It has been some time since I wrote something here... well, I've been busy... busy with work, tuition, not busy sitting at home... As mentioned in my earlier posts, I will be doing relief teaching till the new sem starts in Aug... Work, so far has been all right, just that sometimes, you need to think of a less confusing, more direct way of explaining certain concepts to the students. I understand that for I have been through sec sch and I'm glad that I have teachers who can explain concepts to them, so, I'm just hoping that I can do that too. The thing about work is that whenever my day ends, I will be too tired to go anywhere. But the moment I reach home, I will regret not going out. I'm always in a dilemma... oh my. I guess I need more time to adjust. Give me some time, and I'm sure this will get better. And like all students, I'm actually looking forward to today, the youth day holiday. Most teachers will not be like me I guess. But I need this break to recharge and to refresh myself... Cherish today, for the next sch holiday will be the National Day holiday which is more than one month away! Enough about school... I do have a social life apart from school and tuition...

Friday's gathering cum dinner cum games at Settlers' was great. It was a wonderful session, with dinner, catching-up, presents exchanging and photo taking...

I didn't expect Settlers' to be located at such an isolated part of Holland V, but I guess given it's well known name, nobody will get lost... hopefully not...

Below are some pictures from Friday...

Scrapbook in the making...

My personal fav... not because I'm a fan of Mayday...

Msg from Gi to Jie... are you touched?

Hmm, what should we have?

The Starters

The Main Course... I think Cajun Chicken is worth trying...

The dessert...

I think it is not the food that make Settler a worthwhile place to visit, but rather, Settler shines on its ambience, service, and the games...

The first game of the night- Take Six... not too bad...

Trying to figure out which dice to keep to maximise chance of winning a prize...

Can't believe my luck that night...

The igloo game... played with the most noise due to the nature of the game, not the nature of those playing...

Pigs in love...

Trying to get an artistic shot...

Everyone's happy with their presents... I hope Nic Sparks will have his next bk publish soon... anyway, I think one of my proudest achievements in my twenty years of life is to have read every bk tt Sparks wrote... I think I will try to complete the John Grisham's collection... hmm.


Finally, a group pic...

The STAR of the night... everyone was busy taking pics with it...

btw, I was the person holding this bear upright... that's why the pic looks so good...

Sunday was the day when I met up with Lydia. We have been busy with sch the last sem that we didn't even get to meet once last sem to study together. Really miss those times when we will meet at West Mall or Anchorpoint to mug... those were really the times. And so, yesterday, we met at good, old West Mall for lunch. It's a pity that we couldn't spend more time together... but we have thought of going back to St Margs one of these days...

btw, the Miso crucnch taste from yesterday's lunch was still in my mouth when i woke up this morning... just a random remark...

Going out with mum to Orchard later... i'm a Mummy's girl... haha

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.

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...

"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...

Register at http://www.everystudent.com.sg/alphacamp

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...

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.