Looked through some of Shooee's pics of Sydney. Like her obsession over wild cockatoos. And the scenery, which was marvellous. And the "interesting" post box that has a handle to pull (they do, btw Shooee, exist in Singapore as well :) the post box at IMM is liddat too.)

When I see so much of another developed country still so wild, I'm just reminded of how small Singapore really is. I listened to Siow Lee Chin's Songs My Father Taught Me while looking at the pics and it somehow fit at certain parts. Hahaha.

Must admit that I don't quite like the America-composed pieces. Too... American. Sorry. Liked Li Guo-Quan's Fisherman's Song at Sunset best :) I want to learn that next!

If I actually ever finish learning this Liang Zhu thingie >.<

Peee peeep!

Second lesson today.

I went on the main road!

Ahahahaha. And hit 60km/hr. Feel more confident now. But I realized the car gets more unsteady as it reaches higher speeds.

Thank God I don't have to worry about some lousy clutch pedal! Ahahahahahahahahaaaaa!

Whoots. Quite fun really. Except I think for the first hour or so when I was going round and round on the circuit my instructor was a bit bored. >.>

Meeting Peili jie in church later. Going to make a sample wedding invit card before I meet her.

Vroom vroom!

Just had my first driving lesson today. It was quite fun after all :) But I kept oversteering and going out of the lane. Hahahhaa. Driving instructor had to keep correcting my steering. (I had a female driving instructor!) Lol. I'm surprised there haven't been any accidents yet.

Sigh. Got a bit heated up today with the kids. Haish. Screamed at one and sent two out to stand in the hall. Somehow I'm not as patient or cheerful as usual. I think it's that time of the month. Janey, you're stronger than that! Come on.

But it's Friday, so it's a good day :) And tomorrow I'll spend it baking! Yay. Realized most of my Sec 1 class don't eat dinner, so I shall bake cookies for them :) And for Shana, for coming down on Thursday night to help out. Thank you dear!

Just when I thought life was pretty easy, it turned out pretty tough after all. Like when you want to love someone but can't. Not even do something for them, not even ask them about their day.

bento at last

So I won't hesitate no more

No more, it cannot wait

I'm yours!

School has started for my poly friends. I'm starting to get a bit nervous about August too. Thank goodness experience tells me God is looking after me.

Hmm. Has anyone been contacted by Yong Loo Lin yet?

I think my psc application pao tang le. Must be because I submitted my part 3 too late :P Must say I'm not too disappointed over missing the experience of facing 20 interviewers in a large board room behind a long marble table.

Anyway. I know people are busy when they start school, but surely one could at least reply an sms right? I don't know, maybe the handphone got lost, or the message just wasn't worth replying.

Whatever. Why do I even try.

Because see, NO, I do NOT understand what is going on. It's probably all been one huge joke, and it feels good to see it that way. Because, see, if it wasn't a joke then I do NOT know what is going on. So there'd better be a good explanation. But who wants to know. Not me.

Sheesh. What the hey. As far as I'm concerned sayonara already happened.

But you sometimes the desire to hear "I'm yours" just strikes every girl once in a while and overrides all logic. Which is why Jason Mraz's song made it.

Shooee went to Aussie but should be back by now... we have a practice and test tomorrow at the driving school. It'll be nice to have lunch with her again :)

I wonder how Elainey is doing with her schoolwork. I can't help her anymore or reach out to her anymore, but I suppose that is to be expected. Maybe after school starts... will that break the wall between us?

And and. I bought a beautiful bento box on Sunday! XD Whoots! Can't wait to use it. Here's a pic of it:

Yes, I'm sorry, it's sideways. Tilt your head to the left please.

The maki on the cover and sides

The maki on the back.

I paid $159 for the box, but it turned out to be a good deal after all, because when my Dad (who loves bento boxes) realized that I had bought one, he gave me one! Hahaha.

Three conditions:

1) Keep wrapped

2) Keep in cupboard

3) Strictly no using

Darn. Mom says she would have just returned the box if it had been her. Lol. It is an antique after all.

Cats

Went to watch CATS with Anni yesterday.

Was it a blast! The lighting, the dancing, the sets, the costumes, the singing, the acting, all FANTASTIC!

I wanna watch again!!!

Plus I had a rather good seat at Circle 1, near the middle.

The sets were so extravagant, yet not messy. The actors really acted like cats. And they came up to the audience seats during the intermission to sit on people's laps, meow at people and paw at people's glasses. They really, really looked like large cats. Especially the performance after mcavity's appearance and this pop-star-attitude cat was using a single spot light to make shadows as he told the story of the next cat. His shadow really looked like a cat.

Ah, I want to watch again!

And there were stoke lights and even small fireworks during the appearance of Mr Mistopheles. The fireworks exploded with smoke rings too. :D

I don't know if I should call the actors dancers, or singers, or acrobats. Because they were everything in one. I guess most of them had ballet training. And people who are good at something can do pretty much everything related to it.

And it was quite comical at times, especially with the aforementioned pop-star-att cat. What was his name again? All the female cats fawning over him was really hilarious.

Uwaaaah >.< Who wants to sponsor me another $150 to watch?

Hahaha. I wonder if I can buy a recording of it. Probably not. Nya >.<

Unfortunately, I can't put up pics of the set and actors during the intermission, because STEWPID me forgot to bring my camera. And the lighting was too dim for my handphone cam. Rargh!

My only complain is that "Memory" was sung a bit too fast for my liking. But it was a good rendition all the same, just not as powerful or as emotional as the recording I have.

As I watched Cats the one thought that kept coming back to me was why a certain friend of mine has chosen to do medicine. Because I could so clearly see him as one of those actors charming and amazing the audience.

Karenai Hana Tsu*

I've just been looking through old posts and I came across the entry I made when I was 16 going on 17. I wished then that I could skip all the years in between then till I was a freshman.

What made me so stupid as to say that? Those years I wanted to miss were some of the best years of my life. Silly me.

My writing style's changed too. Not so hyped and excited anymore.

And I suppose I've learnt quite a bit about affairs of the heart. Cute, innocent me in an all girls school. Sigh.

None of my birthday wishes have come true thus far, but for the better. Because as all Christians know, all things work out for the best of those who love God and are called to Him.

Really. Really really.

So interesting to look back at all the poor fellas I've had a crush on. First there was this guy in church, then there was this guy from an all boys school (the lying sweet talker; I'll never forget him), then there was this senior from my CCA, then there is Sami, and there is someone else too by the way but I'm not about to say who.

I was upset for a while that I could like two guys at the same time. Plus they're really different too. But Mom says its ok. Besides, Sami would never think of me in that way. Out of sight, out of mind. Although he is much more open now. I treasure our friendship, but I doubt it'll go further than that. He'll always be one of those people who'll make me smile when I remember him. Some things are kept stored within the heart.

One thing that three of the aforementioned guys have in common is height. The lack thereof, that is. Sigh. What is my problem??

What is it, really? Haven't I always said I would only want a person who was confident, independent and reliable? Who could take care of me? Somehow I'm not drawn to a person like that. Lol. Maybe my feelings towards him are really just as towards a younger brother?

I wanted to delete some of my older blog posts; I feel embarrassed reading them. But no, I won't for they part of who I am today. Whenever I feel too confident, I shall pick one or two to read and bring myself back down to terra firma.

*The blog post I made one year ago was also entitled Karenai Hana. "Tsu" is the Japanese way of saying "Two" :)

vietnam again

Tonight I have busted one stereotype of male behaviour- that is, that they are carnivorous and eat a lot. Two specimens of the male species have helped my case, namely, my two colleagues.

Specimen 1: Weiren
Observations: Is herbivorous, but always gets second helpings, no matter how small.

Specimen 2: Ming Hui
Observations: Is carnivorous, but eats very little.

Oh well. I am here to put up pictures of the latest earrings I made: angels! These ones are silver, but my first pair were actually gold. But I gave them away before taking a picture. Again. -.-


And this is the very first one I made. It's not an earring. It kinda just stands on my table :) I like to think of it as how we'll all look like in heaven. Radiant, wearing crowns of life and praising God forever and ever. Amen :)


Haish. I've got a write up due this Friday and don't quite know how to do it. I shall wait for Thursday night.

Speaking of Thursday, I'm supposed to cook dinner for all of them. What to do with a vegetarian? I shall cook a tofu dish and a potato salad. Maybe I should serve raw cucumber too. Hmm. Obviously not very good with vegetable dishes. Recipes to recommend, anyone?


Oh yes, here are some pictures of Vietnam :)

Our first dinner in Vietnam at a night market popular with tourists. Notice the big plate of raw veggies. And that's a large egg omlet with lots of tao ge and some pork in it. Meant to roll up with raw veggies to eat. Veggies again.

What can I say? More veggies.

All of us at the front lawn of... Parliament House, was it? It's opposite the Opera House.

Food again. This is me and Peilie jiejie at a French-style restaurant. There're lots in Vietnam because they were once a French colony, together with Cambodia. Boy do they make a good baguette! And they're very artistic too. Note the pictures on the wall and the lampstand, which was, btw for sale! Peilie jie and I were inspired to make our own art too so we did this with the serviette and cherry tomatoes:

It was a really quaint little shop at the top of a clothing store. All the buildings in Vietnam are short and skinny. Like the people. Peili jie says it's because they eat so much bamboo and tao ge :D

This is the church that Pastor Khai and his wife serve in. All decked up for Easter with a tombstone that can be removed too! They made it themselves. Again, they are pretty good at art!

Peili jie teaching them how to sing "Low in the grave" in Chinese. They learn extraordinarily fast. Especially the keyboardist. After hearing me play just once, he changed his style to match mine. I am very impressed.

But not so fast at origami. That's me talking with Timothy translating for me. He's an intern with the church.

This is the girl I danced with on the first night when we sang an English song.

One of the children who attended Sunday school on Easter sunday. I've got lots of pics of cute kids but I thought this one was so kawaii because she's having such a serious face.

This is me, Mom and Peili jie teaching them how to sing "Lift my Eyes to the Hills". They couldn't handle the hanyupinyin so Mrs Khai wrote a romanized version in Vietnamese! So cool right?

The boy on the right is sponsored by my dad. He's holding a bag of rice and a Ty toy which each of them were given. :) He's so smiley and cute. I think that's his little brother with him.

A picture of all the kids sponsored by people in my church.

My dad going off to visit some families on a motorcycle. He likes making funny faces. Thankfully my mom finds him amusing.

Now THIS is the Tofu guy, the keyboardist. He has a note stuck on his bag which, according to Timothy, says "I'm crazy. Don't touch me or come near me!" LOL!!! (Btw, he must be the only one out of them who wears glasses.)I like the youth there. They're very friendly but very well behaved. Another gag they once played on the guy whose face is in the right hand corner was to pull his chair out from him when he stood up to talk for too long. But they caught him before he hit the ground.

This is the church choir singing at the evangelical service with the women and girls in the traditional ao dai. So pretty, right? The pastor's wife is in dark blue, extreme right.

The food on Vietnam Airlines on the way home. Note the fruits and veggies again. And the mini baguette! So cute ^^

The view from my porthole in the aeroplane. Pretty clouds, no? I made Ming Hui's bookmark on the plane home. I don't think he knows I made it. I think he likes it though. He tried to say so today, in some other words, but I think (hopefully) I've interpreted it right.

Oh yes. I also wanted to say. I saw a lot of secondary school friends at the medicine interview. From the 1/10 and 2/10 class. Hmm. It felt a bit strange. Like they weren't the sort of people I'd expect to see taking med. Oh well. People change. God knows I have, over the past two years.

Except people like Nicholas Ngo probably don't change. Saw him at the medicine essay test. All dressed up as usual looking every inch the leading man. Just when I had begun to find him slightly approachable. I must honestly admit I was really taken aback by the way he looked. Ah well. Kind of clammed up again after that. Especially when he started talking to a pretty little thing he obviously already knew. SO after that Janey was alone again. At least he was decent enough to call after it was over. That was nice.

Hai! That's about it. And and. I find blogger very diff to upload pics onto. -.- Must have spent more than an hour on this blog. Am I the only noob having this problem??

back

Ok, so I'm back from Vietnam and ready to get started on more origami projects :)

Vietnam was quite nice. It's the most pleasant ASEAN nation I've been to, besides Singapore. Cleaner than most, traffic not as bad as most, especially since everybody, but EVERYBODY drives a motorcycle. Cause that's the only way ya don't get stuck in traffic for 2 hours. Lol.

I finally understand why most brides come from Vietnam. They're mostly beautiful, gentle and quiet. I also know why there are no "Vietnam Grooms" too. They are gentle and quiet, but not beautiful. So there you are.

The language Vietnamese is also similar to Chinese in certain ways. To varying effects.

Peili, to church keyboardist: What's your name?
Keyboardist: Tofu (or something that sounded like that)
Peili: Excuse me?
Keyboardist: Tofu (or so it seemed)
Peili: What? (Starts laughing)

When she told me about it last night when we were both lying in our beds I suddenly felt wide awake all over again.

Also, my complexion improved over the few days I spent there. It was either the mango I ate, or the vegetables. I consider myself very brave, because for a non-vegetarian, I ate vegetables wrapped in rice paper for as least three meals. With strong tasting minty things like basil in it.

So much for my skin. I'm glad to be back home with my potatoes.

Bought bookmarks and keychains for the afternoon children as well as pencil cases. Pretty ones. I have a new fake ostrich leather wallet too. Funny how the imitation ones are actually nicer than the real ones.

The Vietnamese church we visited was just a longish room with an attempt at air-conditioning that failed miserably. Nevermind. They're quite traditional in a way that everyone stands up to pray, everybody says "in Jesus's Name we pray Amen", and the choir wears the traditional ao dai. The pastor and his wife are very well respected and the young people are very lively and quick to learn and well behaved. I kind of wish my church was like that too. It gives one the sense of importance and heaviness of the Bible and prayer, and also makes one feel very comfortable because the church's stance is very clear for the young people.

We taught the Vietnamese children a Chinese song on Sunday. They had trouble remembering the Chinese hanyupinyin so Mrs Khai (the pastor's wife) wrote it out again in Vietnamese, according to how it sounded. I thought that was such a great idea! She's coming here tomorrow, because her grandchild living here is down with HMFD. And I have agreed to show her how I made the pair of earrings I gave her last night :) I think she is a model wife of a pastor because while she is actively involved in serving in the church and leading it's ministries, she also takes a clear supportive role towards her husband. And I think this is one of the reasons why the church is growing and doing so well.

Oh-kay. That's about it for now. Will upload pics later. I'm back to work tomorrow.

And it's Xiu Ling's birthday today! Happy birthday dear :) Let's see if I can get Weiren to help me wish her happy birthday now...

Nice to be back home where I don't have to worry about accidentally swallowing the tap water when I'm bathing.

Beads!

K I'm leaving for Vietnam in another hour or so.

First, Thanks Shooee! For the People's Park Centre tip. Spent about an hour and a half exploring five different shops. Liked Shino Beads and Golden Dragon best. Spent about... $35? Played with some of the new beads already but can't put pics up 'cause I don't have time...

Took your advice about the spheres Shooee, and changed the butterfly ones to smaller luminous-like ones. :) Pretty!

From now on I will not go to the shop at JP unless I don't have time to go to Chinatown. Unlikely, because it's actually very convenient.

K. Prepared all my materials for the Vietnam trip last night. Hope I haven't forgotten anything. Hope I won't be totally lost and flustered on Saturday. Oh man >.<

God help me. So nice to have Him to rely on at times like this :)

Medicine essay test is today, e-to, somehow I'm not exactly anxious, perhaps because I can't prepare for it.

Going down to Chinatown after this. Maybe I shouldn't be squeezing so many things into one day, but I won't have time otherwise >.<

Looks like I'll have to pick up something for dinner instead of cooking.

Oh, and I'm blogging on the new computer now :) Works like a dream once you get used to Vista.

Oh crap. My supervisor wants me down an hour earlier today. Argh!

Notice:

Correction:

Nick didn't dao me, and is, as he himself claims, a VERY NICE PERSON in general. So that's that. All the best for tomorrow, Nick! ^^

Weiren hasn't started internship yet because of some family stuff... I think he's a vegetarian, so if I prepare dinner I'll have to be careful...

Satsuki-chan has been lent to Ming Hui... but should be coming back in September if all goes as planned... Dear God please don't let anything happen to the guitar..

Now I'm off to mug for tomorrow's test. Wish me luck people.

my first post-interview

Annnnndddd... My life goes on.

The interviewers were very friendly and kind, but I know I didn't answer as well as I could. Especially for the first interview. Somehow my brain slowed down a lot. Haish.

Nevermind, it's all in God's hands. The interview was actually quite fun! Because I didn't have to worry about getting into medicine, since God is in control. It was more like a test, to see how I could stand up to strangers asking me probing questions.

Quite fun, and exciting really.

K guess who else is applying for medicine. Nicholas Ngo, of all people.

Funny thing is, I kind of thought he would. Just like I sort of knew he would get the same results as me. So weird right? Maybe the two of us are more alike than we knew.

>.> Ok, no, I don't really want to be like him >.>

Anyway, God bless you too, Nick. I was surprised to get your sms this afternoon because we have this unspoken agreement to dao each other. Like how you're daoing me again now. Would it hurt that much to just answer my question and tell me what your second choice is? Sheesh. What the hey, Mr Ngo. Now I remember why I don't get along with you.

Ahh. I feel so relaxed today. I shall sleep well. And and. USP application has been extended to next Monday! Hahaha. So I can slack abit tonight and not have to rush it.

Okay. Now. I have my Final Theory Evaluation... on Friday. Great. Just two days to finish reading my book and commit as much of it as I can to memory. What fun!

I am so screwed. I shall start mugging tomorrow.

Shooee, I'll tell you more about the interview on Friday. Plus, I have something I need to ask you about- wedding cards. A friend of mine is getting married and wants some ideas on how to design her cards.

Shooee is turning out to be my artistic adviser :D But of course anyone else with ideas is welcome too ^^

So tty on Friday.

I managed to get Kor to lend his guitar to Ming Hui until September, so I'll be dragging the guitar down to work tomorrow. So don't disappoint me Teacher Ming. I had to kick at Kor's bum quite a couple of times. And poor Satsuki (the guitar) was just rotting in Mom's office. She's a guitar! She's made to sing, so I had to do something for her too, the poor neglected thing...

If you fall in love with Satsuki, Teacher Ming, you could make an offer to buy her in September. ^^ She looks good and sounds good.

Matchmaking is actually kind of fun really.

Does this mean I'm turning old? Ahahaha. I'd better end my post here.