young women would be better equipped to earn a living in the city or back at their villages. For two mornings, the team got a chance to share with the EWC women. Irene led the devotion, on Prayer, for the first morning, and Linda Lee, on ‘The Sovereignty of God’, during the second. Irene and Gillian also gave cooking and baking lessons for the women in the afternoons. Though we did not spend as much time in EWC as we did in COSI, we hoped that the devotion sessions and cooking/baking lessons had benefited the women.

On our last night at COSI, Gillian, Linda Lau and Annie had shared on how they had initially wanted to go to COSI to bless the children, but had instead ended up being blessed manifold by the children. As quoted by Wilson, “we’ll never be happy with what we have if we are unhappy with what we don’t have”, and the COSI children had made us realised that. They also caused us to realise that worship is not about the musical instruments, or how well we sing, but the joy that radiates from the heart. It is this simplicity and purity that we hear in the children’s voices when they sing, despite the language barrier.

This rings true for the village children as well, who came for the Sunday morning session at COSI, while some of their parents worshipped at the village church. Maybe we are too sheltered in Singapore to realise that there are the poor among us. Yet, seeing them, can we really say that they are poor when they know and have the greatest gift of all – our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ?

The COSI children saw us off as we boarded the van to leave for the airport, and told us to come back again. Some also gave hand-written notes and small momentoes to us to show their appreciation. I never knew these little gestures would bring so much joy to our hearts as well. As mentioned previously, we had gone wanting to do something for the children but in the end, it is them who had done so much for us. Guess we can do all the preparation we wanted, but it is God who has the final say.

Farewell...

The above pic probably came 10 months late...

About 10 months ago, I remembered being faced with mixed feelings as I was embarking on a new phase in my career.

No, it's not that I'm thinking of leaving now. It's just that a fellow colleague who will be leaving in 2 days brought back some memories of my own farewell 10 months ago.

I'm glad to have left with fond memories of that place...
Or maybe I only chose to remember the good parts...

Posted on 1 Sept, 11.30pm

Patience!!

It's been so long since I've blogged...did u missed me?? haha...

Anyway I think I've been eating so much nowadays. On Fri night, I went to this restaurant called Chilis at RWS with the girls. And just came back from a dinner cum farewell for last CG at Julven's house.

And I think I'm starting to run out of patience....

Praying....

Fragile

I think a life can be so fragile...

sometimes we wonder, why do bad things happen to good people?
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

on a happier note, Monday is over!!!
the office is so empty today. so many people on leave.

it has been a rather busy weekend:
christmas outreach at the hospice on friday afternoon
movie at vivo, followed by a friend's grandmother's wake
piano concert on sat evening

and i've bought my christmas pressies too :) :) :)

i've no idea why i'm typing in small caps today though ;P

More blessed...

to give than to receive...

Last Sat, I went to watch 'Broadway Beng' at the Esplanade with Kia.

At the Esplanade link (or whatever it's called), there was an installation art exhibition with gummy bears. Which enticed me to want to buy gummy bears, so we went to Millenia Walk.

On the way there, we walked through Marina Square and chanced upon the World Vision booth. There was a magazine stating their needs and what we can do to help. I was browsing through the magazine, which was really colourful and full of cute children.

Some stats:

Food for 1 child for 1 month in China
$58

1 goat for 1 family in Myanmar
$59

Warm jackets for 2 children in Myanmar
$14

Hep B vaccinations for 5 children in Bangladesh
$5

Support 1 family in Cambodia
$250

Feed 1 street child for 1 mth in Cambodia
$178

Sponsor a child
$45/mth

and the list goes on.....

This Christmas, what can we give?

Go fly kite??

I went for the GE Women 10K run this morning. Ok, I didn't really run, except maybe a little at the beginning. Angie and I were walking throughout most of the run. But at least we managed to complete it :)

Anyway, after that, I went for service before meeting Ting, Xq, SJ and Jason in the evening.

So we head off to Pasir Ris Park in Jason's car. As Ting puts it nicely, it really is nice to have someone who drives in the group. (Ask JM to buy a car also la..haha..)

And guess what we did at Pasir Ris Park? Kite-flying!! It was my first time flying a kite. I didn't know it can be so fun. Initially we couldn't get it flying and me, Ting and Xq were struggling with it. We almost wanted to give up but Jason said that we won't go for dinner until it could fly.

Thankfully, we had some help from an elderly gentleman, who we later found out is a member of the Singapore Kite Association. He lent us some of his own kites to fly too.

Was also thinking about the lessons that we can learn from kite-flying that can be applicable to real lives as well. When is it the time to let go or to pull back? If we let go of the string too quickly the kite will fall, yet if we were to hold on too tightly, it'll never be able to fly high. Similarly, in life too, we should let go when we are supposed to instead of holding on so tightly to something that isn't meant to be ours in the first place.

On another note, if I were the kite, then God must be controlling the string, Jesus is the string, and the Holy Spirit is the wind.


Posted on 26 Oct, Sun, 10.40 pm

Run...run...run...

Someone told me that my blog is getting too emo...haha...so I shall blog about something happier today.

Went for the Shape run with the girls today. Quite fun I guess, though I had walk almost half of the 5km. And ended up with 2 bruised big toes as I stupidly forgot to cut my toe nails.

Well, besides the obvious health benefits, I find that a run can be rather therapeutic too. Next up, GE Women 10K!

Posted on 20 July 2008, 11.30pm

Letters and memories

I was doing some 'spring cleaning' at my grandparents' place this afternoon when I chance upon some old letters. They were letters from some friends that were written way back when I was still in secondary school. Around 8 or 9 years ago?

Reading them really brought back memories and it's amazing that we still kept in touch after so many years. I think you know who you are right? It's funny how some things don't change even though we don't communicate through letters anymore. Maybe it was because of the use of other communication tools such as msn, emails and even Facebook. Yet somehow, I missed those handwritten letters. There was something about them that couldn't be replaced by electronic communication, no matter how advanced it is.

To my dear penpal of 9 years ago, did you still remember that we wrote a song together? And yes, I do keep all your letters =)

Posted on 1 Jun 2008, 9.30 pm

Commencement 2007

I attended Ting's and Jo's commencement ceremony on Thursday. It was held at NUS University Cultural Centre. I remembered the last time I went back to NUS was last year, for my own commencement ceremony. Also saw some familiar faces. People who had graduated or were graduating this year. I guess it goes without saying that I am getting older now. Anyway, we also took quite a bit of photos since we were not sure when we would go back to NUS again, if ever.

Me with Jo. My hair's longer than hers now. Hehe.

Me with Ting, and her nice sunflower =)

I think I had blogged sometime last year about how photos helped us to remember and recall events that had past. But, I'm also beginning to wonder about the validity of photos. After all, photos are rather two dimensional. As in, they only showed one side of the story most of the time; what is reflected on the photos largely depended on how the photographer took the photos in the first place. And aren't people almost always smiling when taking photos?

Perhaps at times, the best memories are the ones that we kept in our hearts.

Musical time

I went to watch Phantom of the Opera with Kia yesterday at The Esplanade. Initially, I had thought that we might have problems watching it since we were sitting at the highest floor, but it turned out to be quite alright actually.

Kia said that Raul (or is it Raoul?) is good-looking and was glad that he and Christine were together in the end. But actually, a part of me was hoping that Christine and the Phantom would be together instead. Haha, maybe it's just me who feels that way.

Anyway, in case you're wondering why I'm blogging at this time, no, I'm not using office hours to blog. Just that I'm on MC today.

Ok, one for the memories...

Lunch, shopping, dinner

The weekend is ending, really soon.

Yesterday was quite a packed day. Went to Hyatt for lunch to celebrate my bro's birthday in advance, cos his actual birthday is this coming Saturday. Then, I went over to the newly-opened Vivocity to meet SJ and Ting. It was supercrowded!! Perhaps more crowded than TM on a Sat evening. Shopped a little while there and I finally bought a new pair of sandals, after delibrating for so many weeks. Maybe it's just me, but there are times when I have gotten so used to something that I did not want to change it until I'm forced to.

Anyway, we ended up eating at Subway as everywhere else was so packed. And as usual, I ended up late for LG. Heez, so what else is new huh?

Guess it's fairly easy to see everything in the short-term and missed the big picture altogether. Why do we always get so hung up on the little things that we perhaps will never know the answer to and yet neglect to work on the things that we can control?

Does adversity really make a better man out of us? The more we have, the more we can lose. That's so true isn't it? Does my spirit need to be broken before it can be whole again?

I'm just afraid I won't be strong enough

Hello!!! It's been so long hasn't it? But anyway, I'm back. So did you all miss me?? Ok, I know I'm rambling a little here. Just a little update. Actually, I'm not really sure what to update because there's nothing interesting going on in my life since the last time I blogged.

Anyway, I went cycling a few weeks ago at East Coast Park. Only my second time cycling in a park and to make things worst, there were so many people there. Fortunately I did not crash into anyone. Oh well, think it'll be quite a while before I'll cycle there again.

Oh ya, I bought a cactus recently too. It's now seating on my office table. Hopefully it will survive. =X

Update

It's been quite a while since the last time I've updated. So much so that I almost forgot my password =P

Spent national day with SJ and Ting. SJ and I wanted to watch "The Lakehouse" initially but unfortunately all the tickets were sold out. So we ended up shopping instead while waiting for Ting to arrive.

Really glad that Ting is back from Denmark. 6 weeks really passed by pretty quick. And I've already being working for close to 2 months.

Also 'celebrated' my 22nd birthday in a different way this year. With the whole company. Well, I don't wish to elaborate here. If you want to know, just ask me k. Seemed not so long ago that I just celebrated my 21st birthday, and now I'm already 22. Well, whatever it is, I just want to say a big 'thank you' to everyone for the birthday wishes and gifts.

Musical

Yesterday evening, I watched a musical with Ting and Jo at the University Cultural Centre, complimentary of NUS since it was part of the centennial celebrations. Come to think of it, throughout my three years in NUS, that was the first time that I watched a musical at the UCC. Wondering when it will be the next time that we'll be able to do that again.

The musical, "Man of Letters", was pretty nice. Liked the songs and the acting. It's about a love story, set in Singapore during the 1950s-60s. Think they'll be showing til Sunday, so if any of you are free, maybe can go over to watch it too.

Looking back...

Yupz...the sem's ending soon. Just 2 more weeks and it's officially over. Guess there're mixed feelings here: trepidation and excitment, since I don't really know what to expect after graduation. Looking back, perhaps those were the feelings that I had when I first entered university as well. Oh yes, all the projects are over as well, with the final one, Marketing Research, ending yesterday. Suddenly felt like recalling all my projects for the past three years. Well, my memory fails me at times, so pardon me if I can't remember some of the details and group members.

First sem 2003/2004

Management and Organization:
We had to do a video project for this. I was in the same group as Huiling and Xiuqi (we were from the same OG) and four other guys. It was pretty fun, mostly the video recording part and thanks to the guys, our video was one of the best for the module. Could remember that we spent about 4 hours every wednesday afternoon for this project (which is only 20% of the total!!), but guess the end result was worth it.

Financial Accounting:
Think we had to do a project on Hourglass, so we spent quite a lot of time pouring over the financial statements of this company. I can't really remember the names of my group mates but I think none were from business. Anyway, we didn't really do very well for this project and it also made me realise that perhaps I do not have the apitude for finance after all.

Legal Environment of Business:
This was rather enjoyable and it was through this project that I really got to know Shujun and Ting Ting better. Little would I know then that both of them would become 2 of my closest friends from Business. Wonder what would have happened if we weren't in the same class or group then.

Introduction to Statistics:
I was in the same group with 2 Vietnamese, 1 Indonesian and 1 Singaporean. Pretty international huh. We didn't really spend that much time on the project since it's not a very big one but it was still quite enjoyable nevertheless.

Second sem 2003/2004

Principles of Marketing:
The project for this wasn't that major, unlike for the previous semester where the students had to do a marketing plan for this module. Remembered that Prof Lau was the lecturer then. Pretty funny lecturer. My tutor was nice too. Anyway, since the project wasn't major, we did it pretty last minute and as expected, we didn't do that well for it either. Thankfully, it wasn't a huge percentage of the total grade.

Macro and International Economics:
Can't really remember the group for this. But can vaguely remember that there were three in a group.

Finance:
I can't even remember if there was a project for this...

First sem 2004/2005

Asia Pacific Business and Society:
First module where we were formally introduced to business cases. I could still remember that we were the first group for both case presentations. Unfortunately, that did not work to our advantage.

Operations Management:
The project for this was rather minor as it was just a presentation of our individual reports. But I could still remember that we did a graphical representation of the RFID usage in supermarkets using powerpoint and spent quite some time doing that as well.

Business Communication:
There were 2 separate groups for this. One for the tutorial presentation and another where we had to do a business report. For the latter, we did on the taxi industry and the five of us (me, Ting, An Lian, Ka Lai and Rekha) got closer after the project, and it was through that project that I got to know An Lian as well. Also made me realised that the stereotype that exchange students are irresponsible is not always right and Rekha proved this. Also felt that this was the few modules that was really useful and applicable to real life as it taught us how to write reports and make presentations and so on.

Managerial Accounting:
Another finance module. Anyway, the project was just a tutorial presentation. Oh ya, I was in the same group as Rekha for this module as well.

Second sem 2004/2005

Management Science:
Was there a project for this?? Hmm...

Asian Markets and Marketing Management:
First module I took where the "ticketing system" was actually used. Actually, I did like the teachings though not this system. Anyway, we did on Coke for this project and we were the first group to present. As expected, it didn't go very well. But I did get to know Joanna through this.

Human Resource Management:
Another group project with an exchange student, Debbie. She was really friendly and yes, she did her work well too. There were two projects for this. We were the first group to present for the first project and the last for the second. Don't ask me why I always get such arrangements. I wished to know too. Anyway, since the second project was on international HRM, we actually did a video interview of an expat professor from NUS. Yupz, finally got to put my video editing skills to some use, not that it's that fantastic anyway..Haha..And not to forget, this was the first time I worked with Claire too, and definitely not the last.


First sem 2005/2006

Leisure, Recreation and Tourism:
Wondered what possessed me to take this module after my disastrous attempt with the first Arts module I took, Singapore Society. But I don't regret taking it. For this project, we went to MacRitchie Reservoir and I'm ashamed to say that it was my first time there. Got to know Xiaofen, Xuelin and Victoria through this too. The lectures were also very enjoyable though sad to say, I didn't score that well for this module.

Consumer Behaviour:
This was a rather interactive module. Though my first impression wasn't that good, I guess the professor managed to change that impression after subsequent weeks. The class was really spontaneous in contributing to the discussion and this was one of the few modules where I could actually feel relaxed in class. Anyway, our group project was on aero-modelling (or radio-controlled aircrafts) and we had to interview the people who were really into this hobby. For this, we went to Clementi one night and then to Tuas another evening. It was really an eye-opener and I guess we all learnt quite alot from this experience as well. The group was really nice too (we were the only all-girls group in class) and I could still remember the times we spent on the project. Really long hours, and there were times when we did digress from the task at hand. Ok, we didn't score an A for this project in the end but if I had to choose again, I guess I would still choose to be in this same group.

Leadership in Organisations:
There were a few unpleasant occurances during the course of this project. Firstly, one of our members left mid-way (she was an exchange student who went back to her home country mid-sem) and left us to complete her part. Just when I had thought that my experience with exchange students were all wonderful, she had to spoil that. Then the rest of the members got really busy so I was left to finish her part. That was pretty annoying because it wasn't that I was that free anyway. But I shall not start ranting here again. Well, the good news is that we managed to get an A for the project.

Organisational Effectiveness:
We did a case study on Five-Star beer. My second time working with Claire and first with Freddy and Jiamin. Can't remember how many times it has been working with Ting though. Think it went alright I guess since I manage to get a pretty decent grade for this module.

Second sem 2005/2006

Organizational Behaviour:
Got to work with familiar people again, namely Claire, Jiamin, Shaoting and Ting. Considering that we were almost separated at the beginning, it made us all the more determined to do our best for this module. Though I do not know how we fared for this project (we did on blogging) yet, I guess we did learn quite a fare bit from this as well. The professor was really helpful during the consultations and through this project, we learnt how to formulate hypothesis, develop an appropriate survey, analyse the results and present everything in the report. There was also an article contribution part which was pair work and I did with a Vietnamese girl. We had to do on Hiv at the workplace and most of our meetings went rather efficiently.

Information Systems Applications:
Was in the same group as Joanna and Ting and we did on Amazon. To spice things up a little during our presentations, we even had a little game (snakes and ladders) for the class. Fortunately, the class were really sporting and they gamely took part.

Business Policy and Strategy:
The project was a case study on Ben & Jerry's, and I must say that this is one of the few projects where we did not really spend a lot of time discussing on. We split up the work after the second meeting and everyone just did their own parts, though there were quite a number of editings to be made after that.

Marketing Research:
The project was on Pampers Premium and in the beginning I admit that I was rather apprehensive about this project, mainly because the professor actually allocate the group for us. He spilt up the groups according to our names in the register, but Ting and I still ended up in different groups even though my name was just below hers in the register!! But I guess there's a reason for everything. Though I do not know how we'll do for this project, it did progress better than I had expected. I managed to know some people who I had known, or should have known. Jacklyn was my ex-colleague. David was from crusade, though I did not know that until then. And Siew Siew was from TPJC too. So I guess we we were connected in some way or another after all. And everyone did put in effort for the project too, from going down to expo for four to five hours to survey the mothers to spending a few hours meeting each week to discuss the project. I wished we would do well for this but even if we don't, I thank God for the people that I've met through this project.



So that's about it I guess. My three years summarised in one entry. Of course there were other things as well, besides the academic part, but I shall leave all that to another time. This entry's long enough, for those who actually bother to read til the end.

the Race

I've been wanting to blog about this for the past few days but could not find the time to do so till today. Yup I went for the USR with three other friends over the weekend. For those who do not know, USR actually stands for Uniquely Singapore Race and it was a 2 day 1 night affair aka the Amazing Race. Well, it turned out to be more of a race than amazing as groups just need to run through the checkpoints most of the time. Ok, the other groups ran, we just walked most of the time, especially on the second day.

We went to quite a lot of places, such as Labrador Park, Qian Hu and Sembawang hot springs to name a few. But I guess we (or maybe it's only me) were kind of disappointed that we didn't really get to eat much during the race and on the few occasions when we did, we had to pay for the food ourselves.

On the first day, we went to mostly well-known places like the three ethnic areas and Suntec city. The clues were quite alright though it was nothing like the Food and Heritage Challenge last year. The ending point for the first day was East Coast Park. Initially I'd thought that they would be nice enough to actually give us beds but perhaps I was too optimistic. Everyone ended up sleeping on the floor. Oh well, at least there was shelter.

The second day we went to MacRitchie Reservoir for the first stop. It was my second time there after the LRT project on the tree-top walk but somehow the feeling was rather different this time round. Anyway we made a mistake and ended up spending quite a long time there. From there we went to Chua Chu Kang and then to Qian Hu farm, where we need to catch fishes as our task. That was one of the more enjoyable tasks (though I only managed to catch 1 fish but thanks to my other group members we managed to complete the task). The next stop was Sembawang satay club where we had to grill our own satay (only 5 sticks) and finish the "Yu Sheng". As we were eating, we could see the other groups gobbling down the food yet we simply sat down and took our own sweet time to eat. In fact, the station master even came over and asked if we're enjoying the food. Haha... I can't really remember the stops after that but I remembered going to Upper Seletar Reservoir (ya, 2 reservoirs in 1 day) for one of the stops. It was almost evening by then so the view there was really nice. Anlian commented that it was like God showering his love on us and I couldn't agree more.

Other than these, there were also other places that we went but I guess I shall not put everything in here, lest it gets too boring. Yupz, really thankful for my three friends namely Anlian, Jo and Ting. Thanks for enduring my whining throughout the two days. Though we did not win anything in the end, I guess we're not in this for the prizes anyway.

Photos...

A few days ago I was looking at my old photos from past years. As usual, some things had changed while some still remained the same. Looking at them really did bring back some memories and funny how things always seemed to be better during recall than it was when it occured. Honestly, I can't remember everything that had happened in the past but perhaps that's what these photos are for. So that I won't forget. It is said that a picture paints a thousand words yet a picture by itself says nothing until you have a part in it. It is the stories and experiences that are truly valuable.

My father simply loves to take photos, especially when we went overseas. I used to find it annoying and it is not until these past few years that I truly appreciate all these photos that were taken then. Now, my only regret is that I had not taken more. Looking back, it seemed that I had so few, particularly with my friends. I was just telling Ting a few days back that we had taken so few photos with our project mates and before long, we'll be leaving NUS. We might not realise it now, but perhaps 10 years later, it is these photos that will remind where memories fail us. I wished I had photos of my first year in BizAd; of my first presentation; of all my project groupmates. Funny how we could meet week after week and yet it had not occur to us to take any photos for remembrance. Did it just slipped our mind or are certain things just not worth remembering? Just like it was with the SFHC program com. We'd met every week for 2 months and yet there wasn't a single group photo together. Maybe we had been too busy with all the planning then. Maybe that's the irony of it all. All the effort and yet there seemed to be nothing to remember it by, except the memories. Ok, to be fair, guess it was partly my fault as well. Why did I forget to bring my camera on the day itself? Didn't even managed to take any with the secondary students who helped us on that day. I think the participants took more photos than us. But then again, we were all so busy on that day; where was the time for inconsequential things like taking pictures. Well, we did have one group photo in the end except that I do not know whose camera that was and I'm not even sure what happened to that eventually. Perhaps it was already deleted. Haha..oh well. Wonder why we even bother taking it in the first place. Maybe it doesn't really matter after all. A few years from now, this will only be a memory etched in our minds.

Down memory lane

Don't know why it is that I kept meeting my ex-classmates nowadays. Come to think of it, it's kind of amazing to see how all our lives are interwined together; to see how some people have changed, and some don't. Maybe it is a matter of perception after all. Guess Singapore is rather small and it's no surprise that we'll meet each other in some way or another.

To go back where time stands still and only to realise that it was only a dream. 'Cos time waits for no man and so much have changed. Our feelings, attitudes, thinking, beliefs etc. We have all grown up, haven't we? From little boys and girls to men and women today. I wonder: what we are now, is it far from what we have imagined us to be when we were in primary school? I can still remember my primary school days, though not down to every detail. Honestly, I can't really recall what I wanted to be in the future then. But when I think back now, I supposed I did enjoyed my primary school days, especially my primary five and six class. Can't say the same for my secondary school days though. It's funny what time can do to your memory, 'cos the things that I remember now are in bits and pieces. Listening to the teacher teaching, eating in the canteen, going to the bookshop, singing in the music room, playing in the basketball court, P.E. lessons with Mrs Ow (haha..I saw her when I went back to Gongshang for the mooncake festival...she still looks the same but I don't think she could remember me...maybe some things really don't change after all).

I'm really glad for all those experiences because they, both the good and bad ones, made me what I am today. When you think back, things always seemed to be better in the past than it is today. Yes, I should learn to cherish what I have now instead of whining and complaining. I hoped that ten years from now, I can look back at my uni days with fond memories as well.

Tree top walk

I went for the tree-top walk at MacRitchie Reservoir yesterday with my groupmates. It was actually for a project on a geography module that we're doing. It was also the first time that I've been to MacRitchie Reservoir. I've been living in Singapore for all my life and yet there are so many places that I've not been to. Also felt the same way when I went to Little India and Kampong Glam the other time.

Anyway, we walked for about 3 hours and all of us were just so tired after that. Towards the end, it started drizzling but thankfully we were quite sheltered under the canopy of the trees. There were so many stairs going up and down that it made me wished we could just drill a hole through the mountain so that we could walk straight ahead. Ok, I'm lazy, I must admit. But really, it has been a rather long time since I had walked so much. Didn't really see much animals and insects though, other than the monkeys near the entrance.

At the end of it all, we were just so glad that to complete the walk. "Going back to civilization," like what Ting had said. A bit exaggerated though...haha...But what matters is that we made it through. All five of us. And did I mention that this is an all-girls group? We are 'garang girls', as Xiaofen puts it so nicely.

What are you seeking for?

What are you seeking for in life?
Maybe it isn't good to think so much at times

I realised that I've not written on the time Ting and I went for the guilly outing at pasir ris yet. Well, the kids there were really endearing and somehow they made me realised how much people tend to look on the surface most of the time. Maybe I'm not in any position to comment much since I did not really interact much with them, besides that outing. But that incident got me thinking: why do people usually find them so pitiful? Is it because they're slower, less smart and capable than most people around us? Actually, if you ask me, at times I find that more pitiful ones are the smart and capable people who spend their whole lives chasing after material things that do not last.

I mean, it's really sad if you're using material things to fulfill your needs. After all, how long can such things last? There are some things that money really can't buy: friendships, experiences, love etc. At the end of it all, it's the intangibles that are really valuable. I am really thankful for all the experiences that I've encountered during the past 2 years in NUS and also for the friendships forged. Though there were some painful memories and some that I do not understand the reason behind it, I still believed that there is a reason for everything. I'm glad for the opportunities to step out of my comfort zone and attempt things that I never thought I'll be capable of doing before. Even though not everything worked out in the end, there were still the lessons learnt from each and everyone of them. Lessons that I'll perhaps never forget.

"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose"

Jim Elliot