Tuesday, January 25, 2005
Too Much Tennis and Sun
I came back from school about one and a half hours ago, and cooked and ate an early dinner at around five plus. I'm feeling pretty tired actually, but thought I'd better not sleep so soon after eating. Heh. ;p
Alright... let me update a little what happened over the past 2 days.
Sunday (23rd)
I woke up at around 9am and got ready to head down to Dover where Gina's uncle lives. I was supposed to meet Gina at around 9.45am at some bus stop along Dover Road. Anyway, I didn't leave my house until 9.50am, so by the time I took a cab down to Dover, it was around 10am. I met her outside her uncle's condominium. We decided to wait for Joey at her uncle's apartment. We sat for a while and decided not to wait for Joey anymore. By the time we started playing, it was around 10.45am.
Joey came at around 11am, I think. We took turns playing because there were only 2 rackets. As noon approached, it got really hot. I borrowed Gina's cap to block out the sunlight from my eyes. I tried to learn how to serve. Of course I couldn't make it. Haha.
We played until 1pm or so and rested for a while, talking. Andy and Aifang arrived at around one plus and I played tennis with Aifang for a while, then with Andy. Basically, we were picking up the tennis balls most of the time. Haha. Slightly after 2pm, Aifang and I went to the pool for a swim. My right arm was quite tired from too much tennis and I couldn't swim much either. So we went to bathe at around 2.45pm. Joey bathed as well while Gina went up to her uncle's apartment. Hoho. We were all burnt! Joey was really RED. Like a lobster.
We took a long time deciding where to move off from Dover. Finally we decided to head to a food centre at Holland for lunch and called Jann to meet us there. Unfortunately, by the time we got there, most of the stalls were closed. We decided to walk to Holland Village to see what we can eat, and settled eventually at the foodcourt.
After a late lunch, we took a bus to town because Andy and I had wanted to check out the prices for handphones. We went to Lucky Plaza as a lot of shops selling handphones are located there. I couldn't find a price (for Nokia 6260) that was as low as the one offered at AMK, so I decided to stop looking. My head was starting to hurt from staying too long in the sun too. I went home soon after, at around 6.30pm while the rest went to grab a tea.
By the time I was home, it was about 6.45pm and I zonked out on my bed.
Monday (24th)
Yesterday was horrible, as all my Mondays usually are. Sigh. Super-packed timetable, followed by afternoon assembly (which usually takes forever) and then Choir. I didn't have to stay for Choir yesterday though because Haryati was staying with Teing Im. For once, I could leave early on Monday. Anyway I went to Tanglin Mall to get some groceries and met Denis Kong there. I was at the cashier paying when I thought someone was waving at me. I looked up to see him doing just that. Hahah. He was probably there with his wife or family. After that I took a cab home and zonked right out again.
Today was slightly better. My timetable in school wasn't as packed and I left for home at around 4pm. I'm still feeling tired though. Too much tennis in the sun on Sunday probably.
Anyway, I think I'm going to grab a nap and wake up later to do marking. Blog another day.
jOyZ blogged at 6:00 PM
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Saturday, January 22, 2005
Jam & Jann
It's Saturday again and there's the service later at 5.30pm. There'll worship practice at 4pm. I hope everything will be set up by then. =)
We had a worship meeting at church yesterday morning. We had ice-breaker. Then Pastor James stated the objectives and laid out the regulations for all worship teams. He mentioned that all of us would have to sign a letter of commitment (of a year) at a later date.
The meeting wrapped up at around noon. We went downstairs and I saw Xiafeng and Jon setting up the stage. Elaine was sitting on the blue platform, so I asked her if they were having worship practice. She replied that Uncle Alvin was going to have worship practice at 1pm for the Chinese service. I approached Uncle Alvin about it and he said he would have the practice once the set up was done and would be done by the time we come back. Thank God for his understanding! Phew!
But I'm just wondering if there could be some kind of a booking system to avoid clashes like this. Instead of calling people up, could there be some kind of online portal site for members to log in to make bookings/cancellations for rooms at church... like how it's done at my school? Anyway, that's something to think about.
After that Mag, Cindy, Benji, Clement, Andy, Fangling and I went for lunch at McDonald's. Jann left to meet her friends for lunch, while Viv had to meet some youths. Abi would be joining us for practice at around 1pm. I'd invited her to join the worship team for practices.
At around 1.15pm, we went back to church. Uncle Alvin was about to wrap up the worship practice with his team. A few minutes later, when I came back from photocopying the song sheets, he was done with practice.
So we started ours. It was rather messy at first. I guess probably we needed some time to warm up and get used to one another. Heh heh. After a while, I thought we sounded alright. Viv left at around 2.30pm because she had discipleship with some youths. The rest of us continued practice after Andy came up with the chords for the first and last songs. Haha, he called Samuel up to ask for the chords of the first song! Then, Mag spoke to Sam on the phone for a while. She said he just kept laughing. ;o
We finished practice at around 3pm? 3plus? Erhm, I don't know... didn't really note the time. Then we unofficially started jamming. Haha. First I tried the drums. I haven't played on it for quite some time, so I couldn't quite do the rolls properly. ;x Then I tried the keyboard. So crappy! Haha! I didn't know what I was playing. I just played simple chords I guess. Example, when I saw the chord Bsus, I just played a B chord. After some time on the keyboard, I played a bit of the guitar too. Heh...
I realised something though - my right hand reacted more slowly than my left hand on the keyboard. I wonder why eh? Anyway, Abi and Fangling were exceedingly patient. They allowed me to try out the chords on the keyboard for the same song (even though I played crap) until I could played more smoothly. Seriously, after a while, I was seeing stars. o_O Even though I was just hitting the same chords, and not able to vary my playing style, I had loads of fun. This was like the first time in 10 years (!!!!!) since I played anything on the keyboard at all! =O
We stopped at around 5pm. Andy had left earlier to meet some people. Clement had also left at around four plus. I think we enjoyed ourselves. Abi said she did, while Fangling was adventurous enough to play the drums and keyboard too! Haha... next time must ask her to play a whole song at least. x)
Ah, must really come up with a day for jamming. After just crapping on the keyboard myself within a single session, I feel that one can really learn something if one is courageous enough to participate. This 'something' can be anything from picking up basic skills in playing an instrument, to flowing together in a team, or just simply learning more about yourself and others. There were quite a few times I'd wanted to give up playing on the keyboard because I was not able to play the right chords (mind you, they were just simple, basic ones). But everyone was so patient. Clement didn't mind singing the song over and over again! And I know how boring it can get just singing the same song repeatedly. Abi kept egging me on, "You almost got it. Try again." And Fangling, in her own silent way, just kept playing the guitar without a word of complaint - even though her fingers were hurting, I am sure. With such support, how could one not press on? It was indeed a blessed time I had with all of them. =)
Thank God for them. :D
Haha... and our dear, dear Jann has done it again! She sent a message to announce (to Gina perhaps... I don't know who else) that she knew where I wanted to go eat for my birthday, without realising that she had sent the message to ME instead/as well! *LOL*
Jann ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh... hahahahah... *falls off my chair*
jOyZ blogged at 9:36 AM
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Tuesday, January 18, 2005
No Man Is An Island
I've been rather upset the past couple of days. Sometimes, I really have the urge to give up on everything. Be a recluse somewhere. Be forgotten. Be dead.
Since we're all growing old and dying anyway.
But no man is an island. I imagine I'd become bored and lonely after sometime as a recluse.
Hm, or would I?
If only God had made humans less complicated. But, what kind of a world would that be then?
Thank God - I'm not Him.
jOyZ blogged at 10:22 AM
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Wednesday, January 12, 2005
New Shoes! Whee!
I bought a new pair of shoes! That really made my day because I had a miserable afternoon. Don't want to talk about it. Anyway, somehow, I managed setting a grammar test for 4H - to be administered tomorrow morning. After that, I went to town to shop a little while waiting to meet Gina for dinner.
I went Scotts Isetan to look at the clothes. There were quite a few pink numbers, which were a bit too sweet for my taste. I went to the ground level and looked at the shoes. Within 30 minutes or so, I bought this pair of red Elle shoes, which I thought were pretty cute-looking. I think they'll go well with my jeans. Hoho. And probably nothing else.
After that, I bought an umbrella for myself. A really tiny one, so that I can carry it in my bag wherever I go. I walked around a bit some more and decided to go up to the 5th level to wait for Gina. My feet were hurting.
She arrived some time after 7pm. She bought a pair of Adidas sports shoes too at Queensway. We had burgers from McDonald's. While eating, we talked... till a little before 10pm, then left for home.
Hoohoo... I'm wondering when I'll have the chance to wear my new shoes! =)
jOyZ blogged at 11:05 PM
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Sunday, January 09, 2005
Raining Again
It's Sunday. I'm not in church today because we had our first YA and Youth Service of the year yesterday evening. By the grace of God, worship wasn't as bad as I'd feared. Gina led the praise segment while I did the worship part. We just need better coordination amongst us. Kinda 'messed up' the transition from the 2nd last song (Eagle's Wings) to the last song (I Will Run To You). I gave the signal to change song, but forgot to signal that I wanted to enter into the chorus. Eek! So I sang in the wrong key and realised it was lower when the musicians switched. Eek! So horrible! But anyway, I just worshipped lah.
For sermon, Kris preached on how to make dreams/visions into a reality. We only had the first part yesterday evening. She'll continue the second part in next service. So how does one know whether a dream/vision is from God? Hoho... 1) It will glorify God, 2) It will equip the saints, 3) Ask for confirmation, which will be given, and 4) There will be no split.
After service, we went AMK Central to have dinner. I didn't eat the whole day, so shared herbal chicken rice with Gina. I just ate like 3 tablespoons of rice, some shreds of chicken meat and 2 pieces of popiah. We sat around to talk a bit. Wenjie came too. He was supposed to meet up with Gina to update and talk... stuffs like that. The rest of us left. I sent Kris home and went home. Thank God the cab driver was fast because my stomach was hurting like mad.
I tried to sleep after that and somehow managed to fall asleep despite the tummy ache. I woke up at about ten o'clock this morning. Haha.
Oh, it's raining again. Sigh. Terrible weather. I'll probably just rot at home the whole day. :p
jOyZ blogged at 11:37 AM
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Friday, January 07, 2005
TGIF!!!
Thank God it's Friday!!!
Yeah, it's Friday, Friday, Friday! And tomorrow is Saturday. And there's the service in the evening. *panics* Oh well, never mind. I'll just savour the feeling of Friday almost coming to an end. Actually, I like Fridays. :D
Well, I'm now waiting for Gina's call. If she's meeting Alicia, I'll probably go home and rest. If she's not meeting Alicia (which is most unlikely), I'll meet her in town. They have to get their friend's birthday present or something.
I've been marking test papers the whole afternoon. Haha. Yep. Test papers. I've actually finished marking all the test papers except for 5B's Diagnostic Comprehension Test. I'm still waiting for further instructions on how closely we should be marking it to the answer scheme. I have a feeling we're going to mark it as what is given in the scheme. That will mean a lot of 'bloodshed' for the graduating classes. Well, maybe not so bad for 4A perhaps? Heh.
Aye... where's Gina?! Maybe I should just go home and sleep. Hoho. I'll probably be late for worship practice then. I take forever to leave my house right after a nap. Hoho. xP
Hm, or should I just stay in school till 6pm? After all, it's just another 45 minutes. It takes me about 1 hours to get to church from school. Hm. Quite pointless to go home eh?
Yawn... I'm quite tempted to take a nap at my table.
The school's rather noisy now. The Secondary Ones are having their orientation camp today until tomorrow. Looks like fun. Hoho.
Yawn...
BUT I'm still thankful it's Friday!!! =D
jOyZ blogged at 5:08 PM
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Thursday, January 06, 2005
Mixed Emotions
Stressed. Upset. Worried. Angry. Frustrated. Resigned. Lost.
You know what? I just want focus on God. Nothing else.
But God's heart is for His people. The people He has created to worship Him. How can any christian just ignore that? Can't just ignore the people living all around.
It's a struggle, the christian walk. That's what makes it such a roller-coaster ride... because, instead of the usual ride operator, it's God who is in charge.
You'll never know what you're gonna get.
That is, till it hits you between the eyes.
jOyZ blogged at 1:09 AM
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Wednesday, January 05, 2005
Tired
It's only the third day of school and I'm tired. In fact, I've been tired since the first day. I guess I've vegetated so much during the holidays that the slightest work tires me out. Besides, I've been eating only one meal a day this week so far. I don't know why... just not having much of an appetite I guess.
There's cellgroup tonight. I'm feeling rather tired to attend, as always during school term, but I guess I must attend! It's better than just rotting at home. I've been doing nothing but either sleeping or going online. Hm, doesn't sound any different from time spent during the holidays. YEEEUCK!
Gosh, I wonder when I can play tennis again! I need the exercise! Oz was telling me one of the students somehow managed to get access to RP's tennis courts. Of course, I'm sure, payment of an annual fee is inevitable. I'm still scouting for a tennis racket anyway. La la la...
Anyway, I'm not blogging much. Too exhausted. I'm just wondering where I should go now - home or Kris' place?
jOyZ blogged at 5:11 PM
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Monday, January 03, 2005
First Day of School
It's the first day of school. Well, I was with 5B for the first 3 periods. We settled some class matters and I gave them a diagnostic writing test the last 30 minutes or so. Something about the tsunami, which occurred on Boxing Day 2004.
After that it was break for me. After recess, I went to 2H and told them my expectations and what to do tomorrow. I hope they remember. 2H is a terribly talkative lot. I heard 2G is worse. ;o
Another 20 minutes before CPA with 4G. Sigh.
After that, it's CPA meeting at 2pm. I hope to leave school by 4pm. I still have to go to the police station after school to make a police report for my missing laptop. *whines*
jOyZ blogged at 11:34 AM
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Sunday, January 02, 2005
Rain, Rain, Go Away!
I wish it'd stop raining. It has been raining non-stop the whole day - kinda dampening to the new year mood.
And it's school tomorrow! I can't believe it! Time has flown by so fast!
Anyway, I came back from church slightly over half-an-hour ago. Many changes will take place in church this year. The Saturday service, for one, will have its frequency increased to 2 times this month and 3 times in February. The pastoral team prayed for the core team this morning. Yeah, and Pastor James prayed for me. At first, I was just praying softly in tongues and somehow I just started praying louder and louder. The words just kept bubbling out. I couldn't stop! Haha. It suddenly felt as if I had a lot to say to the Lord and normal speaking words just couldn't quite express how I felt. The last time I had this experience was when Pastor Simon was praying for me during ministry time a few years ago.
After lunch, Mag and I sat down to draw up a rough guideline for the selection of the worship team. Some of us sat around to chit-chat as well. Kris came to spend some time with us too and we prayed for her. After that, some people went home, leaving Gina, Jann and I. So we went to McDonald to have some snacks and talked some more. We left at around 5pm and now, here I am, at home.
I'm feeling pretty tired actually, so I'm probably sleeping early tonight. Well, I'm skipping dinner because I had too much food at McDonald just now. Hm, maybe it's good that it's raining after all - can sleep better. Hah.
jOyZ blogged at 6:52 PM
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Saturday, January 01, 2005
Blessed New Year!
I got back almost an hour ago from church. It was a day full of meetings. Haha. I've never felt so "busy" before. ;p
First meeting of the day - I had to meet Mag at 1.30pm to discuss about drawing up guidelines for the worship team. Unfortunately, I was extremely late and we ended up talking about some other stuffs. Haha. I had my lunch at the same time - a McWings meal.
At 3pm, we had a meeting with Pastor James. It ended at around 5.30pm. After that, Kris had another meeting with some of us YA leaders and Youth leaders at 6.30pm. We ended at around 8pm, when it was time for the New Year's Eve service. There were many testimonials shared. Pastor James gave a sermon and the final segment was the BOL tradition, where everyone took an egg and cracked it with someone else's egg into this huge tray. This symbolised interaction between the lives of any two people. And when all the eggs were cracked and mixed together in the huge tray, it represented the one-ness of the entire church. The eggs were cooked and all of us ate fried eggs with bread. It was delicious! Yum! =9~
After that, we went up to the Children's Sanctuary for a YA and Youth gathering so that we could countdown to 2005. I led a short time of praise and worship. It was different for once because we worshipped in darkness! Haha... We switched off all the lights! It was a really different feeling. I think everyone felt more free to worship because we couldn't see one another. After that, Gina asked all of us to go around to bless one another for 2005. Kris came in a bit later and we had one last round of praise before settling down in a circle to give thanks to God for 2004. After thanksgiving, it was time to countdown! At 12mn, Kris opened a bottle of blue sparkling juice which Benji and Clement had bought earlier. Then we took turns to proclaim blessings for 2005.
After crapping for a while more, the youths requested the YAs to give a demonstration of how to play the game Mafia. Gina and Zhiwei were so ji1 dong4! Aiyo! Haha. Gina was good. I got fooled by her. *sobs* My gut feeling told me that Joey and Kris were mafias, but I wasn't sure about Gina. Even when Zhiwei admitted to being the spy, he was too worked up for me to believe him. Sigh! Silly me eh? But anyway, there were 4 votes against Gina, which means she 'died' eventually... so the mafia still lost the game. Hoho.
Well, I went home after that one round because I told my dad I would be home by 2am. Just as I was leaving, the youths decided to try to play the game. Haha. I wonder how did the game go.
Anyway, I'm bushed. Time to snooze.
BLESSED NEW YEAR TO ALL!!!
jOyZ blogged at 2:53 AM
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