20 things that I've done in the year 2008

hello. Since my dearest have done one, I shall try too.

1) Started learning driving (pity I cannot get the lesson by this year)
2) Became the church's Sunday school's treasurer!
3) Finally bought Sheryl a decent ring!
4) Completely gave up on my strict dieting
5) Started watching Southpark and loving it
6) For the first time, bought formal shirts for myself
7) Sailed to Indonesia for humanitarian mission with SAF
8) Lost my 11B..
9) I turned 20
10) Found out that Crown Lager is the best beer in the world
11) Ate the mega mac, Quad stacker and triple portebello mushroom burger (not at one go)
12) Got silver for my 2nd year IPPT..
13) Found out that I am severely allergic to dustmites
14) Bought my first Levi's jeans
15) Been to two of my cousin's wedding
16) Got my first boots from timberland
17) Creating this list
18) Horrified at the lack of things that I've done
19) Bought my samsung soul
20) Seriously horrified at the lack of things I've achieved..

my 2009 vision board (edited)

i was reading ck and there was this article about presenting your new year resolutions in a pictorial form. and in particular, elizabeth kartchner's vision board struck me. photo credits go to quite a few sources, mostly taken from flickr and some etsy shops. it was a spur of the moment thing, so i didnt have time to take my own pictures, but the pictures i chose really epitomises in a way what i want to achieve. so yea. (: and while the whole outlook seems rather simple, i feel that thats the way to go for the new year - simple. essentially, my hope is the next year i will kick Procrastination's butt! so i used the phrase my dad gave to me in primary one - first things first - do the things that need to be done first, others are secondary. i guess for me that applies in many areas, like cleaning up, studying, etc. so God-willing, the new year is going to be a great year. its definitely going to be interesting...and i'll be turning 21! (:

20 things that happened to me in 2008...

1. i got my driving licence
   
2. i turned 20
   
3. i worked at a scrapbooking shop
   
4. i did relief teaching
   
5. i got my wallet stolen
   
6. i did my first MAAD bazaar
   
7. i learnt not to hate seaweed
   
8. i became a sunday school teacher
   
9. i got a new oven! (well, not me really, the family)
   
10. i realised i have a lot of tigger paraphernalia (not that its a bad thing!)
    
11. i got addicted to the second season of gossip girl
    
12. i subscribed to ck, shape and cs&p
    
13. i was in the camp committee - checkmate
    
14. i packed my room (particularly my scrap area) a few gabillion times
    
15. i ran more (but obviously not enough)
    
16. i went to hongkong, korea and genting highlands
    
17. i realised andrew and i have been together for almost 5 years...
    
18. i got my first diamond ring (can you spot the picture in the vision board?)
    
19. i have 103 subscriptions on my google reader
    
20. i fell in love with rainbow colours - ROYGBIV
21. (*in anticipation for next year when i turn 21. haha) i got a golden half camera!
    

there were tonnes more that happened of course, my 20 things i thought i'd share for 20 year old me in 2008.

*sheryl

For Josiah

Hello Josiah,

this is Andrew, stop reading our blog in class and focus on your teacher!

anyway, some rants.

My last IPPT's coming which is good since it means i'm going to ORD soon!
Main problem is running i suppose since the last time i've ran is almost three months ago and the fact that i just bulked up to 82kg! Which is quite a waste since i have lose to some weight now so it doesn't feel like i'm carrying a few BK Quad Stacker while running.




This is BK's new burger, the Quad Stacker (actually the picture shows the triple stacker which is for babies, couldnt find the quad's picture..) And i have eaten two of those, so yes i am literally carrying them while running.

I found another inspiring picture of a potential future pro

Antoine Vaillant, i think thats a picture of him one week out or something. so its pretty inpressive. The old times of bodybuilding is coming back, with the mass monsters replaced by symmetry again.

Anyhow, its time to sleep if i want to remotely fulfil my plan of running early before breakfast tomorrow. Gotta pray that it'd really happen this time!

its raining here too

hey baby,

thanks for finishing up the herbal tea especially since you dont like it very much.
anyway, this is the poster i was talking about(:



Just to avoid this becoming a MSN sort of thing, hello everyone!

Hello everybody(if there's even anyone looking at this blog at all)
so sorry for the long due post.
as you guys can see, Sheryl's back to SKPS. and i do kinda miss the place since i taught there before. I dont think the kids will remember and love me like they do to Sheryl though. was never the teacher who connects? more of doing my job and keeping them quiet. weird thing is, GOD seem to want me to teach. Right now in NS, i'm actually a medical instructor in the NAVY so i do alot of teaching, conducting of courses. I actually enjoy teacher and like the fact that i always find ways to teach my audiences easier way to remember things and the logic of doing them. I taught the BMT batch today and despite them being mono intake, they were very co operative and eager to learn, so thank God for that. (i'm not saying that mono intakes are bad people, they just tend to be more rowdy? but i like them better than the A levels's, they are more up front and dont carry balls as much)

but one thing i dont get is, i didnt really enjoy teaching while in SKPS? i actually dreaded going to school every morning? no idea if its the waking early part, the lack of preparation or the surprises that comes along the way (unlike Sheryl who puts in alot of effort to prepare for her lessons and to make them bloody interesting for the kids, its not surprising that they love her)

ah, i dont know. right now, i wish i could open a gym? like a franchise of GOLD's gym? that'd be awesome, having a job that is also my passion(: but what percentage of the people actually have a job that they love?

Right now, i'm actually trying a new training concept called the "x reps"(just type X reps in google to find out more). the amount of reading is simply amazing (bodybuilders are actually very intellectual people k? they do frontier nutrition concepts more than nutritionists). do read up if you are interested. i'm still not sure if its working for me, its surprisingly more difficult a concept to grasp than i thought.

thinking of taking a off day from work tomorrow, not sure if i should. would love to spend a complete day with Sheryl. haven been able to due to duties.

alright, that's all for rantings.


ps: check out this up and coming natural bodybuiler , Jim Cordova. his genetics are simply awesome. (pic attached)

back to skps

went back to skps to teach for this august hols. my ex-students are so adorable! when i came in unexpectedly to relief their class, they were extremely co-operative and really helped me to keep the class noise level down. plus! they seemed really excited to see me. really warmed the cockles of my heart. its not like they were complete angels, but they were the first to go "shushhhh!!" to the rest of their classmates. while i enjoyed catching up with them, i didn't expect to take pictures with them. these pictures were taken during the second last lesson of the day. was in this primary 2 class. i taught some of them art last year when they were in p1. they were so sweet, wanted to take pictures with me and asked if i could print it out for them. i was more than happy to do so. here are some of the pictures: -

i took over a malay mother tongue teacher today. and so i took primary 1, 2 and 3 classes. and my form class last year was p2. so i managed to see some of my students who are in p2 and p3 now. the p1 pupils were really cute tho. my colleague took this malay teacher's timetable yesterday and she told me today i can actually just bring a book to read cos they don't have any work to do. but cos i knew these kids, i decided to catch up with them instead. its really interesting to see how much they have grown and what interests them now. the p3 pupils are just starting science and one of the things they are learning now is cycles - like from a egg, larvae, pupa, insect. so most of them got a container with a mealworm inside which i learnt will grow into a beetle in time. the boys especially were very fond of playing with the mealworm, taking it out of the container and handling it. the girls, some were quite squeamish about it. the boys were telling me how its like playing with centipedes which i told them were poisonous. but they said they didn't get bitten. it reminded me of how when i was in p3 myself and we used to go to the peranakan garden and pick up millipedes to play with. we'd pick it up and put it on precarious ledges or let it run along our hands. its weird how i was so fearless in the past. RIGHT now. right now if i were asked to do that, i'm not sure i'd dare. looking at the kids play with the mealworm, i wasn't too sure if i'd be able to pick it up like they did. 

but the main thing is just being with them and actually learning from them. for the p1 and p3 class, i played hangman with them. but i gave them the option of doing their own stuff as well. its then that you see the types of kids that make-up the class. some were talking, drawing, some were even doing their own homework?!! can you believe it? like in p1 and they were doing their own work, on their own. the p2 class was really small - only 16 kids. they were so-oooo adorable! they were playing restaurant! they split themselves into a sort of 2 groups and had two friendly rival restaurants! so i decided to play along with them - i was the customer cum restaurant reviewer. so part of the stars that i was giving them was for the food they prepared (they drew the food or used erasers and other stationery  to improvise), the presentation (part of which i told them included noise level. haha. sneaky huh, so they werent too noisy.) and service. very fun. so i got a little break from school. tmr, next monday, thursday and friday i don't have to go to school. because of national day celebrations and psle oral. but just as well. i do need a bit of break to gather my thoughts and settle down. 

i kinda plunged straight into work the moment school ended. so i didnt set goals for myself. like things i want to accomplish. i do know that part of it is strengthening my spiritual walk, especially since i'm in the yf camp committee - i need to make sure i am right with God before i can help plan such events. and the other stuff i want to do is to really start crafting! especially beading and scrapbooking. 

speaking of which, the weekend i ended my exams, i had this sudden urge to spring clean my room in a day (which frankly is near impossible). so i had to pare it down to just my craft area. before that, i had a lot of cute (but small) containers with everything separated and displayed. while it was nice aesthetically, but it was pretty cumbersome. like i had all these little bottles and nooks and crannies to shift before i can get something from the back. and it was a magnet for dust! plus i wasn't too happy about the little dark corners i was providing for potential beetles / lizards / cockroaches. *bleagh* so! i decided i needed an ikea field trip! haha. daddy was kind enough to bring me there after yf. so after we left sherwin at smalland (the play area for kiddies), within an hour we had dinner (naturally i had meatballs and coffee) and i bought almost $60 worth of containers to supplement the existing containers i already had. so then i started using these wonderfully colourful containers instead and used dymo to label! :D

okay, so watch out for some serious crafting coming up this weekend! (:

*sheryl

a student's prayer

the Lord is my Shepherd, i shall not flunk!

He keepeth me from lying down when i should be studying.

He leadeth me beside the water cooler for a study break.

He restoreth my faith in study guides,

He leads me to better study habits for my grade sake.

Yea, though i walk through the valley of borderline grades,

i will not have a nervous breakdown, for Thou art with me.

my prayers and my friends, they comfort me.

Thou givest me an answer in moments of blankness,

Thou anointest my head with understanding.

my test paper runneth over with questions i recognise.

surely passing grades with flying colours shall follow me all the days of my examinations

and i shall not have to dwell in this school forever. Amen!

***aunty v sent this is us some years back. its an adaptation of the Psalm 23. i quite like it. (: stressing out cos my media law and ethics exam is tonight, not fully prepared and i think i've got a slight fever/headache. praying that i would just get through this week. i want to do well, but at the same time i'm sooooooo looking forward to my month of holidays! going back to skps to relief teach. looking forward to seeing the kids - especially those who were in my form class last year. (: but RIGHT now, i need to just buckle down and study. so Lord, i pray You'll grant me the discipline and determination Lord. Amen!

*sheryl

a trip to the sub court

Reaching the Subordinate Courts, we soon learned that there was the trial in Court 26 for the recent murder of opposition party member, Tan Lead Shake’s brother and the slashing of Tan’s sister-in-law. The news had reported that Tan was suspected to have called to police to arrest his wife after she had committed the murder and stabbing.
Upon entering Court 26, there were a string of mentions concerning various cases, most of which were either put on police bail or was postponed to a later date due to the need for further investigations. I had expected a full blown trial for this murder case, considering the interest that has been generated and the people involved. However, the hearing was postponed to 7 July pending investigations. What I had managed to gather was that the name of Tan’s wife was Wu Yun Yun and that she was charged with the suspected murder of Tan’s brother.
Seeing as how the rest of the court cases were mentions, we decided to try Courts 1 to 4 at Level 7. However, most of the courts had present only lawyers and people seated at the public gallery, but no judge. We tried the courts on Level 5 as well, but it was the same. Finally, we decided to try asking for the Charge Sheet, hoping that in so doing, we could get details about potential cases and perhaps even the time the cases were going to start. If we ran out of time to sit through the entire court case, at least the details would be sufficient to write a report. We then went back to Court 2 and asked the court office if we could obtain a copy of the Charge Sheet. They directed us to the Corporate Offices who later told us we could not get a copy as we were not licensed journalists and did have the necessary paperwork.
Considering that this was the second time we were in the Subordinate Courts to get a story, I honestly thought we would be more equipped. This time, I knew from experience to expect that there would be a lot of waiting. The last time, we waited one and a half hours for a case that got postponed, and then sat through another two cases for approximately half an hour. I was prepared for mentions of section numbers and abbreviations that I did not understand and for soft spoken judges who spoke fast. That time however, we could afford the luxury of time to get a proper story. Now however, we only had effectively half an hour to get a story. Even with the printed hearing list, we somehow chose all the wrong courts. We chose the courts based on the description of the case – Court 2 had cases concerning “causing grievous hurt, outrage of modesty, misuse of drugs, theft” and Court 4 had “theft and robbery”. We thought those were big ticket stories. We checked the top 2 levels and only Court 26 on the first level and left out the courts in between.
I think the issue was limited persistence. I was really disappointed we did not get a story. If journalism were to be my career, I knew not being able to get a story was not an answer. We should have gone through all the levels and checked the rest of the courts, even if the charge or case did not seem as interesting or that big a deal. Experience might have gotten the better of us, we thought we knew how to handle and what to expect, but then forgot the basics of simple persistence.

imposter staples

okay, spot the difference (or the odd one out)
look at the collection of staples!
i've got large staples, small staples, cat staples, foldable staples...
ohh, you want a close up?
tadahh! yepp! its a sewing machine! can you believe it?!
i couldn't. haha. its a really portable sewing machine.
it can sew a running stich and a chain stich. not too bad i'd say.

okay, smallish sewing machines aside, i did a really quick fathers' day pressie.

so i got a tee and i just sewed the base and sleeves together so it becomes a pouch!

i decided to make it into a drawstring since this is the shirt. if it were sleeveless, the armholes could be the straps and it could then be a slingbag. but then since it was for my dad, i really didnt think he would use a slingbag, so a pouch would be just fine. (:

and then personalised it with fabric paint. (:


ohh, and a long over-due picture. these are the other 6 notebooks i did for my mom. i realise i've been doing a lot of budget notebooks. i still got a few more to complete. would love to try doing a full-blown proper album notebook without scrimping on materials soon. got several assignments to complete first tho. sigh.

church camp was fantastic btw.
prof william harding is such an excellent speaker. the message topics were all pertinent and extremely thought provoking. we left last sunday afternoon after church, stayed one night in malacca and then drove up to kl for lunch, afterwhich we then drove up to genting. had camp till friday afternoon, then bypassed kl on the way back because we heard on the news that there might be a protest at the petrona towers. stopped by malacca again on the way back for a night, then arrived back in singapore on saturday night.

i'm so glad my parents let andrew come with us this trip. seeing him 24-7 for a whole week was just heavenly. and when we didn't get to meet on sunday, there were immediate withdrawal syndromes.

anyhow, i'll leave you with this picture of us taken on saturday morning at an old dutch fort. (:

(version 1 - original)

love lots, sheryl.

p/s: trying out new photoshop stuff. love this old photograph feel

(version 2)

(version 3)

which version do you like best? [:

4 years and a month

today is 4 years and 1 month to the date. i don't know if its just the day or just the feeling of being overwhelmed. i miss him so much and he's probably like 1246736 miles across the south china sea.

i've got an opinion piece due tmr at 4pm. i've barely started readings, barely analysed the question, and i'm itching to scrap. andrew was right. i shouldn't have told myself i got plenty of time. because i didn't. i don't. i feel like i'm sinking into desparity (i just realised this isn't even a real word. goodness.) this is horrible. i told myself i'll NEVER get caught in a time wrap like that - not being able to complete an urgent assignment, which i badly want to do well for. and even as i type i'm clearly conscious of time ticking past, of minutes and seconds that i'll never be able to regain, and why am i still typing. (stop sheryl)

okay. i shall stop griping. i mean there's nothing i can do, but just to do the blasted paper. just in case you're wondering, the questions are:

1. Quality journalism is the life blood of liberal democracy.
2. Journalism is a tumour and its seeping puss is slowly killing liberal democracy.

i'm more inclined towards the first. i firmly believe in the power of the press. i am aware of its shortcomings but still. i need to mull over this a bit. okay. off to do my essay. sometimes a controlled ranting is good. gives you time to read what you're typing and then decide a probable outcome.

i can't wait for friday.

*sheryl

i bought a new cup

i bought a new stoneware cup. love the colour - matte creamy grey. i saw a tea set made from the same materials but in this lovely creamy pea colour.

other notable events - cotty got a new cage! (cotty is my rabbit) it has 2 levels and its on wheels! so we can wheel him to wherever we want. (: i put the hay on the upper deck, so that he has to exercise to get food (but also because the base floor has holes for his poop and pee to go through and the hay will just fall through if its left there). but sometimes when he gets lazy he just reaches up and nibbles at the hay around the edge of the deck. uberly adorable.

andrew has left for his "short" sailing trip today. i say "short" but honestly its going to feel like eons. i have decided i shall keep busy by trying to finish up my truckload of assignments and readings (hopefully that will ease the "wanting-to-see-andrew" syndrome). plus i'm comforting myself by saying that next week i'm going to see him practically 24-7 during church camp. and its also because of church camp that i've got alot of work to do, because i'll be missing a week of school so i'll need to catch up and all. finally managed to print the readings (thanks thulasi!). still need to organise them and come up with a workable system. you know, its partly because i have all the resources i need from home that i'm a tad bit reluctant to go to aussieland to study. plus the comfort of home and familiarity. everyone says that i should go for the experience. plus the fact i feel like a second class student because i'm studying from here and not at campus, coupled with the fact that i'm still pretty sore about not getting into nus or ntu. its like, "since-i'm-already-not-in-a-local-uni-i-might-as-well-go-overseas" type of mentality. but the school fees as they are cost a bomb and then there's the added cost of textbooks. i need to print my readings from the net, so printing cost, which is "nil" here because dad buys the ink, but will probably cost alot more if i go over. everyone talks about wanting independence and freedom, but i've been seriously thinking about the notions of words like that, and well, all i can say is i'm glad i'm still 20. i don't think i'm ready to be fully responsible for myself. responsible in all senses, especially monetary. but *yikes, i've only got another 8 months to not be an adult. its funny how you look forward to it your entire life and then dread it when its imminent.

*sheryl

p/s: btw, whenever i upload pictures into albums on shutterfly, i'll put a link at the end of the post. you can get all the posts with shutterfly links by clicking the label "shutterfly" at the sidebar. squiggletown links are at the bottom of the site. (:

57 notebooks

i just made 57 notebooks. okay. 45 of them were just glue-binded together, so technically they are more like notepads. but still. and out of the 12 that were ring-binded, i scrapped 7 asap for mom. she needs them by tomorrow. so here they are!the colours are reaaaaally pretty. pastel splotches and organic browns.
you know, this kinda looks like layers in a rock. like sediments over time.
i'm sorry if i sound deadpan. its just that the inevitable inhaling of glue, while in the midst of binding the truckload of paper and raking the creative cobwebs away is usually a draining process. plus school starts tomorrow. and i haven't done my opinion piece. i don't even know what its about. i think its due tmr. or is it friday? i need a list. andrew says i should. prioritise. you know, that process of elimination by which you determine the most needful and expedient task that requires imminent attention and execution. immediate. pronto. post haste. okay i better go.
*sheryl

rants for the day

never apply muscle rub(esp those with picture of an old man looking very serious printed on the box) on a freshly showered body that is still slightly damp. as i subsequently ripped off my arms and threw it at the door while groaning in pain, i cant help but think of the old man looking at me as i screamed in agony.

alright, enough of muscle rubs. i received several bad news today as i was told that i am going sailing soon. as a medic in the navy, i sometimes have to commit myself to ships as they sail out.suddenly my schedule just became insanely tight with church camp approaching as well as duties to fulfill. i'm saddened by the fact that my gym schedule would be affected but God must have his reasons for doing so. perhaps he wants to take a break and come back refreshed, since i'm honestly burned with work, lack of sleep as well as maintaining balls to walls intensity in the gym.
gym was pretty good today, arms day. you hit them hard and fast, so arms day is always the shortest. a guy came in at 9.50 though, even though the gym closes at 10.weird. enough of the rants, its very unbecoming of me to talk on the net about what happened. always thought people who does that was pathetic. already,there's many things to be done in own life, why bother spending 15 mins telling everyone, who doesnt really care, about what happened today.

i shall do a review instead. with the weather turning increasingly, i find my daily craving of gui ling gao heightened.some of the best gui ling gao is actually those pre packed ones from chinese herbal stores. get the pearl ones. there is also the 7 dollars a bowl gui ling gao in chinatown that till now, i still is the best i've ever eaten. next best would actually be from a dessert store at the basement of junction 8. its those authentic ones that day make in those classical chinese bowls. Sheryl also brought me to another at chinatown, and although i didnt like the gui ling gao as much, i thought the mango pudding was outstanding, thats an understatement, i'm actually in love with it.

okay then, end of post. many things to be done and its 12.20 and i'm still awake.

embroidery

em·broi·der·y /ɛmˈbrɔɪdəri, -dri/ [em-broi-duh-ree, -dree]
–noun, plural -der·ies.
the art of working raised and ornamental designs in threads of silk, cotton, gold, silver, or other material, upon any woven fabric, leather, paper, etc., with a needle.

lately my fixation with sewing has led to embroidery. i used to think that embroidery was just applique; the traditional floral prints and cottage impressions. so i tossed the notion of ever doing embroidery aside when i started learning how to sew in secondary school as part of the mandatory home economics. but the past few days, i've started noticing websites and blogs with "unconventional" embroidery. in particular elsie (which is where i got the diamond pattern from). so i've been stiching skullys, cupcakes and diamonds. i'm not sure what i'm doing to do with these random pieces of cloth with equally random embroidery. but let's not concern ourselves with that yet.

i realise that embroidery is just a technique and you can do anything with it really. i'm beginning to think of it as an extension of drawing. so anything doodled can be stiched. and i think that actually adds dimension in a different way. i don't know why i didn't realise this sooner. i think many a time we limit the definition of something to a preconceived notion. like just yesterday, andrew and i were having our usual coffeebean chat-chill time and we were strangely talking about the same thing. i was relating how i told his brother (evan) that the beginning of a book is usually boring till you reach the climax of the story. andrew said i shouldn't use such words with evan. then i protested saying the word climax is prefectly appropriate, it is a literary term. to which he then consented. he then described how in wuthering heights the word "ejaculated" was used to replace "suddenly". (no, i'm not drifting off topic, there's a point to this.) which is the same way i judged the word embroidery. (aha! yes, there's the point!) while it is usually used to sew particular designs, it doesn't equate to be all and end all. and in terms of art and methods, i think that would be a good "think-out-of-the-box" idea. use a technique used in another art form to alter in another art form that doesn't traditionally require or use such a technique. but then there's that thing about the many many other types of art forms out there.

i'm not sure if anyone else notices, but i tend to delve into alot of different types of crafts - scrapbooking, beading, painting, sewing, (interested in doing more decoupage and paper tole as well), clay work (especially with polymer clay) - this is on top of my other interests like cooking and baking, wanting to learn how to play tennis proper and etc. sometimes i wonder if i'm spreading myself too thin over too many crafts. andrew says that i want to do too many things. hmm. jane of all trades and mistress of none?

*sheryl

whoo hoo!

okay, so i thought it would be way cooler for us to have a blog together instead of just me. also, i guess i felt like i needed a revamp - as in the way i was blogging and the stuff i was blogging about. i think my part for this would mostly be sharing random events and any creative projects that i'm able to churn out. just by way of introduction, i'm really into beading, scrapbooking and sewing. in fact, i just got a really cute new sewing machine! shall upload pictures when i get it - its currently at my aunty's house, mom's picking it up after work. andrew is a bodybuilder. so i guess he might blog about that. hmm. we don't quite know yet.
*sheryl