= FAVOURITE WORD =
Proverbs 3:5-6
Trust in the Lord with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways acknowledge Him,
and He will make your paths straight.
[NIV]
New phase. More changes.
What would the future bring?
Thursday, December 30, 2004
Updates
It's been a while since I last blogged. Let me update...
Monday (27th)
I was at home most of the day, until about 3pm when I went to town to meet Mag. She accompanied me to look for Jane's birthday present. After shopping for 2 hours, I finally bought her a reversible bag from Project Blood Brothers and a pair of earrings at Perlini's Silver. Mag and I then took a bus down to Tiong Bahru, where Gina was. She had left work earlier to go back to sleep because she felt ill.
Mag and I went to shop for vegetables at the NTUC first before heading over to the apartment. When we saw Gina's face, we were shocked. She looked terrible. We started fussing over her. Mag boiled her a pot of barley. Then we started washing, chopping and cooking vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower and some leafy vegetables). Boiled broccoli tastes really sweet, for your information. I felt as if my throat had been cleansed after eating them! Shiok!
After dinner, Mag and Gina went out to buy some food and necessities. I stayed in the apartment and watched TV. Boring. Haha. They bought back buns and chwee keuhs to eat. I ate a bit because after such a healthy dinner, I didn't wanna undo the effort. Haha.
We lazed around at the living room for a while. I shooed Gina to bathe even while I was like dozing off. She did, I think. After lazing around some more, we went to the room and chose where we wanted to sleep. I must have dozed off while we were talking.
Tuesday (28th)
I woke up at around 7.30am and quickly washed up to get ready for work. There was going to be a staff meeting at school at 8.30am. Mag was still sleeping when I asked Gina to wake up so that I could leave the apartment. I took a cab down because it was drizzling slightly. I got to school in time for meeting at the AVT.
The meeting ended at 2pm! Gosh. So horrifying. After that, Cheryl and I went to the hawker centre at Zion Road to eat wanton noodles. Yum. Then she drove us back to school. I spent my time replying emails. Sigh. I left school at around 5.15pm to meet Shama at Bugis Junction. We spent about an hour buying scotchtape and wrapping Jane's birthday presents at the food court. Haha.
At 6.30pm, we walked over to Fish and Co. to meet up with Belle and Jane for dinner. By the time we settled down at our table, it was around 7pm. While ordering food, we noticed the ring on Jane's finger! Benson had indeed proposed to her! Haha! So happy for Jane! =) She filled us in the details. Waw, Benson was really romantic... knelt down and all to propose to her... three times some more... on different days, different places, involving different people. There was so much drama! Haha.
After dinner, Benson came over to meet Jane with his friends and they all left. Belle, Shama and I went home. :)
Wednesday (29th)
I had to wake up early again. There was EL department meeting at 8am. I was late though so by the time I cabbed down, it was 8.15am. The meeting started around that time too, so it wasn't so bad. Heh. We ended at around 10.30am, after which Jon, Tony, Mrs Dass and I had another round of meeting for WITS at the teachers' lounge. It took only an hour. =)
At 11.45am, after much waiting, the EL department (not all teachers) car-pooled to Great World City and had our departmental lunch at Siam Kitchen. The food was nice! I like their Green Curry Prawn Fried Rice (something like that... can't really recall the name of the dish). It was really very filling too. I was so stuffed that I couldn't try any of the desserts.
Oh yeah, Pikie and Mel walked past the restaurant and we saw them. Haha.
After lunch, some of us went back to school while the rest went shopping or for their own appointments. I spent a bit of time packing my workstation, throwing away a lot of things in the process. There are still a lot of past year's resources under the table though - not yet organized. Hoho.
Nelson and his mother came at around 4plus to meet Mr Wan. I had a headache trying to get him to come down to school. Sigh. Don't wish to elaborate more. I just hope he knows his limits because I know for sure the school isn't going to take anymore nonsense from him come 2005. Anyway, it's out of my hands.
I left school at around 5.45pm and took a bus down to Tiong Bahru to meet Gina at her uncle's place. My headache was getting worse and I needed a place to rest for a while before meeting 4 of my pupils for dinner at Orchard. I had promised to give them a treat if they passed their N-level examination. We talked a bit and I think I dozed off on the sofa. It was so comfortable. I think my handphone's ringing woke me up. Haha. I can't remember who called me. Pikie, I think.
Anyway, Gina and I took a cab down to Meridien. Candice, Sherlyn, Mel and Pikie were already starting to take some food by the time we arrived. The rest of the cellgroup hadn't arrived yet though - until slightly later. Anyway, we chatted here and there while eating. Candice, Sherlyn and Pikie really ate a lot, especially Pikie. Girl, haiyoh, you must start exercising soon! But anyway, it was good! At least they ate. And ate. And ate. Hahaha... =D I didn't eat much though because of the heavy lunch earlier on. We took some pictures using Candice's camera. I look positively bloated! EEK! Sigh...
At around 9.30pm, they left because Mel's parents came to fetch her home while the other 3 went over to PartyWorld where John and some of my other pupils were, apparently, to celebrate his birthday. Heh. All the night owls. Better enjoy while the holidays last. Secondary 5 is not a year to be trifled with. Probably will have to work at least 80% of the time, judging from the standard of their N-level results. Gosh, Mr Lau is expecting a 5.something for their O-level EL! No more grade 6! So I'm stressed now! Terribly, awfully, dreadfully, utterly stressed! And 2004 isn't even over yet. Bah!
Okay, enough digression. Anyway, after the girls had left, I joined my cellgroup at their table. They had just sung the birthday song to Fungling and she was about to blow the candle after making a wish, I think. Heh.
We paid the bill, and each of us received a gold card to discount our future meals there. Haha. How nice. x)~~ After that, we left. Gina, Joey, Mag and I shared a cab home. La la la...
Thursday (30th - today!)
I met up with Mag and Vivien for some discussion from 11am till around 3pm. After that I went over to Pikie's place. Mel came over to take her textbooks, and then she left. I was supposed to give Pikie her birthday treat for dinner because I didn't have time to get her a birthday gift. But she was meeting her friends for dinner instead. So, fortunately for me, I didn't have to splurge on another treat. Heh. ;p
After we left her place at around 6plus, she went to meet her friends while I went to shop a bit. I finally bought a calendar for 2005. I tried to get a pair of new shoes, but there was nothing good! So disappointing. Finally, at around 7.50pm, I decided to go home. I walked to the bus stop opposite Far East to take a bus home. Upon reaching the place, I realised there were too many people waiting at the bus stop. I decided to walk home instead. It was a cool night. The walking helped me to forget about my gastric pain for a while. It came after I ate pork floss bun from BreadTalk and some chocolates. ;o I came home at around 8.20pm.
Still experiencing gastric pangs. Sigh.
Tomorrow will be an extremely busy day for me. Lotsa meetings in church. First, I'll be going school to prepare for school on Monday. After that, I'm heading down to the McDonald near church to meet Mag between 1pm and 1.30pm. After that, there's a meeting at 3pm. And another meeting at 6pm. Then it's New Year's Eve service from 8-10pm. Finally, it's the overnight prayer meeting at 10.30pm. Wouldn't you call that a whole lot of meetings in a day? Haha...
jOyZ blogged at 9:01 PM
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Sunday, December 26, 2004
Shopping Spree!
I came back not too long ago. Joey, Gina, Jann and I went to Geylang for dinner. They ate frog legs congee and I had beef rice noodles. I tried a little of the frog meat. The texture was like a cross between chicken and scallop. Heh. I might have enjoyed it if I weren't so bloated from gastric.
Prior to that, we had combined service in church, ate lunch at Marina Square's new food court, after which we went Suntec to shop, watched Kung Fu Hustle and shopped some more. Haha. Oh, but Mag and Fungling didn't join us for the movie.
Kung Fu Hustle was really quite crap, but I felt it was less crude than Stephen Chow's previous movies. There were a lot of spoofs from other movies of course, so it was quite funny at certain segments. Basically, it's a movie which you just watch, laugh and forget about. Ha.
Shopping was fun! I bought a DKNY bracelet watch, a pair of Giordano corduroy pants, a pair of jeans from TopShop and a sports blouse. I can't wait to put them on! Hah!
jOyZ blogged at 11:10 PM
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Saturday, December 25, 2004
Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas
MERRY MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ONE AND ALL! Hohoho...
It's almost noon. I woke up late again as usual... didn't join church for family day at Sembawang Park. Anyway, I think it's better to be at home with my family the whole day today. It's always been the case.
There's going to be a gathering on my dad's side of the family later in the evening. I'm not sure if we'll be going down Aunt Bee's (Katong) or Uncle Chye's (Tampines) place. Yeah, good old easterners. =)
Yesterday, Jann, Joey and I went to shop a little at Junction 8 before we bought groceries over to Kris's place to cook dinner. Haha. We cooked spaghetti, soup and had salad. It was the easiest and fastest, I guess. Heh, lazy us, eh? And we overestimated our appetite! Hoho! Is that good news or what? Ha! There were 6 of us, but we cooked enough for 8 people I think.
Oh, and the funny thing was Kris was watching The Ten Commandments when we arrived at around 6pm. So the whole time we were like watching the movie. Haha. The movie was really lengthy. Apparently, it started at around 5pm and ended at 9.30pm! Waw... 4.5 hours! Okay, but that included commercial time.
By the time we had dinner, my gastric was acting up again. So Aunty (Kris's mom) asked Nuru to pour me a mug of Eno to drink. I felt better after a few burps and a toilet trip. Haha. I didn't even finish my portion of spaghetti and soup, so you can imagine how bad the gastric was. Sigh.
We left at around 10.30pm and I took bus 156 with Joey to go home. I was quite tempted to walk home from the SCGS bus stop along Whitley Road - just to do some exercise. I can't remember why I changed my mind. Hoho.
Anyway, by the time I reached home, it was 11pm. I didn't sleep early though. I was too full from dinner. With nothing else better to do, I started sending messages to my friends and colleagues for Christmas, then watched Emma on my laptop. Mad or what? It's one of my favourite movies. So delightfully... english. Haha. I'm quite besotted with the English accent - there are various kinds actually. They're so colourful. I love the way the English amply - though sometimes in an exaggerating manner - describe their thoughts, feelings and so on.
Ah, my mom is cooking lunch. I'm hungry actually, having skipped breakfast because I woke up late. I wonder what she's cooking.
jOyZ blogged at 11:51 AM
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Thursday, December 23, 2004
Long Time No Blog
Hoho. Long time no blog. ;p
Let's see what I've been doing this week...
Monday (20th)
Cheryl, Oz and I went over to Pikie's place for tennis. We were supposed to start at 9am but we were late as usual. By the time we started, it was almost 10am.
Well, Oz taught me how to play. I was a total klutz, and a blind one at that. I couldn't seem to even hit the ball! *sobs* They were all -very- encouraging though. Every time I managed to hit the ball, Oz and Cheryl would shout "good one" or "not bad" etc while Pikie would 'yay' excitedly.
I wonder when I can play a proper game. At this rate I'm learning, probably never. Sigh. Never mind. I think I'll go and get my tennis racket when Christmas is over. It's too crazy to shop now.
Back to Monday. We played till around noon, I think. Cheryl left first because she had some appointment. The 3 of us went to Pikie's place upstairs. Oz rested at the living room while we took our respective showers. After that, we went to Great World City for lunch at the food court. Oz drove us to school because I had arranged to meet Nelson at 2pm to give him his N-level results. I retrieved his results from the General Office and walked to the bus stop outside Dawson's Place with Pikie. He was already there waiting.
We took bus 33 to Chinatown where I was supposed to meet his mother as she works there. I finally showed them Nelson's results. Although he passed, I advised him to meet up with Mr Wan together with his mother and/or brother. He's requested for a meeting on Wednesday. I shall have to ask Mr Wan next Tuesday when I see him during staff contact time.
After that, Pikie and I took a cab to town. We spent two hours at what used to be Buttercup at Cineleisure, talking and drinking tea. She saw her cousin with his girlfriend and we were like wondering if they saw her because he didn't seem to look anywhere else. Haha. Funny. Oh, and downstairs, just outside Cineleisure, there were people getting ready for Stephen Chow's arrival at 7pm. We saw people slowly accummulating behind the barricades which paved the red carpet.
We didn't get to see Stephen Chow's arrival. I got too hungry to wait and we went over to Marche to wait for Cheryl. The last she called, she said she was at her grandmother's place so I suspected she'd probably have her dinner there. I kept urging Pikie to eat first because Cheryl might not join us for dinner eventually. When Cheryl called to ask us not to wait for her because of the bad jam along Orchard Road, she finally ate. I just had a bowl of asparagus soup because my gastric was quite bad by then.
True enough, she decided to just start shopping, so Pikie and I met her outside Marche and we started walking around. There were so many people that I felt almost claustrophobic. By the time Cheryl and Pikie went home, it was around ten plus. I decided to just hang around a little bit more outside because the traffic was terrible. It felt like a Saturday night instead of a Monday night.
Anyway, somehow as I walked, I managed to get an empty cab and got home at around 11.30pm.
Tuesday (21st)
Hm. I can't quite remember what I did on this day. Oh, I think I slept a lot in the afternoon. I felt quite tired especially my right arm due to tennis the previous day. Oh, and Gina finally flew off to HK. Good life, eh.
Wednesday (22nd)
I finally rebonded my hair! Phew! After months of looking like a mental patient from IMH, it felt good to finally have manageable hair. Haha. For once, by the time I left the salon, the sky still had sunlight! Haha. Oh, and Yvonne let me play with her PDA while waiting for the chemicals to set into my hair. I can't remember what game it was... some jewel thing... but it was real addictive. :)
I didn't do much today. I slept quite a bit again. Heh. What happened to all my dieting and exercising plans? Sigh. Seriously, I think I'll just eat a lot less during meal times, stop snacking and see what happens.
I'll be meeting Jann and whoever's coming over to Kris's place at 3.30pm tomorrow outside J8's NTUC. We're gonna do some grocery shopping and go over to Kris's place to cook dinner. Yup. That's our Christmas Eve. Quiet. Cosy. Hehe.
jOyZ blogged at 9:59 PM
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Sunday, December 19, 2004
Blessings Missed...
I woke up about an hour ago. Sigh. So horrible huh. I didn't even hear my handphone alarm go off at 7.30am for church. And Pastor David Wu is preaching today. ARGH! I've missed God's blessings. :(
Sigh. Anyway, it's no use crying over spilt milk. So here I am, blogging my time away again.
I'll be going down to Tiong Bahru market to meet up the rest at 1.45pm. We're all going Gina's uncle's place again, this time for a movie marathon. Gosh, I wonder what movies we're going to watch. Shall I bring some of my VCDs over? Hm...
Oh yeah, speaking of which, I must remember to return Joey her VCD.
I would want to catch Oceans 12 and Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason. Well, at least these two movies first. I wonder when I can watch them.
My pupils finally got their N-level results on Friday, 17th. It was a shock - 100% pass for English Language! I didn't sleep a wink on Thursday night because I was trying to come up with impressive, yet honest, testimonials for my pupils. At the start, it was quite easy because I used a lot of flowery adjectives. After a while, I ran out of interesting words. Sigh. So the testimonials got shorter and shorter. Never mind, now that their results are out, I still one more year to polish up the testimonials - except for those who did not get promoted.
Anyway, back to Friday, the 17th. While I was half-typing and half-dozing off in front of my laptop, Yani called me sometime after 8.30am. Here is part of the conversation:
Me: (voice cracky due to a bad cough, plus having no sleep at all) Hullow.
Yani: (slight pause) May I speak to Joycelyn?
[Haha. She couldn't recognize my voice.]
Me: Yes, speaking.
Yani: Okay, I am going to scream.
Me: (totally clueless) Huh.
[In my mind, I was thinking, "Did I do something wrong...?"]
Yani: (jubilantly) We've got a 100% pass in English okay! Everyone cleared EL!
She rattled off some more, but I only heard those words because my mind just froze in shock. I kept saying "you gotta be kidding" and "I don't believe it". It was just too amazing.
Later on in school, even as the principal was giving his speech, I could see most of the pupils were anxious to know their results. After some time, Mr Lau announced the top scorers for both NA and NT streams. For NT, Adna, Helen and Huiting came in top. For NA, the top scorers were Kuan Loong, Reynold, John, Pit Kun, Jiaming and Junkai. I'm really happy for them.
But now that all the excitement is over, I'm freaking out for 2005. Gosh, there'll be so much to do! Especially when it's going to be the 2nd year for the EL new syllabus paper. I suspect they'll raise the standard a bit, so it won't be that easy... which means, everyone will have to work DOUBLY hard! x
Okay, I'd better calm myself down a bit. *mops my brow*
Oh, Mag's just called. She said the pastor prayed for the worship team!!! *wails* And I wasn't there to receive the blessings! SIGH. Never mind. I'll just wait for the blessings to come another time. Erh, that is, hopefully there'll be another one coming. ;x
Alright. I guess I'd better go get ready to meet the rest. Hoho. I'm disgustingly late as usual. ;x
jOyZ blogged at 11:24 AM
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Thursday, December 16, 2004
Reasons For The Good And Bad
It has been an awful day. First of all, I didn't sleep very well. Secondly, I woke up to the sound and smell of fumigation. Thirdly, it rained the whole day. Fourthly, I didn't have my laptop with me the whole day as my brother needed it urgently. Fifthly, my throat is hurting and I can't stop coughing. Sixthly, my nose is giving me problems. Seventhly, my friend couldn't meet me for dinner because she's fallen ill too. Eighthly, my mom cooked laksa and I had to eat it for dinner with my bad throat! Ninthly, I've still got work to do (ugh). Finally, my head's starting to hurt.
There. TEN GOOD REASONS WHY TODAY HAS BEEN AWFUL.
Perhaps I should learn to count my blessings as well: Thank God that...
1) lunch with Cheryl, Sherie and Hwei Leng was good. We went Paragon's Crystal Jade Golden Palace for dim sum. The chair was heavy. Waw - even the chopsticks were heavy (they had GOLD at the top ends). The food was nice. Best of all, Sherie's son was so smiley... so round and so cute. =)
2) I had a good time strumming on my guitar. I think I played for about an hour and it certainly felt good to be able to play something for a while.
3) I had a rested nap after that. It certainly compensated the horrible sleep I had the previous night.
4) I had 'proper' food for dinner. Okay, so maybe the food wasn't exactly soothing to my throat, but I'm thankful I didn't have to eat instant noodles -again-.
5) my laptop is finally back in my room! My brother has so considerately skipped his Aikido lesson this evening so that I can have my laptop to finish up my work.
SO! I'm going to do my work now. Time to be a 'smoke' machine now.
jOyZ blogged at 8:07 PM
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Sunday, December 12, 2004
Tired But Wide Awake...
I've been back since slightly after 4pm and had the intention to take a nap, but decided to come online instead. I'm tired, but don't know why, don't feel like I want to nap as yet. Perhaps I'll concuss after this blog.
Yesterday was a tiring day. Cleaned the living room and dining room with my family and it took us the entire afternoon. Thankfully, I could still go for Gina's birthday dinner celebration though I arrived 45 minutes late. I'd asked Jann to help me order fish and chips (the dinner was at Swensen's), so by the time I arrived, the food came too. Haha. How timely. =D I was absolutely starving.
So we ate, fellowshipped, took pictures and then, the highlight of the dinner - Jann bought Gina this really LC cake, stuck some candles on it and I fed her a piece. Haha. But the staff told us that outside food wasn't allowed, so after she nibbled on that piece, we threw away the rest of the LC cake. Yeah, Kris managed to snap that shot. I'll try to post it up as soon as possible. Hek hek hek.
After dinner, we gathered outside and Jocelyn said a prayer of blessing for Gina. On our respective way home, some of us decided to join Gina at her uncle's place in Tiong Bahru. Her uncle and his family had gone to Hong Kong for a few weeks and had asked Gina to look after their newly-renovated apartment for them while they are away. So, at the last minute, some of us met at Tiong Bahru MRT, and then we walked to the apartment.
The apartment was really cosy. Nice. Hoho. I saw little Shannon's shoes... so cute! Sigh. Pity she wasn't around. Then we just sat around, talking and crapping. After a while, Gina passed me a bag, which had a shirt in it. When I saw the shirt, I just burst out laughing - it had a picture of Edna Mode (the designer in The Incredibles) on it. Haha. I simply love that character. She's so ugly but yet so mega-HC and hi-tech. After I was done laughing, I checked the size of the shirt. Haha. It was a size XS! I can't even fit into a size M now, let alone XS! Thanks ah, Gina. You really overestimate my fitness level. Hahahahah. But anyway, it's a motivation for me to lose weight and get toned up! I wanna wear that silly shirt!!!!!
Ehm... but even if I can't wear, I'll just keep it because Edna Mode is just so funny. =) Heheh... thanks to Gina for being so sweet. Oh, and Mag bought me this Edna Mode mini-calendar too. Haha. You people really know what tickles me. Anyway, I hope Gina likes the Edna Mode mug Jann and I had bought for her. We thought it's pretty cool because it's slanted.
So we nua-ed together at her uncle's apartment till around 1.30am and went home by cabs. The minute I got home, I quickly washed up and collapsed into my bed.
I woke up one hour later than the time I set on my handphone's alarm clock. I thought of giving Joey a call, but decided to let her sleep a bit more, so went to wash up first. Then at 7.45am, I gave her a wake-up call. She called Gina, who called me back to make sure I wouldn't go back to sleep. Of course I didn't. I was super late for worship practice at 8am! Hiax! I didn't reach church till around 8.20am, I think.
And so, after practice, the service started. After the service, we gathered with Kris to pray for the X'mas outreach. Then I stayed on a while for a short meeting with Kris, after which I had lunch with Fangling, Joey and Jann at the coffee shop beside the market. Gina had left by then.
We went back to church to collect the Vineyard ministry pamphlets for distribution at block 644. It took us only 30 minutes to distribute. We walked back to church and talked for a while more before leaving. By then, it had started to rain. I decided to take a cab back home because my right toe (second one) was experiencing muscle cramp.
It still hurts now. Sigh. I hope it won't get any worse. That's what happens when I wear heels for too long. :( Gotta wear flats for the next few days when I go out. Hm, actually, I always wear flats when I go out.
Speaking of which, I need a pair of black heels. I'd better buy them soon before school reopens for 2005, or I won't have any shoes for work. Heh.
Oh, there's no skit rehearsal tomorrow evening. So I guess I have one more day to memorise my lines before the combined rehearsal on Tuesday evening at 7pm.
La la la.
jOyZ blogged at 5:17 PM
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Saturday, December 11, 2004
I Will Run To You
We were having worship practice on Thursday evening in church and we did this song. Cindy was leading with Jon's help. You go, girl! =)
Anyway, the song encouraged me that evening. This year has been one of the darkest periods of my life and I've been questioning my faith. I realise that the line between right and wrong is so much thinner when God is out of the picture. That's why the struggle.
I Will Run To You
Your eye is on the sparrow...
And Your hand, it comforts me...
From the ends of the earth
To the depths of my heart
Let Your mercy and strength be seen...
You call me to Your purpose...
As angels understand...
For Your glory
May You draw all men
As Your love and grace demand...
And I will run to You...
To Your words of truth...
Not by might...
Not by power...
But by the Spirit of God...
Yes I will run the race...
Till I see Your face...
Oh let me live in...
The glory of Your grace...
jOyZ blogged at 2:04 PM
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Monday, December 06, 2004
My Weekend
Geez, the title sounds like something I would ask my pupils to write on. Hah.
Well, let me see. I was in Batam on Friday and Saturday. Then it was church all the way on Sunday.
I met Mag at Harbour Front MRT at around 11am on Friday. (Some drama happened at home in the morning, but I don't think I want to talk about it anymore. Just thank God that it didn't blow out of proportion.) Then we went to shop for groceries (again!) at the Cold Storage there. I had a feeling I was going to abandon SBD for a while. Hiax. After that, we hung around waiting for Gina to appear. As expected, she was late as she had some meeting going on in the morning. But the ticketing personnel didn't scream at us for checking in late, so I guess it was still okay. :)
We boarded the ferry and we were off to Batam! Hungry as usual, we finished the one and only packet of tidbits we bought at Cold Storage. Haha. Mag and I had wanted to control our eating habits, but I'm not so sure if buying one packet of tidbits had made any difference really. ;p
The journey took between 45 minutes and an hour. There was the Indonesian version of Candid Camera on board. It was quite hilarious really. There was this girl (the hired actress) who purposely pushed her way in front of people on the escalator. After waiting for a few seconds, she'd whipped her sweater backwards so that she could hang it on her shoulders. Naturally, that action caused bewilderment then anger from the people standing behind her. One victim nearly tried to grab the hired actress but she walked away quickly after whipping her sweater. Heh. Quite dumb.
Towards the last ten to fifteen minutes, we somehow concussed. Anyway, we woke up when we neared Batam and got off the ferry. At the arrival's entrance, we were transported to Harris Resort in a Harris van. After checking in, we went to our room (520 - it was a number which the staff at the resort had to remember during the period we were there... hahahah) and vegetated on the bed, watching HBO at the same time. It was some crap movie - we couldn't decide whether it was supposed to be a horror flick or a suspense story until towards the end of the whole story. Oh, we ordered food too - claypot tofu and mee goreng. Only the claypot tofu came. Apparently, they forgot all about the mee goreng. When the operator called, she asked if we wanted anymore additional food items. Gina asked if we could have them FOC. The operator was unsure and called back later to say that the mee goreng would be 50% but we had to pay for additional food ordered. Haha. 50% off was better than nothing, so we waited for the mee goreng to come. That was our lunch.
After a while, Gina and Mag went for aromatherapy massage. I decided not to go in the end because I didn't like the idea of a stranger massaging me. I ended up watching the repeated telecast of some Mandarin drama serial on Channel 8 until they came back at 7pm (Batam time, which is Singapore 8pm).
After Gina and Mag had taken their respective showers, we decided to head down to Holiday Inn for dinner. The Harris van brought us there and we walked around the place before we settled at the cafe for our meal. It was a buffet. For S$33, we didn't really eat much although by the time we were done, we were stuffed. After dessert, we went up to take a look at the pool room. It was totally packed with youths. I think a family church is having their retreat there. So we decided to sit outside the lounge and listen to the lounge singer. FOC! We spent too much cash on room service and the dinner and didn't want to spend anymore. Hoho. The lady singer was really good. We were all mesmerized by her voice. =)~~~
By the time she finished singing, it was around 11pm (Batam time). We decided to go back to the resort. We had to wait at the lobby for 35 minutes for the van to come and fetch us! Wonder what took them so long. We speculated that maybe the staff at Harris found us too tiresome, so they decided to pick us up later. Haha.
The minute we got back to our room, I went to take a quick shower and settled in my bed to watch HBO again. Haha. After some time, we got tired and switched off the TV to sleep. Somehow I couldn't sleep. I kept hearing water pattering in the bathroom next door. I guess someone was taking a late bath. After a while, I heard someone snore. Haha. It was either Gina or Mag. I still couldn't sleep, so I decided to wake up to charge my handphone because the battery was low. All the power points couldn't seem to work! Duh. So I dunked back into bed and tossed and turned till I finally slept.
We woke up around 9plus in the morning. Gina continued to sleep while Mag and I went down to the cafe to have our breakfast. We ate and talked quite a bit until around 11am. By the time we went up to the room, Gina was up already and was watching TV. We decided to extend our stay by a few more hours and Gina called the receptionist to book our return ferry trip at 2.50pm (Batam time). Mag and I went down to the receptionist with our passports, but there was a long queue.
Halfway waiting, my tummy started to hurt. I went to the ladies at the lobby but there was no more toilet paper. Rather than wait for the staff to get fresh ones, I decided to go back to our room. Mag in the meantime was supposed to settle the booking of the ferry ride back to Singapore, and buy Gina a slice of cake (we decided to do a surprise-mini-early birthday celebration for her).
I went back to the lobby but Mag was nowhere to be found, so I went up to the room again. Mag was outside. She said Gina suspected something amiss. Haha. Anyway, she couldn't get the cake because there was only vanilla-flavoured ones. She managed to get a candle though and bought this small dinosaur stuffed toy donned in Harris attire. Hoho. We decided to just walk into the room with a lit candle and give her the stuffed toy. Haha.
I don't know how Gina felt. But she made a wish before she blew the candle anyway and accepted the little stuffed toy. After that, we lazed around a bit more, ate our bowl noodles, packed up and went downstairs for lunch. Yeah, we ate again. We couldn't really finish our lunch after snacking on the bowl noodles.
After lunch, it was back to Singapore. The Harris van brought us to the ferry station and we got on the ferry. On the ferry, we slept like pigs. Even then, I could feel the ferry speeding at certain points because the ride was bumpy. But still, we slept.
Finally, upon arriving WTC, we went to McDonald to grab some food (yeah, we ate -again-) and decided to proceed to Gina's grandma's place from there. We had the intention to swim. However, we ended up vegetating on the couch in the living room, watching TV and disturbing the pet terrapin. ;p We also chatted a little with Gina's grandma.
At around 6.45pm, we left the place and took a cab down to town to meet Jann and Kris for dinner. Lena still hadn't confirmed with Jann if she would be coming down as she had a meeting going on. We ended up having dinner at Great Eastern's Hans. Halfway through, Jann received Lena's message which said she wasn't joining us, which was kinda expected because it was quite late. So we just ate and fellowshipped, and went home at around 9plus. On my way home, there was a jam in town. It took me 45 minutes to get home. Pretty long considering that I usually take 30 minutes to get home from Chinatown. I can't remember what I did after that at home, but I slept pretty early by 11.30pm or so.
The next day, I woke up late for church though. By the time I rushed down, I was just in time for the holy communion... missed worship totally. :( After service, we had lunch, went back to church and proceeded with the prayer walk. By the time my group ended our prayer walk, it was about 4plus. Gina had cancelled the rehearsal for the skit earlier on.
Gina, Jann, Joey and I headed down to the beancurd place because Joey was hungry and I needed the aircon to cool down, but no one seemed to want to eat anything from there, so we moved off to Bishan via cab. Mag didn't join us because she was going over Zhiwei's place for dinner. We grabbed some food and drinks at Coffee Beans and talked a bit here and there.
When we felt hungry enough again, we went over to Ding Tai Feng for dinner. It was super crowded. We waited for around half an hour to get a table. We ordered lots of food too - one bowl of noodles with some kinda bean paste (dried) that came with a small bowl of chicken soup, another bowl of wanton noodles (soup), a plate of prawn fried rice, a set of 小笼包 (6 pieces), a bowl of spicy and sour soup (which wasn't spicy nor sour at all) and 2 plates of vegetables (豆苗 and spinach). The chicken soup was great and so were the vegetables. I guess my craving for the greens was especially intense that day.
So we ate, we talked about primary school days... all the crappy and silly things girls would do. We were also shocked to see someone eating a plate of pork fried rice all by himself. But, okay, he was really huge-size, so his appetite was probably as large. ;o By the time we finished eating, we were stuffed. I felt I could fast for the following meals for the coming week! Hah!
That was about it. My weekend.
jOyZ blogged at 11:57 AM
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Wednesday, December 01, 2004
Grocery Shopping
I just came back not too long ago from grocery shopping with Mag at PS's Carrefour.
While waiting for Mag, I saw Esther. She came back last night from Australia. This lady is really 'happening'! She just cut her hair, so she was on her way home to bathe. Then she said she was going for aerobics, after which she'd meet her friends. After that, she'll be going for salsa class. :O Back within a day and so many things going on. Haha. Good for her. Oh yeah, she said she has a job interview next week too.
After that, in the elevator at PS, I met Hetai. He has been working at Carrefour for 3 weeks. He still looks as round as ever. Probably even rounder. Anyway, he just finished his morning shift and was leaving work.
At Carrefour, Mag and I bought what we needed for SBD. I bought lotsa cheese (light) to serve as snack, 300g of cachew nuts (can eat only 15 per day), chicken breast meat, lettuce, and 3 packets of mushrooms. I'd wanted to buy some cauliflowers, but thought it was too heavy to lug home as I'd already had quite a bit of things to carry.
After shopping, we went to the foodcourt to eat. I never realised that 99% of the stalls are like selling rice / noodle dishes. All the carbohydrates! I could only order a bowl of sliced fish soup. The uncle asked me if I wanted any rice to go with the soup. I told him 'no' and he gave me a weird look. Haha. A lady wants to go on diet! What's so weird about that eh! ;p
Anyway, I gotta run now. Rehearsal for the play's at 7pm and I'm still blogging here! Hohoho! Disgustingly late as usual. And all the scripts are with me! BLEAUH!!!
jOyZ blogged at 6:12 PM
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