cell and chilling under the stars

cell was really really awesome today. Baptism of the Holy Spirit was just so amazing. It really left me addicted and craving for more. It's really incredible to be able to feel the presence of the Lord sooo strongly among us. Many of us just broke down. And i broke down even during the worship before ministry time. I was just so overwhelmed. But it's so rejuvenating at the same time.

And God really blesses u when u ask for it. I really got the gift that i wanted. I really struggled man at first but truly have faith! It's so amazing and awesome that God had revealed another deeper dimension of himself to me today.

After cell, weishan n i went to lydia's and co.'s church event. Goodness. they put in soooo much effort! n it was just sooo cool.

good food, good ambience, good music. wat more need i say man!

Arts Camp, Comms Ball

23/6/08-27/6/08
Time really flies, the previous blog entry i was still whining about the prospect of going to camp and in a flash i am back home! YAY! home sweet home.

And anyway the camp turned out to be not so bad as i thought. some parts did suck from an organiser perspective but other parts r really not bad.

It was really dry and boring at first though especially the 1st 2 days. it felt almost as though, the organisers are just filling all the time slots with activities to keep us occupied without much thoughts put into the activity. Activities are crafted without the aims or objectives in mind. And tonnes of unneccessary filler activities as time buffers which shd be taken out and put to greater use like perhaps time for washing up etc instead of ending in the wee hours everyday and long waiting hours for some activities to start proper.

Such is the result of planning camps and running camps and having been to lots of camps. You start to compare and evaluate camps at the organisational level and find so much to complain. sigh. But to be fair, it's such a BIG camp and certainly very very challenging to execute. so great job!

But ok lah things picked up after the day at the beach and the day of mass games at the school field. and really happy to see my og getting closer especially after all the madness dunking ppl into the sea. only crazy ares (my og) did that lor. the other og peeps r all relatively dry. but still finding it abit strange cos i guess i need time to adapt.

starting to miss my og mates in SIM instead. haha. but oh well. forward looking. and i hope to bond more and better with the new og. i am really fortunate lah. i had great og mates n ogl n councillors. so no complaints! :)

oh n clubbing sux. such disappointment. it was a night of total bad music. :(


OG ARES n Mascot SUPER DUCK! :)
Scouting skills came handly in the construction of the mascot. :)

anyway this camp was qquite disruptive for me also lah cos i had to zao camp twice. zao on monday afternoon den back on tuesday for comms ball and then thurs evening for dance pract for charity dinner.

for gals out there, comms ball can really get pretty boring man. but the magician was good. but anyway still it's an experience. :)

eve of arts camp

Done packing. this sian feeling of a stale freshie is still lingering. ARGH...

i really dun wanna play stupid games!!!

sigh. OPEN mind.

but fortunately, i will leave camp tmr afternoon for comms ball. n then i can look forward to thurs evening where i will once again leave camp for dance pract. haha. wat's wrong w me these days man... i just love to zao camp. to go in n out of camp. haha. love it cos it's like taking lil breaks to relax b4 it's back to action-packed camp again.

FOODIE ALERT

ALERT to all foodie!!

Name: Takumi Tokyo Robata & Teppanyaki
Ratings: Extreme GOOD food and awesome service

and all foodies of the world shouts? "WHERE? WHERE? TELL ME WHERE?"

it's at marina club at Keppel Bay a.k.a my backyard (not vivo. that's my 'side' yard hahaha)

After i got pang seh-ed last minute by my fantastic frenz, i thought that dinner was gonna be an emo affair for me. Was preparing to leave the house to buy back some food for my own dinner when my dad came back and brought poor lil me to get food.

WOW... so twist in event and dinner became a super duper HAPPY event. The restaurant was soooo authentic. the master chef is a japanese and many of the service crew are japanese as well. And as expected, my goodness service was ichiban desu. And the food was AWWWWW... Oiishi desu!! TOTEMO OIISHI~~~

if you cant imagine how delicious, just imagine this. I actually ate stuff that i dun eat usually and dislike usually. it was THAT delicious. I finish up everythg that was served to me. HAHA

so what we had? We had lobster, beef fillet, japanese pork, seasonal vegetables and seafood miso soup.

GOODNESS. the veggies r so nice i ate them all including brinjal (i cant spell.. but u noe.. the purple thgy), ling zhi fungus. And the BEEF!!! Listening to the advice of the chef is always wise. Medium rare was REALLY PERFECT. the meat is sooo JUICY and it doesnt have any of those iron after taste of blood. none at all. It's just so juicy and tender. And the pork my dad adores it. It's those black furred pig in japan so the meat is quite different.

And the best of all the lobster! I really dun fancy lobster, but i finished up my share even faster than my dad. Wah.. it was soo good. It was all well seasoned yet u can still taste the freshness of the food. And the sauce with the lobster is just totally refreshing and appetizing.

Finally seafood miso soup. I hate seafood as most ppl know. But this soup is really good. it doesn't taste fishy or shelly. No stench. It's just sweet and refreshing. N nope it's not those bowl of salt water that most japanese restaurant serve. haha.

Abseiling

This is not an enlightening post so stop making fun of the stuff i blog about.. n i dun give a damn anyway. it'ss my freedom of speech n expression.

Anyway really glad i went for it if not my day would have been so boring n a loser life once again. so at least it injected some excitement n thrill to my currently boring and frustratingly meaningless holiday. I am soooo looking forward to gg to Korea for youth forum. this is the kind of holiday i want. to b actively involved. to know that i can do greater things. n not stick to the mundane activities of life. I wanna learn new things! just dun want time to slip through the cracks of my fingers like it is now.

Stuff i wanna learn:
1) Korean
2) Japanese
3) tennis
4) rumba
5) Golf Handicap course

AHHHHH but moolah constraint! how frustrating. Like for example this week... my hard earn money frm facilitating camps went POOF in one shot. sigh... bought shirt for my dad for father's day which he cant fit (DAMN IT! WASTE MY MONEY!!! RIVER ISLAND SOME MORE!!! RARRRRR), n now i have to buy another present for him for his coming birthday to make up for it. n then even arts camp also need me to spend money! present for stupid SP. AHHHHHH bloody hell. n today abseiling another 45 bucks GONE. SOBZZZZ

But it's exciting lah. it scared e shit out of lavina and i but it was helluva fun. N now i have a bruise on my inner tigh and aching arms, legs and back. ARGH. But exciting lah. esp the part where we have to do the leg wrap drill in e middle of our descend. leg wrap is to like secure your position in mid air. do it by doing a half lock (cant explain with words how to do it) and then coiling 3 turns of the running end of the rope around your inner tigh. it's supposed to b so secure that you can just let go all the ropes and u wun fall. so we all did that lil stunt which was at 1st try freakin scary. but after that it's really more exciting than scary

dilemma

What should i do? Postpone it further or not?

Why should I?
- cos it's rational
- cos it may nt be benefitting to just rush through stuff
- cos i may be able to give it better thought and planning
- mayb a let down experience instead



why dont postpone?
- history most likely will repeat. it wun b a collective effort. and most likely it will be another last minute thg
- i may get overwhelmed w school work and have no time. may get jaded
- nothing to anchor myself n i will start school with nothing in mind
- not everyone has their hols
- it's disappointing for those stirred up by me.
- good to have exposure. prepare hearts for more stuff in e future


AHHHH. :(

dun wanna base my decision upon rationality. pls tell me wat to do. i wanna hear Your voice.

Toy Museum, Comm Parade, Day Job

16 June 2008 Monday
Woke up at 6am this morning just so that i can get to Bukit Panjang Primary by 7.15am in the morning for coach briefing before the day begins officially for us at 8am.

worked till 3pm. tough job i must say. But kinda love it. It gives this sense of satisfaction to know that you are guiding little ones. ok not so little lah. P4s.

but i realize after handling the babies P2 kids, P4s are really nothing. and i think i am really improving in handling kids. I can actually clamp down a few mobs and my dagger stares are getting convincing cos they really buy it. As brutal and ruthless as i may be sounding here, haha it's not so bad lah.

I "smack" em when they misbehave. No hesitation. But when they did something great, i make sure they receive my compliment and their classmates' applause. So it's really not so mean. haha. And the feedback forms were really sweet. Especially to read those that u have 'smacked' still liking you and thanking you.

After work it was kungfu panda with clement. Shamir if you are reading this, please watch it and watch out for a particular scene reaching the end of the movie. I LAUGHED SOOOO HARD i was tearing away... it soooo reminded me of the bomberman.

14 June 2008 Saturday
Zhe Yin's comm parade. Quite nice. not bad. and weishan and i had a few discoveries about ourselves.

1) we absolutely have the fetish for uniforms. we were squealing in delight when we saw all the number ones. and especially those with like tonnes of pins and badges. AHHH darn cool.

2) when told to stand up during certain points of the ceremony to like welcome the guest of honour, or like for national athemn or the colours party coming in... we were sooo not fidgetting... it was so hilarious to realise that no one at the guest stand except us was standing at attention. AHHH

Joe made a lil apppearance as well as the junior colours party taking over the colours from the senior commissioning batch. And yeah uniform and zai drills really make the man. weishan and i both thought he look so different from his usual self. Too bad we were seated too far away from the navy squad. totally can't see zhe yin.






13 June 2008 Friday
Super Eventful day. Went for a job audition for voice over and event singing which i totally blew and went for a job briefing later in the afternoon with clement.

the audition was totally a disaster, ohhhhhh my gosh... my face still feels tender thinking about it. TOTALLY threw my face. wish i had a paper bag then. That stupid little platform called the stage really does wonders. I can feel every inch of my vocal and facial muscles clenching and contorting and i knew i was so in for it. As it is, I am right. I couldn't hit my usual range of notes and projection was somewhat restrained. ARGH.. so the comments

voice over: your voice is not steady and mature enough for voice-over and commercials. we're looking for more mature voices

singing: you're using alot of your chest voice, and i think because you're nervous, you couldn't 'throw' your voice out. and the song you chose is within your comfort zone. you should try to choose songs that hit the higher keys. your diction for english songs are better than your chinese (wat irony!!) so i presume u sing more english songs than chinese...you have the potential but you need to hone your technique and confidence. so let me recommend you a course..... a performance training course which cost $810.

btw the song i sang were "how do i live without you" by LeeAn Rimes and "hui zhi bu qu" by melody. not very high but not very low either. I can't possibly do a mariah carey at audtition.... :S

Anyway after the traumatizing exprience was job briefing at EKA training consultancy for a day job at bukit panjang primary.

After which since it was still too early for dinner, Clement and i decided to head down to the TOY MUSEUM!!! AHHH like finally i get to visit it! Not free entrance though. but oh well cant just turn back after the lady says 15 bucks pls :)

But it was money well spent. the toys were really funky and cool lah. many are antiques and freaking expensive! cam-whored like 126 fotos of which onli 3 had our faces inside. my goodness.

here's a small collection, the rest r on facebook:

vintage posters for star war movies


guess why the price of this poster has soared of late?


Fat super heroes... my gosh those old toy models are really FAT


exquisite (pricey) popeye automated toy... you know those that kids sit on n it moves?


felix cat!


toddler's play... dun u think these look better than the modern ones made of plastic and look absolutely fake?


beatles toys... the wig!


beatles toys ... the combs and yelllow submarine


Yummy Miss Clarity Food!

zhng my blog

finally got down to giving my blog a new look. hope u guys like the new zhng. haha

boredd n jobless me... boohoo

I don't wanna rot my june away!!! I wanna learn korean!!

Piece of exciting news amidst this dry and boring season of vegetating at home... My application got accepted for the world youth conference. yay!! looking forward to meeting new people and invigorating my flaccid brain with new ideas!!

And what's more it's the land of korea. yay! can breath the same air as brian joo, boA etc! haha joking! not so insane. But yes i am excited! can eat lots of yue gae jang! and another awesome part- lodging and food are all paid for for this conference. And another exciting part, Marilyn is going too!! :))

YAY!!

youtube

what do you do when you're bored?

steph the loser who has no job n nothing to do spends her day in front of her computer youtubing 24/7. now how much more loser can this get man!

And i wanna start IAMP-ing but my eyes r stuck. Glued to youtube!! how?

Now let's see how much i have watched... Cleared about a total of 12 movies and 1 drama so far. ok lah the movies r short ones. short lovely korean movies that were screened some time back and i missed out.

anyway latest addition. innocent steps. You so gotta love this movie man. The song and dance scenes r just romantic.

check out the OST of the movie and my fave dance scene. I wanna learn to rumba too!!! :(


Watch the 1st minute for my fave dance scene. aww romantic

DnD + Mount Sophia + Group Camp

i am really getting very lazy in updating. sigh. so let the pictures do the talking.

29th May 2008
Steph Soh's dinner n dance and most importantly her pageant. Seriously, I really think that she can easily win the others hands down. And not to be mean but hmm.... i think it's quite sad that those in the competition are not very good looking. so it may be really true man the thing about the lack of cute chics n dudes in NUS. oh dear. no eye candies. haha

but anyway not looking exceptionally drop dead handsome is not so bad. But i really feel for those who killed themselves at the talent segment. Oh please. if you can't sing for nuts then don't sing. Way back into love and whole new world was so bad that steph's friend declared it a toilet break. haha. oh dear i am sooooo mean.

here's photo:




30th May 2008
Group camp day one. Totally shagged out by camp development. As the ventures are only down in the afternoon, I had to help a patrol of cubs in it. Fortunately yuan zheng came down soon after to lend a helping hand cos my arms r quite jelly after carrying the gas tank. goodness. THAT LPG gas tank (or watever the acronym) really can crush someone to death lah.

Nothing much happened. Accompanied the food i/c to sheng siong to buy food. and helped out at the kitchen. yay gotta pick up a thing or two about field cooking for a BIG group of people.

31th May 2008
Woke up to a day of games n all. But rovers are no involved. so had a meeting instead with leaders about the campfire tomorrow. Broke out of camp around late noon to meet up with cell to catch the short films at mount sophia.

n oh man mount sophia is really really cool. They housed a theatre "sinema" which screens local productions and it gives a very cosy feeling. the chairs are all sofa seats and free seating. Muahaha

1st May 2008
Back in camp after church to prepare for the campfire. Everything was so last minute and on top of that we also invited our neighbour at camp, the Pelandok Scouts, last minute as well. It was helluva stress. And my 3 poor emcees were so stress as well. But oh boy i am sooooo proud of them! I really wanna applaud them for their courage, perseverance and mental strength. The campfire started off quite bad. the fire died even at the start. But they pressed on and continue to do the show. With the leaders' help as well. I really feel that it was the one of the best campfires i have been to. Thoroughly spontaneous, impromptu and it was just really fun. it was really campfire as it should have been. As it historically had been. No fixed scripts of programmes, just go w the flow, all spontaneous and FUN

Had a good time chatting with my 2 venture juniors in the night. Got to know a new junior Alvin. And really happy to hear that yuan zheng is taking up the challenge of Aspire. WOW WOW. haha so proud of him!

On another note, it was so scary to discover that we are already 4 batches before the present batch of aquila!!! OH NOOOO... wat happen?! time flies!

2nd May 2008
Strike camp





Proud work of the venture juniors :)