Monday, November 27, 2006
Birthday chalet
Wor ho! Yesterday had indeed marked down one of my most memorable days. It was my birthday chalet and what could I say but thank God, thank God and thank God!
My day started with me waking up early in the morning at 9am. Shortly after, my aunt came and passed me all the food that she had helped me to buy and prepare, such as chicken wings, bee hoon, curry and some utensils. When it was slightly passed 10am, I went off to my nearby confectionary shop to get the 3kg cake which I had pre-ordered. I came back home and at around 11plus am, Joyce called me to say that she had reached Lavender. Yvette would reach in 10mins, Alex was going to leave his house, etc... Haha... then I called Erin and she told me that Junhui was at Tiong Bahru market. He was helping me to buy the fishballs from that particular store at Tiong Bahru which was very popular. Later on, he also helped me to buy many others such as brush, blue tac and Merci chocolate (supposingly to be used for the game as a prize, but didn't use it in the end).
Well Joyce suggested to Alex that the two of them plus Vet should meet me up first at my house downstairs to help me carry my things and that the four of us should board a cab from my house to the chalet directly. So my mum and aunt helped me to carry all my things inside the lift (more than 10 bags of 'lobang') and I was hugging this huge cake all the while, not wanting any smashing to happen in any way. It was very heavy and I thought to myself, if they were not going to be there when the lift stopped at level 1, then that would be it! How would I be able to carry these 10 bags out from the lift with so many people waiting to go in? Wor! But you know what? When the door opened at level 1, I immediately saw my 3 beloved friends (or should I say angels? Lol...) They ran towards me and quickly helped to 'upload' all my 'barang barang' out from the lift. Joyce helped to take care of the things, while Vet, Lex and myself quickly carry the stuff to the nearest road to board a cab. Finally the four of us boarded a cab and went on our way there. Big project huh? To me, it was big indeed, lol.
We managed to alight somewhere near my chalet (at around 11plus) and we wanted to place our things in my chalet table first because I could only checked in at 2.30pm according to that pic. However we couldn't and so Lex went to the office with me to put the chicken wings, cake and some of the frozen food in their office fridge first. When we went back to Joyce and Vet, that lady who was cleaning that room told me that the office called and I was told to put the chicken wings in my chalet fridge instead because it was kind of leaking, (as in the spices that was used to marinate the chicken wings). So Lex and myself went to take back the chicken wings and placed it in my chalet fridge instead. Joyce and I stayed around there to take care of the stuff, while Vet and Lex took bus 29 from the bus stop to help me get other things and meet Erin and Junhui up at the same time.
Joyce and I were sitting at the bench at A for a while until some insects started to take notice of us, alamak... So we migrated to the one nearer to my chalet, which was building D. We sat there for a while longer until it was drizzling. So one malay staff saw us and told us that we could checked in. So happy because we managed to check in at 1.40pm. I quickly cooked the curry when we checked in. At around 3plus, Huiting reached and shortly after I also went for a shower. I changed to my black shirt but I was wearing shorts. Joyce was saying that my shirt definitely would not match my shorts as my shirt looked formal. I was puzzled for a while because she was right, lol... Then I decided to call Vet (because they were at Tampines at that time) to ask her to help me buy a dress. That problem was solved because she agreed without hestiation. Lex also called twice to ask what else I needed. So sweet of them. At around 4plus, Junhui, Vet, Lex and Erin reached. I wanted to pay them for my dress, fishballs and everything they had helped me to buy but they just wouldn't take my money. They insisted that all these were 'blessings' for my birthday. Alamak... but anyway must remember I owe you guys a treat okay? =)
All who were there at that time said a prayer together. We prayed for Christ's presence to come into the chalet and we lifted up everything to His control. At 5plus, many others reached, such as Mingze, Rena, Singyee, etc. They helped to decorate the place, bring out the food from the kitchen to the bench tables outside, near the bbq pit. Rena also helped to buy sushi and wasabi (must remind me to pay you on Sat k?) for the later sabo, muz haha... hehe... Mingze and Junhui helped to start the fire. They were holding on to the charcoal with their bare hands and their hands were all black and that was very funny. I noticed the tongs that I had were not enough and they were also too small. But almost instantly I saw uncle Vincent crossing over from opposite and he had two big tongs with him inside the plastic bags! He also bought big chopsticks which we could use for the food. Also many others such as prawns, fruits, etc... He just kept grinning saying as long as we are all happy can liao lah. Wow! I just couldn't stop praising God because He would always send angels to help me when I needed them most. ^_^
We laughed and joked along the way while cooking and waiting for the rest to come. I didn't even know who was so smart to have noticed those extra chairs over at one of the store room and they took out so that most of the people outside could sit. They also helped to mix the drinks and refilled again when it was running out. (Wow you guys are terrfic!) Fabian and Alvin also arrived at around 6plus, many others arrived at 7plus.
Then don't know from when, my usual ka keis (buddies) decided to play games. They were sitting on the chairs together in a circle. I wasn't really joining them as I was attending to some of my friends who arrived at that time. At some point of time during their game, they called me and I noticed Mingze got a forfeit. He went up to level 2 while the rest asked the rest of the crowd for attention. He was kind of shouting from the window at level 2 saying, 'My Juliet, Jasmine, Happy Birthday, I'm your Romeo...' Ah alamak so pai seh sia...! That's not over yet. Not long after, someone among their group got a forfeit again. This time it was Junhui. I didn't even know what was going on and they asked me there again. I looked at him with more than a thousand question marks on my brain and I asked him what was his forfeit. I was still quite puzzled because I didn't know what was going on! He hold my hand and I thought the forfeit was just to say happy birthday to me. Then I thought oh just hold hand and say happy birthday ah, this was fine. But who knows he hold my hand and almost knelt down. Aiyo please why play this kind of game at that time, so jia let. I had to run to the kitchen immediately to stop this.
Some of my colleagues such as Agnes and her family (her two sons are so cute, when I walked passed them they were calling 'birthday girl, birthday girl', simply adorable). Mr Ong's and David's family also came and at 8plus. Siowyeng, Leah, Sweehoon, Lawrence, Gerald also arrived. When Mr Ong and his family were about to leave, Joyce suggested that I should cut cake before they leave. So they stayed for a while. I loved all my ka keis, because they are so sharp and quick in action. So they instantly went to prepare the cake and put the candles, while other quickly helped me to put aside all the things on one of the bench tables so that they could place the cake. When everything was ready, they sang me a birthday song (or should I say two because also have chinese version, lol). I made a wish and did a slight cut on the cake. Mayce and Tizane helped to gather the different groups of people to take pictures with me, such as my primary and secondary school friends, colleagues, ushers, cell group. My ka keis helped to cut my cake to give out to all my friends and colleagues, etc. They also helped to serve ice cream (thank you uncle Vincent for buying). Many brothers also helped to cook the food so that the people had enough food all the time.
It was a while later when I decided that we should play games. We started with H20 and my insurance advisor, Vincent also joined in the game. Cool! Haha, quite many people got 'saboed' and they had to take sushi with wasabi. Haha, the first two who had forfeits were Fabian and Linda. I thought it was the most severe of all since it was the first round and we placed quite a thick portion of wasabi on their sushi. It was so 'hot' that I saw tears in their eyes. Erin and Rena seemed to have phobia with wasabi and they simply would not want to have forfeit so that they could avoid eating that. But in the end both of them lost once but I decided to only put a very very thin coat on their sushi, so it was not so jia let afterall lah, hehe...
We had several games after that and they were all very fun because the people were laughing non-stop! The game master was Joshua, someone who always has new games on his mind. The games were:
1. Go-jump-go, go-jump-back, go-jump-1.
2. Oh yeah! Bunk house, arms down, he ha!
All the games were very fun. Linda and Erika were caught many times in the game but their responses were very cute when they didn't know what to say when it was their turn, lol.
We played till 10.10pm, thanks to Tizane's phone alarm, it seemed that Joshua always wanted to hijack it by stepping on her phone, lol. All of them were so awesome because they helped me to clear up all the things before going back. My mum and two aunts came but only for a while because they had to catch the last bus to go back. Praise God! One of my aunts actually helped me to find the aircon remote control (close to the fridge) which I had been searching for so long!
Finally after they went back, we settled down at the living room. Alvin, Erin and Eileen were playing Uno and Terence arrived shortly. He was hungry so we decided to order Mac delivery. Alex also reached shortly after his work, Deborah as well... We sat at the sofa and started playing some of the games we had previously played again, while waiting for our food to come. The food arrived close to 2am if i'm not wrong. After eating, we decided to go up and took turns to shower. When it was bedtime, we were determined to find the switch for the aircon and so I took the keys to open the back door and we found the switch! Praise God we had aircon so that we could have a comfortable sleep!
This morning I woke up at 9plus am. I packed my things and went downstairs. Alvin cooked the packet of hotdogs which he had reserved yesterday. We took some cake and hotdogs plus chocolate bread for breakfast. At 10.30am, Aloha staff came to check the place and thank God there were no extra charges when I checked out. Well, I think part of it was because we couldn't find the switch for the whole of yesterday afternoon so we didn't use the aircon at all, (had been using fan). It was until night time that God had helped us to find the switched so that we could sleep well. Wow, praise God, praise God and praise God!
When I reached home I unpacked my things and went to sleep at 3plus pm, woke up at 9plus pm.
Thank you to all my guardian angels such as Joyce, Vet, Lex, Erin, Junhui, Uncle Vincent, Deborah, Rena, Singyee, Tizane, Joshua, Geraldine, Mingze, Terence and many others who had helped to cook the food, served the people, etc. Really would not expect what would happen if you guys were not around! You guys always find a need and meet it. To all these beloved angels, love you all loads!
Monday, November 27, 2006
Sunday, November 12, 2006
HAPPY, SHA LALALA... =P
After receiving 'feedbacks' that my blog only contains songs, I really feel I should write something, haha... Actually I have many things going on in my life, probably too many things that I don't have much time for blogging.
Today is a Sunday, a rest day for me. However, I have a little sniff here and there. But no problem, will recover soon.
Yesterday I was serving Charile Arena 2, which was in the centre where all the pastors were sitting in the front row. I have served there before, but it was rather challenging yesterday, as I noticed 1 empty seat over at row 3 after everyone had settled down at their seats. However before offering time, that seat was filled. Then when I came back after placing the offering buckets at logistics, I noticed row 4 first seat was empty! Well, that seat was also filled in the end. It was because in my zone there were 3 ushers sisters squeezing in another row and one of them (who is a zone ic) noticed that empty seat and went to fill it. I really want to thank God for this because I remembered I had said a prayer that I had lifted up my zone to His hand. He is faithful indeed and the whole zone was filled. Hallelujah!
Yesterday I was also 'set free'. I was previously rather upset with myself due to certain things happening in my life. There was a point of time I felt my life was going on like a life cycle: I have to work very hard and I have to study very hard for my upcoming exams. My schedule for every week revolved with all this preparation all the time and I had ended up really physically tired. And it could be due to all this that I felt I could have done better for other things and this had caused me to feel less confident and probably more weary, which would definitely become a hindrance to my walk with God if it went on. I knew it could be that I had been using my strength all the while.
Many times I cried before God and asked for His help. I felt He had used Rev Ulf to speak to me during yesterday's service. I heard Rev Ulf said something like 'There is someone who has guilt in him. You have repented and the Lord wants to say to you that you are forgiven'.
With just these two sentences God had totally released me! He had released me from a burden which I had been carrying on my shoulders, so heavy that it had weighed me down spiritually like an old lady with a serious hunchback. I was really ministered to at that moment and I just kept praising God. I felt refreshed and recharged once again by His Almighty presence. Praise the Lord!
I felt the greatest killer to our self-esteem is our mind. The moment we feel we are limited to what we can do, we will 'help ourselves to limit' our future successes and accomplishments. On the contrary, when we are bold and confident, success is always with us. We can gain daily victories and even when problem arises (which definitely will in one way or another), we can face it with faith and be a problem-solver!
There will be times when we would feel discouraged or lost in the situation that we are going through. But thank God for His faithfulness, He is forever our refuge, for He says in His word that 'If we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself.' (2 Tim 2:13).' Therefore don't turn away from Him, turn to Him. He will help you.
Sunday, November 12, 2006