Saturday, June 23, 2007

I think this is going to be a very long post... wasn't intending to blog when I got home, but now, I think i'm high on coffee, so here it goes.
Today, hmm, actually yesterday was a really memorable and special day for me, hadn't had such fun in a long while already and I thank everyone (you know who you are) for making yesterday such a memorable day in my life. Thanks.
Yesterday was kind of the "day of the firsts".
Why?
1. It was the first day of the 2nd decade of my life.
2. It was my first time going to Pasir Ris Park.
3. It was my first time flying a kite.
4. It was my first time I went for Sakae Sushi Buffet Lunch.
5. It was my first time spending my birthday with friends for most of the day.

And so, we went cycling at this nice, rather quiet and peaceful in the East. Along the way, we came across this shop which sells kites. And so, we bought our kites there. Our plan was actually to get down to Marina Bay to get kites before heading down to West Coast to fly our kites. But, we are fortunate to be able to get kites in the East and it saves us a trip down to Marina Bay. And we met a super nice uncle in that shop who gave me a lollipop for my birthday... hehe...

The tele-tubbies kites being sold.

The friendly uncle and my present- the lollipop. Buy kites from him if you are there...


And along our way on our bikes, we stopped at this place which we named the secret garden for some photo shots...

The Secret Garden.

I have more pics of us there. Just click on the link: 22nd June 2007 on the left.

We decided to then head for the playground after that... but to our dismay, the playground was packed with children and teenagers, so we decided to stop at those rocky cliffs to take some pictures and rest. It was at that rocky area where we decided to try flying our kites...
The view from the rocky cliffs where we sat. I would love to make a trip to one of these water homes one day.


The pic is one of my personal favourites.

There's six different designs for the kites. And we bought 3 of the designs.

Assembling the kite.
The assembled kites. I like all the designs, cos they are all so colourful and bright. It makes me happy.

Trying to get the kite flying.

Finally, it's flying. Not quite finally cos of the strong wind current.

And wow, thanks to the strong and generous wind of the day, our kites flew high, and it makes us feel very professional (not too bad for people like me who are flying kites for the first time). The one on the right is Cheryl's kite. And it looks kind of out of place, do you think so?


After kite flying was lunch at Sakae... and I don't think it was worth our money... but it was a lesson that we learnt, despite the cost of it.

Some of the food that we ordered.

We headed down to JE next to take neo-prints; the second part of these freakingly resembles our trip to West Coast and JE last Dec after our final papers, though the sequence of events were opposite. I think neo-prints machines have their way of making you look nicer in neo-prints than in photographs. Maybe that's the reason why they are raking in money.

I think this is especially cool.
Don't we all look oh-so demure? Looks can be decieving though.

And of course, there's West Coast Park... We actually wanted to fly our kites there... but there wasn't a strong enough wind current there... so, we actually sat down and snacked and chatted our evening away before some adventure to end the day... There will be pics of West Coast when I recieve the pics from Lisa...
Then, there was celebration at home with my family as well... Celebration with family is alsways special in its own unique way every year... words can't express my gratitude and thanksgiving I have for my parents and even my brothers. Sometimes, I don't feel like I deserve them at all. Really, I can't thank them enough.
And it was when I'm bathing that I realised how tanned I became today.

Look at the contrast.
22nd June 2007.
I will always remember this day.
Thank God for all my friends, my family.
Thank God for the past year.
Thank you everyone who made today such a memorable day for me.
Praise the Lord for He is good. His Love endures forever.
Thanks.

Thursday, June 21, 2007

School's re-opening soon...
And i'm going to do relief teaching...
Really thank God for that position...
Will be busier in the next few days as I'll be preparing the lessons...
It's going to be an all-new experience for me...
Till next time...
How do you pronouce:
min and ming;
pin and ping;
qin and qing;
jin and jing;
tin and ting;
yin and ying;
sin and sing;
xin and xing;
There is a difference in the way they are pronounced, you know.
And most importantly,
how do you pronouce
lin and ling?
For my name is manlin and not manling...
I think sometimes even myself can't pronounce my name correctly... hmm...

Monday, June 18, 2007

"A dollar for my roses"

Tattered clothes upon his shoulders
He walks down the street, mile by mile,
His arms carrying a basket of roses
His face wearing a smile
He runs towards the people
As they shun and turn away
"Will you buy a rose kind mister?"
"Will you buy a rose today?"
"Just a dollar for my roses"
"Two dollars will get you three"
"Will you buy one rose kind mister?"
"Or if better, will you buy three?"
I rummaged through my wallet
I guess I could afford one or two
But what if others stopped to approach me?
I couldn't afford to help everyone else too
So I kept my wallet and turned away
But from the corner of my eye
For a moment that smile just disappeared,
And I thought I heard him cry,
"Just a dollar for my roses"
"Two dollars will get you three"
"Will you buy one rose kind mister?"
"Or if better, will you buy three?"
For he who welcomes these little children
Welcomes me in my name too
For the helpless, homeless, hungry and sick,
I too died for them, As I died for you
For the blessings I have given you,
are not meant for yourself to keep
for I have blessed you for one reason true
To be a blessing, to others you meet
I didn't ask you to help the whole world,
that isn't what I've set out for you
But within your means whatever you can give
Then give, for that, you can do
"A dollar for my roses"
I thought I heard the boy cry out once more
And as I reached into my wallet,
This time I was pretty sure
"Just a dollar for my roses"
"Two dollars will get you three"
"God bless you child," I replied,
"I'll give you five dollars, just for three"
I saw that smile again now full of joy
as he took the money from me
I heard his laughter ring through the air
as he ran down the street with glee
Just five dollars for the little boy,
Just three more roses for me,
for what mere five dollars could mean to me,
could mean the world to him
Tattered clothes upon his shoulders
he ran down the street, mile by mile
"Mama! We can buy milk for sister today"
"And food to last us a while"
"Maybe some medince for papa's cough"
"And clean bandages for your leg"
"For I met a kind stranger in the street"
"Who bought my roses today"
I told him,
"Just a dollar for my roses"
"Or two will you get three"
"But I knew he was a blessing from God"
"When he gave me five dollars for three"
For the suffering kids that are out there
A dollar could mean the world to them
For that much we've tried to help the less fortunate
how far, have we really stretched our hand?
For the world that lives in our riches abound
and our blessings that seem so free,
We could do with more people who would buy more roses
What more,

Kind strangers, who would buy three.
I got this poem from a senior's blog... he wrote this himself... beautiful words that spoke to me... Many a times, we often turn down opportunities to help others even though it is within our means to help them...
How many times have you walked past those old tissues sellers sitting along the pavements without buying?
How many times have you turned down or even shunned those students/ volunteers carrying tin cans asking for donations?
Are we all guilty of these?
Is it a lack of compassion? Is it fear? I know not.
What I do know is that it is so easy to talk about love in church and family, but do you and can you extend this agape love to someone who has got no blood relations with you?
I think I find this difficult. And so, I'm asking Him to teach me how to love. I have not been consistently praying for this, and hence it seems that I'm still where I started - times when a thoughtful poem reveals the state of my heart. But still, I believe that God answers prayer. And one day, I will truly love in kind.
Some advert again...
You are invited to:
NUS campus crusade freshman camp 11-13th July, PGP...
And I have been blogging about me involving in the prayer subcomm for Matric...
Below is a brouche for matriculation and the freshmen orientation camp this year.

We need your support...
By Praying for us... what you can help us pray for:
Some more information about the freshmen orientation camp...

You can drop me a tag just to inform me if you are praying for us...
Thank you for your support...
Lesson for the day:





Ohm's Law...



Part of the classroom...


Tuition's tiring... it's hard to imagine how those two Sec 2 students can be so active in my class... at the end of the lesson, i'll be so exhausted from nagging at them, asking them to do the exericses and questions... but then again, seeing them able to do those questions and learning something new make the tireness worthwhile...

Saturday, June 16, 2007

是你的, 就是你的.
有些东西, 是不能强求的.
勉强留着它, 是不会有快乐, 不会有意义的.
与其这样痛苦, 倒不如潇洒的放手
去追求真正属于自己的幸福与快乐.
人总是该学会放手.
有句话说得好,勉强是不会有幸福的.
但又有几个人会如此的洒脱呢?
It's been 6+ yrs since we met... And now, another one of us is leaving Singapore for Australia to further her studies there...
It's been 2 or 3 yrs since Gi left for Aust... and now, yet another one...
I know it's your choice... perhaps, it's your best choice...
So, here's wishing you all the best... hope everything goes well...

Los amigos buenos para siempre. Some things will never change no matter what.
The rice dumpling fest is coming... and hence, mum has made some rice dumpling...
Can you tell it's tasty?


This is my fav nonya dumpling...


The filling inside...

Happy rice dumpling fest... but go easy on the rice dumplings as eating too many at one go can readily cause indigestion...

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

To be or not to be,
That is the question.
William Shakespeare
My all-time favourite snacks...
maltesers...

and Pocky...

actually, there's more... like m&ms, Mars bars, Hello Panda...
For some reasons, I prefer chocolate Pocky and Milk Hello Panda...
I don't know why, it's my preference I guess... that or just because I'm weird...
will take some more pics of these yummy snacks next time for you to salivate...haha...
三只老虎的奥秘:
三只老虎, 三只老虎,
跑得快, 跑得快,
一只没有眼睛, 两只没有尾巴,
真奇怪, 真奇怪.
三只老虎的奥秘, 应该就是这样的.

Monday, June 04, 2007

I'm so tired of being here.
Suppressed by all my childish fears.
And if you have to leave
I wish that you would just leave
'Cause your presence still lingers here
And it won't leave me alone...
These wounds won't seem to heal...
This pain is just too real.
There's just too much that time cannot erase.
When you cried,
I'll wipe away all of your tears...
When you'd scream
I'd fight away all of your fears...
I held your hand through all of these years
But you still have.. All of me..
You used to captivate me...
By your resonating life...
Now I'm bound by the life you left behind.
Your face it haunts, my once pleasant dreams...
Your voice it chased away, all the sanity in me...
These wounds won't seem to heal...
This pain is just too real...
There's just too much that time cannot erase...
I've tried so hard to tell myself that you're gone...
But though you're still with me...
I've been alone all along.
I'm well these few days... thanks to the prayer meetings and prayer meets... Prayers work wonders and prayer meetings/ meets are inspirational. Seeing at how my bros and sis have been praying really motivates me to want to talk to God, to spend really quality time with Him. Huiqi brought out a few points during the last prayer meet; that is it is through hectic times that God shines through. How true, isn't it. During peaceful times, nobody will think of talking to God, and asking for His help... it is only in times of trouble that we will approach Him in prayer, hoping that He is like what the Bible says, faithful and just. Hence, learning to be thankful to God for peaceful times is a big lesson that I have learnt. Though it is the sch hols now, and there seems to be nothing much to pray for, I will nevertheless, learn to give thanks. Give thanks for seeing me through the first year of uni, give thanks for friends in sch, give thanks for the wonderful spirtual support in uni... in the meantime, i'll also be praying for matric... praying for the incoming freshmen... believe in prayers.
And one more thing, do keep the people going to South Thailand in prayer, for there's been some unexpected violence in that area which had never happened. They may re-locate to some other places, but no matter what, pray for their safety.