Reflecting 2009 - Part 1 Thanksgiving

Tonight is watch night service and there will be a segment on thanksgiving and reflection. After some thought, I decided I will draft a proper sharing. I timed... chum 6 mins sharing :P

Dear friends, I was encouraged to share this tonight with all of you as they affirmed me is the work of God’s hands in my family. How God brought my whole family to church during Christmas Eve this year and allowed me to plant His seed into every member of my household.

For many years, I constantly thought how nice to be able to bring my family to church on Christmas day to listen to the wonderful carols and watched exciting dramas staged by Bethel. The fact is I lacked of the courage to ask them. What stopped me probably was the fear of rejection. Finally God opened the door in Year 2007 December and gave me a chance to ask when my mom said she would love to hear children singing Christmas carols and wish there were a group in our house singing to her and my dad. I asked “Mom, if there is a combined service, will you be keen to go and listen the children sing?” Her reply why not? But however in 2008, there was no combined Christmas celebration and plus my dad and sisters were not keen and prefer to stay at home to cook a feast for my whole family.

In 2009 early this year, I started praying more fervently to God. I would constantly prayed for an opportunity to bring my family members to church for Christmas, as I was fully aware it would be a combined service by all 3 congregations this year.

When Christmas was 2 weeks away, I had yet to open my mouth to invite my family. Again was the fear of rejection. During the period I was quite emotional especially having the thought once I get married next year, it seemed even harder to reach to my family members. The thought of it made me so stressful and frustrated at the same time. I felt that God had granted me many opportunities for me to share but each time I fail Him because simply I fear rejection.

The turning point came just 1 week before Christmas. Elder Lee was the speaker for the Sunday service. He shared about the characteristics of God. It was not the first time I listened to this message. In GB, in my bible study with cell group, I read and learned the characteristics of God many times. But somehow that Sunday the sermon message hit me real hard. As Elder Lee presented verses and verses of who God is, I realize I underestimated God’s power of what He was able to enable me to share the gospel with my family. He is my Jehovah Jireh, The Wonderful Counselor and Prince of Peace. The sermon that day led me in tears thinking how silly I was not trusting God fully to bring my family to church. The very same day, I committed the following evening to convince my whole family members to church.

KG was a wonderful partner. He said in order to convince my parents to come to church, we must convince my 2nd sister. I agreed. With a strategic plan in mind, I talked to my 2nd sis and youngest sis. Immediately I faced great resistance. My sisters felt it was very boring and constantly said no. I must have been really desperate that I just cried out and said – I just need our parents to hear the gospel once! They kept very quiet and said what kind of service was expected. I simply said it was a drama play. It would be really good. You got to trust me. Finally I scored my first goal, they both agreed. My parents were rather easy going. When they saw my 2nd sis agreed, they too agreed. Thus the plan was early Christmas dinner celebration from 4pm to 6pm. Target to reach church at 7pm on Christmas eve. It was amazing how all this turned out at the end. Again I was quite fearful that they might back out at the last min, I sent out prayer request to my cell members for prayers support.

God is really good and I felt guilty now that I still didn’t learn to trust God fully at the point of time. Once prayer request was sent out, the very next morning I received a message from my eldest sister asking if she, her husband and the 3 children could gate crash to our Christmas service. I was jumping for joy singing Amen! My sister and my brother in law never crossed my mind because I was still thinking of tackling one family one year at a time. I had so little faith! I couldn’t believe that God could do more beyond my planning… and yet God just sent them just like this in 1 SMS! God Is GOOD!

24 Dec finally came. God brought my whole family and my sister’s family into Bethel for the first time. There was one more missing member, which was my brother. At the last hour, he decided he would drop by as well. I was quite shocked and wonder what was God really doing. By His Grace, His Hands brought every family member into this church. I thought I would only see this complete picture during my wedding day next month! But no!!

During the service, my brother in law and sister constantly asking me what did "Immanuel" meant. I explained God is with us. It was an assuring statement when I said it out loud. It reminded really God is with my family and me. My sister even taught and explained to her 5 years old daughter the lyrics of the songs that was flashing on the screen. It was such an affirming sight that I could clearly see God’s hands was at work. I didn’t have to do anything isn’t? The sermon msg 平安 led by Dr Chong Chee Pang ministered to my parents. My mom had attempted to fill in the response slip but for some reasons my dad stopped her. When I asked her on my way home, what did she wanted to fill in, she said she wanted to tick on finding more about church activities. To me it was the greatest response!

My brother missed the service and drama as he arrived late. But something my mom said that shocked me. My brother is very dear to my parents especially he is the only son in the family. She said if he was there earlier, she would make him accept Jesus Christ in his life. I probed and asked why, she said, since Buddha can’t save him, I think only Jesus can save him. I almost want to shout an AMEN on the spot.

I will always remember 24 December 2009, where the whole household including my niece and nephews were brought by God to Bethel and the seeds are now planted in my family hearts. All I have to do is to be faithful, obedient and trust in God to water and care for the seeds and allow the seed to take root and grow in His timing.

God is good.

Immanuel
Our God is with us
And if God is with us
Who could stand against us
Our God is with us
Immanuel

1 month

Counting down to 1 month to our wedding.

What's my thought now?

This is such an expensive affair. T_T

I am going to miss Sllow and 6Plus1 :(

Miss my dad cooking and my mom love :((

on the other hand....

Yes i do look forward spending my new chapter with Kg.

I am going to start washing my clothes and cook daily meals (not monthly anymore)

Don't know how I can juggle my work and home. God grant me the wisdom in Proverbs 31.

Don't know what is like living with my future mother in law.

Starting my new chapter in 1 month time - with excitement and anxiety.

This is what keep me going - Part 1

Blessings of the Day: "Working for Jesus"

My CLIENT WROTE THIS IN HER BLOG:
"A big thank you!

To my husband who has embraced the role as an "advisor" fervently (ha ha!), friends who have given me valuable comments (legal and others), and a big applause to my lovely and ever so patient web designer :)"

My client's blog first write up for opening her e-shop. I am really thankful that God have enabled me to complete this project. It is by His Strength. Amen :)

It is not a bad thing to be too emotional sometimes...

Sometimes when things get tough and really hard, we really want to harden our hearts to ignore these things so we are not feeling affected, angry and frustrated. But last night after a conversation with JY, it makes me realize that it is ok to be this way. I told her, I rather the both of us sitting one corner, crying, feeling sad and miserable for our loved ones than to harden our hearts against them making us more inhuman. The truth is the world lacks of God's love and if we harden our hearts, the world will be more cold.

Blessings of the day: I do thank the Lord for granting me to ability to cry and allowing tears to flow out easily.

Reflect 2009 @ work

Shall I choose to see the glass half full or half empty?

The very discouraged Happy very much want to see it half full. But sometime the truth is, it is also half empty.

Reflect 2009, coming another 6 weeks we are coming to 2010. I look back and can count the number of blessings that God have given me.

I also hit the lowest point of my life at work which was something I didn't quite expect it coming this year. Blame it on recession, blame it on lousy leads. But the truth is, is time to blame myself. I felt very disappointed in myself - on my work performance.

Sometimes I felt I missed many opportunities. From time to time, God sent various people in my lives to show me something. I missed it. I forgot about it. and worst .. I might have even choose to ignore it.

As i start to get very discouraged, or I have already did, Kg reminded me that nothing on earth belongs to us. to me. I have to let go and take God lead the way. Pride swell in my heart and make me ignore God's words and advice. My heart was hardened and bitter.

I remembered a good friend's dad words "Don't pity yourself". Yes that what i am doing now. Pity myself. Sigh

As the year come to a closing in another just 6 more weeks, God i pray, ... "Don't let Happy pity herself. Let her trust in You instead"

Looking forward

"As the deer pants for the water, my soul longs after You"
Reflect on Psalms 42

Been feeling very weak and lousy.

Abba Father, please be with Happy.

"I can do all things through Christ who grants me strength" - Phil 4:13

Tired Tired Tired

I really need to break through... sigh.. Is too stagnant. My work needs more new ideas new breakthrough.

I need to think something about it. Is time!

Long waited trip - Patty & Happy @ KL Day 1

Blessing of the day: I learn my lesson. Never will i ever going to be last min.. ever again. God help me to be a good stewardship of your time given to me.

This is the first time I attempt to write my travel write up on the actual day. While memories are still fresh and hot, I realize is quite exciting to do this way to reflect and recall what had happen during the day. Of course I am like a walking zombie right now even as i type this entry as for the past 2 nights, it was less than 4 hours of sleep! Well due to my incompetent and last minute work, i gonna make sure, this will not going to happen again. Never!

Patty and I had been planning for our get together trip for several occasions and every time we fail to carry out. It is either run out of money or not a good time to travel. We both are the biggest procrastinator on earth. Let me count, we probably had tried to plan and travel to places like Langkawi, Perth and what else?? Countless...

So is finally KL because first the air tickets are dirt cheap. With all tax in, we are only paying about $45 for a return air ticket + out from Changi T1! Ok nothing exciting to shout about as we had been to KL several occasions but I guess we been hoping to travel together as we known each other since 2005 as online msn buddy mates. Traveling Patty will be fun!

Time is a factor so thus explain our 3D2N but short trip also means less money spent. The both of us are food lovers and we probably spent more time looking @ food than shopping. haha.

On the eve of our trip, we both were rushing like for deadlines, Patty on her assignment and me on my projects. It was also the first time we only started packing our bag 4 hours before our flight. My dad was kind and sweet enough to send the both of us to the airport. *thanks dad!*

Upon checking in, we both went to have lunch @ Toast Box. That's when i realized I had not eaten anything since I woke up. Curry chicken was yummy perhaps I was too hungry and anything will be yummy. A pleasant surprise awaits us as we saw Tommy Emmanuel! haha Ray's favourite guitarist! keke like 2 small girls, we took photos with him but forgot to got him to play a song and his autograph. Haha.

Just about 40mins more before we would board our plane, the both of us saw a promotion that gives away free complimentary 10 min head and neck massage :P We were quite excited and asked if was really true and tada it was! :P

Finally we board the plane and to our "surprise" we had to sit separately apparently it was a full flight to KL and so we two took the opportunity to "snooze" 1 hour before we reach KL finally. When we were there, we took the sky bus by Air Asia which cost about RM9 per pax and head to KL Sentral. From there we made our way via LRT and reached Hotel Equatorial.

We tried to ask for a free upgrade but apparently I think the guy didn't get my hint. But we did get a "lovely" view of the twin towers from our room. hahaa Patty was trying so hard not to laugh @ me for making such a ridiculous request. We were pretty satisfied with the room and the bed was such a comfortable one.

Patty's friend brought us to Pavilion to have dinner. It was both our first time even though I knew it existed last year and I didn't have a chance to go. It was another big mall but it had a alfresco opening dining concept which is pretty hip and happening. I was hoping to get dinner @ Mdm Kwan in KLCC and tada there was one in Pavilion! So finally I got to eat their signature dish - Nasi Bojari is a type of indonesian tri-coloured rice that comes with assam prawns, beef rendang and deep fried chicken drumsticks. Yummy! We also ordered a chinese dish hor fun with rice vermicelli. It was something unusual for Singaporeans and the order turned out great! 3 girls shared the 2 dishes as the portion was quite huge for us and we were saving our stomach for desserts. We tried the Chendol as well it was not bad but i thought my Malacca trip this year in June was nicer than the one @ Mdm Kwan. Nonetheless, it was a yum yum!

After dinner, we jalan in the big mall and by then, patty and i could hardly open our eyes. We were totally exhausted and I slept almost immediately the moment my head touched the pillow. It was a good 9.5 hours of sleep after 2 exhausting late nights at work.

Work Madness

Lord, May the work I built with my hands find favour in You.

New Foodie Friends

Recently I got to know

Through

Cool :)

HappyWhitsun Home - Ep 3 =)

I realize i never quite finish up what i had wanted to do which was to share my home renovation and all sorts.

It had been almost 3 months since the renovation completed! The home looks good and cozy and ready to be moved in which KG did yesterday finally. Yeah!

The whole home renovation, furnishings and mini small items was all within our budget. We praise God that He provided people who kindly blessed us with furnishing and help us in one way of another. We thank God that the home arrived at the right time too and we managed to secure a few good bargains along the way as we built our home together.



Living Room

• Sofa from Sea Horse: This was one my favourite piece of furniture. Firstly is my dream L shape sofa and is comfy! Yes is off white and many of my friends commented is gonna get dirty or wait till kids come.. u will know. Alright, having said that while i will wait till kids come, white sofa shall stay! *muahahaha* My favourite part it comes with a extra set of sofa attachment which give me another reason to shop for ikea nice wooden/white tray. Imagine yummy cakes and tea/coffee and nice summer flowers. hmmm...
  Time spent to search and make decision: 2 months
  After 1 week we bought the price went up.. muahhaaha
  
  
• TV from Gain City Marina Road Show: Hahaa best buy from Panasonic! Comes with HDMI Cable + $100 NTUC vouchers. This is so handy. Thank God we waited patiently for 2 IT shows to pass us by before we got such a good bargain.
  Time spent to search and make decision: 3 months and countless visits to the same outlet Courts, Best Denki and talking to different guys and till now we still think TV looks the same except the size.
  
  
• Dining Table From Silver River Furniture Outlet: Ah i love my dining table! It is the first and the last impulse purchase. I am so into nice benches as part of the dining experience. KG didn't quite like it because he finds that he can't lie on his back while drink coffee. I told him that's is what sofa for. We are supposed to utilize everything at home :P Having said that, it is made of solid oak wood and so much stable than the ones we see in Ikea. This table is gonna be with me forever everytime i moved house! It is so zen looking ! Yummy!!!

Kitchen

• My dream kitchen! Ok not really since is small and it doesn't have an island. It will be nice to have one. =)
• Oven From Mayer: This was such an exceptional surprise! I got a good deal for this and it comes with a promotion price for Chef Knives! Although not very well-known brand but i think for a start, the chef knives were good enough. The Oven still had not made opened its official baking yet and yes i am looking forward to create magic! Hurray!
• One of my kitchen highlight will be spice rack where i am going to place all the dry bottle herbs there. Another highlight is the book rack where i am gonna store my cook books and the files of recipes i seen in magazines. Now i was told it was not practical because the books are going to turn yellow. Sigh ok i wonder if i shd get a proper book shelf and put in the kitchen now. hahahaa
• Now where to find a nice recipe book holder :P

Study Room

• All furnitures are from Ikea! We didn't feel we should be spending part of the renovation to built bookcases and tables. Thus everything are from Ikea instead. As the room is green, most of the furnitures pieces are dark brown oak colour. Hmmm feel so serene and forest. Like some kind of environmentally friendly room ahhaa. I wish the green would be darker though, so far it looked abit too light till. For shelves, we bought the open type like lockers format. More boxes from Ikea to store our loose items like letters and personal belongings to make the space neat. Now how I wish if Ikea got a glass box then i would have place my soft toys in. That will be nice and keep them out of dusts.
  

Master Bedroom

• Our room that can only be utilized next year Jan. Currently is the most simple one. Smack right in the middle is our king size bed from Sea Horse too. We are so pleased that we got a good price with 50% and additional 25% more. The storage bed and mattress all came under $1.2K. It was a good buy and seriously how long did we hunt for it.
  Time Spent: No need to hunt, every sunday without fail after service, we will visit compass point seahorse outlet, test the bed, jump the bed, lie on the bed, calculate and asked questions till the point the people inside knew us recognized us and can't be bothered to entertain us. We've also reccee other places and were shocked to see a good reputable bed mattress like Sealy will cost $1.5K & above. Since we both grew up familiar with Seahorse brand thus it make sense to get what we were comfortable on. After we made our purchase, we still make weekly trips in just to see if the price went up or down. haha!

Lightings

• It was one of the most memorable. I did my homework as usual by reading forum and posting questions and shortlisted to just 3 outlets. We found the outlet "Lighting Arcade" @ Balestier Road one of the best buy. The shop is small but low and behold, there are gazillion lightings inside! My favourite light would be the "ice-cube" and "netting" right @ our passageway. Hanging lights cost quite abit and thus pushed up the budget. But I was still glad that everything exceed the budget by a couple of dollars so that's wasn't too bad! =)

The rest of the home furnishings > Ikea Ikea Ikea :) I love Ikea!!! i still haven't got enough stuffs from Ikea yet! :P

We enjoyed every single moment of process from furniture hunting, bargaining and setting it up. It really put a smile on our face when we came up for cleaning for the past 2 months. Living here would be fun and yes may the home we live in be a channel of blessings to our friends who visit us. =)

Now back to my work... so much work! Oh my goodness!

Time!

I realize that recently my management of time is terrible. Not as if it was prefect in the past. But really recently ... it was just so messed up! Everything is so last minute!

Sigh God please help me to be a good stewardship of Your time.

Graduation Shots

Blessings of the Day: Still in the mood of graduation *finish liao*

I've Finished The Race!

Blessings of the Day: To God be to Glory.

Last year I felt I went through a rehearsal

This year... is for real! And it is the final lap!

我终于读完了！我终于毕业 了！

It had been a bitter sweet journey for me. Not that I went through alot of trials but yes it was quite a fair bit of obstacles. As I sat in the hall waiting for my turn to receive my certificate, thousands of one things ran through my mind.

I still remembered the many disappointments I faced when I applied for various local uni after I finished my poly. I remembered facing the disappointments from my mom that I cannot enter local Uni. I remembered a lot of things.

But I thank God that I can graduate today with a degree. It was HIM who enabled me to do all things.

I guess I've been waiting for very long for this day to come. Today my parents, my 2 sisters and Keegan turned up to support me. Some of my classmates said, "eh you attended the ceremony twice?" I know! Frankly speaking, I didn't feel anything last year hahaa, yes i was happy but for today, I was very overwhelmed. Even now as I am typing this blog entry. I am just choked with thanksgiving in my heart that I finally reached my goal and my dream.

It was not easy for me, because I often felt I am not a very bright person. I don't scores As or As* for every subject. From Primary school, to Secondary school to Poly. Even when I entered into workforce after poly, I often felt very inadequate. A few times, or many be multiple times a day, I felt so stupid & dumb ! Argh! Why can't I ever get things right? Why don't I have natural talents like some of my friends do. If I were to ever admit what I am most envy about.. that it would be talents. You will never find me envy a person with materials possessions because at the end of the day, I know if I work hard enough I can get the items that I want. Somehow I often felt talents are like inborn ability or God's special favour on the person.

For the past few years, I questioned/seek/prayed/asked God what talents He had given or bless me with? I wondered hard and long enough. Today I think i got the answer.

God had granted me perseverance.

I looked back, if not for perseverance, I will not be able to finish the race. If not for perseverance, I would give up in IT. If not for perseverance, I will not be where I am today.

I may not be the A* student in class or the most talented and biz person in the business world. But yes God granted me perseverance to complete what I had set my mind on. And in the process, He mold me, change me, teach me and most important He moved before me and determine my steps of where I seek my goal. I took longer than usual but I believed it was His intention to lead me today outcome.

Proverbs 16:9
In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps.

Thank you Father. All Glory to Your name as You lead me in my business for Your Glory. Amen.

Happy@Work: Yummy Packaging

Japanese are a bunch of creative people. One day would love to move out from IT totally and focus on this instead.

Banana Juice Designed By Naoto Fukasawa

Wedding #5 - しんこんりょこう

Blessings of the Day: Finally the little ones said he is willingly to walk down the aisle as the page boy and the little cute niece as the flower girl.. Sigh they are just so funny :)

We are flying to Japan for our しんこんりょこう (Pronounced as Shinkonryokou also means 新婚旅行) 6 days via ANA! Tickets bought at a good price of $570 per person including tax.

Quite a good bargain. It is a pity that we couldn't take SQ (due to the timing) otherwise the flight would have been A380 nevertheless ANA is not too bad either! So what do I look forward most?

• Mt Fuji
  
• Tokyo Tower
• DisneySea
• Ryokan: Japanese Traditional Guesthouse and wearing the outfit Yukata and deep into cool Osen, natural hotspring!
• 6 hours cycling tour around Tokyo
  
• Food: Ramen, Bento, Sushi and whatever is edible and yummy!

Yokohama Ramen Museum

*happy*

Driving Test

Blessings of the day : I think I had the most patient instructor on the earth. Amen :)

Today was my driving test. For the past 1 week or rather 1 month it was an intensive month of driving lessons on the road. It was also the only month I've entered into circuit for the first time.

I had to admit for the past 1 week, I couldn't sleep well. I was jittery, nervous and anxious. Everyday right after my lesson, I would call Kg almost immediately after I stepped out of the car and "report" all my mistakes and funny stories on the road. Kg was patient while taking the excuse from work to run to the toilet to hear me rant.

When was the last time I felt so nervous? I don't even recall I was THAT NERVOUS for my O levels exams. Neither was I nervous for my first story telling competition in primary school. (Ok that was irrelevant)

Everyday without fail this week, my body would start up the engine at 6am and start to get jittery again. Every circuit lesson I entered, I would either do well in parallel parking and mess up in vertical parking or roll off the slope and mount curb on the crank course.

It was soooo pressurizing! Every day for the past 1 week I would have "funny" and interesting stories to share with my family.

Day 1: 100+ demerit points + 5 immediate failures
Day 2: 50+ demerit points
Day 3: x number of demerit points + 3 immediate failures
Day 4: No strength to pull handbrake anymore and must use 2 hands. Left leg shake like mad turn numb and both hands - sweaty palms.

Last day or today. I can't be bothered anymore. Enough of worries! Enough of anxiety! That's it!

Morning 11.30am I met my instructor. I asked him how did the student fare before me. She took her test in the morning. He said: "Strike pole mount curb at parallel parking ~ immediate failure @ first pit stop"

*gulp* I told myself I can do it better!

Once in the circuit, it was much better than the past 4 days. My instructor also tried his best to encourage me and not let me felt nervous. I looked cool on the outside but inside I was screaming like mad *why did i even do this?!*

I messed up in crank course again. Mount twice and triple I remembered. I strike curb, forgot to check blind spot, never stop before the white line. I told myself again "I can do better!

Finally i spotted the fuel tank was @ E and my instructor told me to get a quick lunch while he ran off to top up the tank. I sat at the coffeeshop staring @ the chicken rice and my hands were still shaking.

*Sigh* I must have looked really pathetic.

Then I told myself, i need to do something about it! Then i flipped to my e-bible and read the following verses to myself over and over again. Remember the withered fig tree and Jesus was sharing about faith?

Matthew 21:19-21 (Contemporary English Version)

¹⁹and along the way he saw a fig tree. But when he came to it, he found only leaves and no figs. So he told the tree, "You will never again grow any fruit!" Right then the fig tree dried up.

²⁰The disciples were shocked when they saw how quickly the tree had dried up. ²¹But Jesus said to them, "If you have faith and don't doubt, I promise that you can do what I did to this tree. And you will be able to do even more. You can tell this mountain to get up and jump into the sea, and it will.

To me i was reading like this already:

But Jesus said to them, "If you have faith and don't doubt, I promise that you can do what I did to this [insert circuit station example: crank course] . And you will be able to do even more. You can tell [this crank/S course to widen up the road and let you go in and will not mount curb / tell these poles to stay rooted to the ground and dun fall down even if you touched it / tell the parallel parking/vertical parking/directional change to widen the road and I will not strike or mount curb] and it will.

Ok i am that faithful. I really said this while I am in the circuit!

Lo and Behold...

• the poles never fell
• i did not mount curb
• i did not strike curb
• i did not roll off the slope

Simply put, i did well in circuit and on the road. I thought.

But .. i still fail. with 40 demerit points. Thank you.

Sigh well, the tester was pretty strict with me. But I had to say he did prepare me and was also quite encouraging in his own ways. I thought I actually learn more during this test. Perhaps my instructor had been pleading me to remember to do the following and I've always "ignored" it and choosing to worry whether the poles were going to collapse.

Safety checks was my biggest killer in the test. I was slow in moving off, road hogging, turn the wheel while the car is in stationary position and many etc.

It was quite an experience this afternoon. I also really felt that I had placed unnecessary pressure on myself for the past 1 week making me so jittery for no good reasons. It was a good experience that I went through. I felt that if today I had passed and gotten the license, perhaps I wouldn't have been humble and would turn pretty overly confident.

As I looked back now, I really found it funny and laugh at the silly mistakes that I committed in the test. I had to admit I was really disappointed but I thought it would had been better to be a skilled driver than a dangerous driver.

haha poles stayed rooted to the ground. hahaha - what a prayer.

Dream Car

I think it is pretty pressurizing to go through the D-Test than spending money to buy your dream car. Changing subject I like to dwell the thought I am given a FREE chance to drive such car after I get my license!

I fell in love ever since this car first rolled out in Year 1996 or 1995. It was like my dream car! It was also ever since this car appeared, I've only like SMALL cars! I am only interested in SMALL CARS!



My first dream car must be RED - it doesn't need to be first hand :P



I like cooper for some reason! It just spells stable to me :)

The next car that caught my attention



i know i know not practical right?

Fine....

Our next vehicle will be this :)



Is the most ideal :D - can put bicyles, can take lotsa of things and i can go BBQ anytime! *Yippee!*

Full English Breakfast

Looking forward to cook a Full English Breakfast in our new home next year :)

Food never fail to cheer me up.

main courses | serves 2 Recipe by Jamie Oliver, Photo by © David Loftus
Preheat the grill to high. Set the oven to its lowest heat and pop 2 plates in it to keep warm.Put the sausages, mushrooms and tomatoes, scored-side up, on to a large grill pan and place under the grill, about 5cm from the heat. Cook for about 10 minutes, turning the sausages once or twice.

Add the bacon and black pudding to the pan and grill for 5 minutes, turning halfway through cooking, until they are cooked and crispy. Put the baked beans in a saucepan and warm gently for 2 to 3 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Place a non-stick saucepan over a low heat. Melt 1 knob of butter in the pan, add the eggs, season to taste and stir gently until just scrambled. Remove from the heat. Put the bread in the toaster, and arrange the sausages, mushrooms and tomatoes with the bacon, black pudding and beans on the warm plates. When the toast pops up, butter it, then put a slice on each plate and top with scrambled egg. Serve with HP sauce or tomato ketchup on the side, and a pot of tea.

Served with 1 cup of english tea or Vietnam Coffee! *heaven*

If today was my D-Test

i would fail miserably... 100+ marks deducted + 5 immediate failures .. this is so pathetic!! :(

HappyWhitsun Home - Ep 2 "(Dream) Furnitures wanted"

Blessings of the day: Well the renovation is completed and i still have not jot down what was the process! *Goodness* But Praise God for the work completed =)

Our furnitures hunting also brings a lot of fond memories :P and also it were also one of the many blessings that both families had given to us =)

When the home was designed with the following colour scheme, our ID told us to get the following

Living Room: White TV console, White Sofa, White Table, White Dining Table, White Chairs

Note: Shoe cabinet built in is WHITE.

Summary: Get all WHITE furnitures for the living room...

so cute! Can match my sofa :P

Kitchen: Don't mention - is white again but we can be adventure with our colours but still get white or steel colours for oven, hob and hood, and sink and fridge. If can get white, why not? But seriously i think there is too much white now in our home.

White Oven IS Not Practical


Lovely! White kitchen is the BEST and will make small kitchen looks big especially for Punggol home like ours .. space is a limitation!

my our dream kitchen also came from my our fav blogger - Chubby Hubby's Kitchen





Did ME we spent the most of our budget in the kitchen? no lar... of course

The Starbucks AKA Study room: I am inspired by when I flipped through the magazines, i saw this beautiful home office by this ang mo who lived in a HDB 4 room flat too. It just looked amazing and i want to follow: white shelves with colour books *opps white again*, beautiful beige wooden study table facing the window! I loved it i want to had the look too! Forgot to take that photo but looking at this - i think is beautiful too..

Don't you feel like working from home every day and spent ur weekend afternoons here reading a good book and drink coffee *ahhhh*

But because my ID chose green, we decided to change to dark rich brown wood colour to compliment the green walls. Hence the name starbucks room. It just need an expresso machine now to complete the whole cafe (anyone like to sponsor .... me?) hahaha

My MIL Room: Well she chose pink , and so is simple - white furnitures again! White wardrobe! hahaa

Our MBR: This time a slight change, except for the white wardrobe again, we are opting for black colour bed frame which is perfect for the dark grey walls. It will suit beautifully and posh and elegant hahaa.

If only.. is that huge in real life... hahaha :P

Next coming up - the actual furniture... !

Wedding #4 - L.O.V.E Photoshoot

Blessings of the Day: You know is actually a blessing that it rain... cos we nv sweat at all =) Thank God for the wonderful weather!



How? Nice? =0) More to come later....


ok ok one more =)



BIRD NEST!!!!

Classic Chocolate Cake Recipe from Rachel Allen

Quite inspired by this simple chocolate cake recipe. Will do one for my da jie this August.




For the cake

• 125g (4 ½ oz) dark chocolate
• 3 tbsp milk
• 150g (5oz) butter, softened
• 150g (5oz) caster sugar
• 3 eggs
• 200g (7oz) plain flour
• 1 tbsp good quality cocoa powder
• 1 tsp baking powder
• ¼ tsp bicarbonate of soda
• Cocoa powder or icing sugar, for dusting, optional

For the chocolate butter icing

• 75g (3oz) butter, softened
• 1 tbsp cream
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 175g (6oz) icing sugar
• 1 tbsp good quality cocoa powder

• Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F), Gas mark 4. Butter and flour the sides of the sandwich tins (two 20cm (8in) diameter sandwich tins) and line the bases with greaseproof paper.
• Place the chocolate and the milk in a bowl sitting over a saucepan of gently simmering water and heat until then chocolate has melted.
• Beat the butter until very soft then add the caster sugar and continue to beat until the mixture is light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then fold in the melted chocolate.
• Sift in the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and the bicarbonate of soda, and fold in gently to mix. Divide the mixture between the two tins and bake in the oven for about 25 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the middle of each cake comes out clean.
• Remove the cakes from the oven and allow to sit for a few minutes before turning them out of their tins and placing them on a wire rack to cool.
• While the cakes are cooling, make the chocolate butter icing. Beat the butter, cream and the vanilla extract until very soft. Then gradually sift in the icing sugar and the cocoa powder, beating all the time, until it is all added. Continue to beat until very soft, then whisk the mixture until it is light and fluffy. (I normally make the chocolate butter icing in an electric food mixer, using the whisk all the way through.)
• Once the cakes are cool, sandwich them together (I normally sandwich them together bottom to bottom – if you know what I mean!) with the chocolate butter icing. Place the cake on a plate or a cake stand and dust with cocoa powder or icing sugar if you wish.

26 Years!

What does 26 means to me?

• Is time to be more mature than yesterday
• Is time to be prepared to be more mature tomorrow
• Is time to grow taller (i know i passed puberty way long ago but i just want another 2 more cm! OK i can always replace with heels)
• Is time to learn more things and equip myself even more
• Is time to plan my next 5 years plan and next 10 years plan
• I am moving on to my next phase of my life
  
• I can no longer play like as if i am 16 years old (actually 16 years old having O Levels, so where got time to play?)
• So i shall continue to play till next year Jan

1/4 of my life + 1 year had passed me by. I'll have another at least half of my life time ahead of me (if by God's grace). This year, it somehow became rather solemn. It is like almost i wished i had never grow up. The amount of stress and responsibility can be rather daunting at times.

However every year i am thankful my birthday fall in the month of July. It gives me a new opportunity to reflect and catch up whatever I had not achieved for the past 6 months, reminding me I still have time to catch up in the next 5-6 months.

This year birthday, I pray the Lord continued to lead me and guide me in His path. That He will continue to grant me the wisdom and courage that I very much needed as I grow in - my career, my family, my marriage and my walk with Him. God is good.

Blessed Birthday Hap(py)

Behind The Building

July 16, 2009

Behind The Building

READ: 1 Peter 4:8-11

Be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. —1 Corinthians 15:58

Where we were working was hot, dirty, and it smelled bad. We had traveled thousands of miles to do some work projects, and on this day we were painting the back of a classroom building at a school for the deaf. The only people who would ever see this part of the building would be the guy who cut the grass and any unfortunate person who would have to work on the septic pit.

Yet, as the young adults diligently painted away, one of the girls, Melissa, put it in perspective by saying, “Nobody will ever come back here to see this, but God will see it. So let’s make it look nice.” And so we did.

Sometimes we sit at our desk and think no one sees our work. Or we stand at a line assembling item after endless item. Perhaps we take care of crying babies in the church nursery. Or we live the best Christian life we can—without anyone noticing.

Often our work is “behind the building.” But if that is what God has called us to do, we need to work with all our heart. As part of our calling to love others deeply (1 Peter 4:8), offer hospitality (v.9), and use our gifts to serve others (v.10), our task is to work with God’s strength to bring praise and glory to God, not ourselves. The important thing is that God likes what He sees. — Dave Branon

Though others may not observe us
And see how we serve God today,
Our job as servants of Jesus
Is to please Him in every way. —Branon

No service for Christ goes unnoticed by Him.

A new "iPod"

So happy i got a new ipod from http://www.mixpod.com.

See the ipod on your right.

HappyWhitsun Home - Ep 1 "Final Quote is never Finalized"

Blessings of the Day: We both enjoyed what we are doing. Confirming the designs, colour schemes and looking @ 3D designs. We are excited to hunt for furnishings, best bargains deals and building our lovely home. God has been very good to us and it brought us closer to Him than before and we just want to dedicate the whole home to our loving God :)

KG said we must really record down what we been through so that it would always be a good reminder of how the Lord had been good and faithful for providing this home for us. Great idea but it takes lots of efforts to blog everything and yes yes... with many photos :)

Collection of Keys

The day we collected our keys we were sooooo excited! Our friends had told us that it would be very a long tedious process because we would keep signing the forms till our hands were sored. But haha guess what, it was 1 hour long settling the admin mattters but we truely enjoy every single moment doing this together. When is the next time you gonna collect your very first new home keys again?


Opening the Door for the very first time

We had a slight problem with this issue as my mom wanted us to open @ auspicious hours. She wanted to also get a "Professional" to do it. After many rounds of persuasion and also pleading, we finally got "our way" and she finally relented let us opened our door by ourselves :P But we did promise her to get our door open @ the ausipicious timing just to make her happy and be at ease.

We both were so excited, happy and grateful at the same time. We were reminded that God had really given us this flat since we had tried BTO for 3 times and it was the 3rd time we managed to got it. Pastor shared that when he first got his flat with Aunty Sk, they dedicated the whole place to the Lord. Thus for about 5 minutes, we stood there and prayed and dedicated the whole place to the Lord and asked Him to fill His presence in our house to be a blessed and safe haven for us. We very much wants our place to be filled with God's love and when our friends and family who stepped into our house and leaving our place with God's love, joy and peace.

Preparing for our Renovation

When we opened our home we went WOAH! Actually *WOAH* not at the place but the amount of mailers that were lying on the floor :) We started to do cleaning up and Kg went crazy and mopped the whole house 6 times while i sweated and did the defect checking for the whole house. It took us 2 days over a week to complete the defect checking and took HDB another 3 weeks to correct the defects for us. In the midst of the 3 weeks, we made our first payment to the ID and waited for our first 3D draft designs. When it finally arrived, we were very much pleased with how it looks. I had my concerns for the colours chosen initally and finally decided with Kg that it looked decent :)

No carpet will be used, no flowers on the wall... for presentation purposes of our color schemes only

Each room in the house will have a coloured feature wall while the rest are in off white. Except for my F-MIL's room which is mulberry, our colours are quite cool neutral colours like grey, starbuck green and silver. Our kitchen took a bold step by choosing a white colour theme but many had concerns since we would love to cook and bake. Finally we still chose white because our kitchen really look tiny and the best way to maximize the tiny limited space is using white colour :)

One thing we learnt that the final renovation quote would never be the final quote. We continued to add in more items (not as if we can control the extra costs*sigh* ) and was glad that the initial stage we bargained quite a fair bit. There were frustrating moments but thankfully we had also learnt to tackle it together. There were much more intense planning coming up that involved our budget and that forced us to be even more disciplined than ever! We had to be cool headed at all times and if in doubt... just pray. You won't go wrong with that!

Next our furnishings huntings Ep 2 :)

I want a new toy

This new toy will be perfect while i trained in gym :)





WALKMAN® MP3 Player - NWZ-W202/W
Be free from the tangling of cords and listen to your favorite music freely with Sony's NWZ-W200 series Walkman® MP3 Player. It features a new wearable style that does not involve any headphone cords, new ZAPPIN™ & Jog Dial controls for easy operation, making it a perfect partner for any activities.

Week 1 Day 2 Tone Muscles

Week 1 Day 2 - Lower Body Stretch

1. Cardio 15 mins :: Step Climbing - Level 9 Fat Burning = 89 floors climbed/169 Calories killed
   
2. Cardio 5 mins :: Slow cycling - Level 5 Fat Burning (to catch my breath from the intense climbing)
   
3. x30 Crunches
4. x30 Biceps Curls with 0.5kg Dumb bells
5. x30 0.5kg Dumb bells shoulder press
   
6. x30 Leg Press
7. x30 Hamstring Leg Curls

Result: Almost died from the step climbing cardio exercise. More alert for the past 2 days and slept better too :)

Week 1 Day 1 Tone Muscles

Week 1 Day 1 - Full Body Stretch

1. Cycling - Level 5 Fat Burning 20 mins ~ 6km++
2. x30 Crunches
3. x36 Biceps Curls with 0.5kg Dumb bells
4. x30 Lateral Pull Down
5. x45 Standing Calf Raise
6. x36 Leg Press

Results: Aching buttocks...

Bling Bling

Bling Bling from Anna Nucci @ Far East

i want DSLR camera

I want to buy a DSLR camera (Repeat infinity times)

I promised this will be my graduation gift cum birthday gift cum wedding gift cum christmas gift cum comfort gift(?!) cum ....

Sony A300X


Nikon D60


Canon EOS 500D kit

HappyWhitsun Home

Blessings of the Day: By God's grace, a great ID was found and we were blessed with our very first electrical appliance gift by a couple :) *thank you*

The journey was a long one staring @ different types of quotations. It was interesting and how in the process we've both learnt so much and we also argued a fair bit. (on colour schemes alone -_-)

It all started last year when we first learnt our keys were coming soon in the first quarter of 2009 and it got us abit panic. As our future home is in block C so the folks in Block A will get the keys first. Friendly neighbours posted their home photos online and we were lucky to have a sneak preview of how the home looked like. It got us really excited - the living room cum dining room look decently big enough and kitchen was miserably small (there goes my dream of having an kitchen island) and 3 bedrooms and 2 mini toilets.

It began with finding out more about contractors and interior designers aka IDs ~ who do we really want to look for. Contractors were known to be affordable but design wise you would have to design and coordinate yourself. IDs on the other hand makes your life a breeze by providing one stop solution for you but is known to be expensive.

I read the whole forum - www.punggol.org and also in the process got to know my future neighbours. It is really interesting these days how this kind of social networking websites works and you can be more prepared and less blur. Kg and I looked for a total of 5 Ids and 1 contractors quotations over the period of the past 4 months. It was long but at least we wasn't rushing.

Orange Cube
http://www.theorangecube.com/

One of my neighbour recently shortlisted them and I have to say their designs are really nice and unique. I came to heard of them when I was blog hopping looking at the people doing renovation process. The discussion with them went well until we were presented a quote of close to $20K. These was abit on the high side and they promised to throw in free gifts worth up to $4k which we thought we could get a better price and even added up which would not even reach $20K. When we asked if we could use the free gifts to offset the quote, the answers was yes but would not offset $4k but the free gifts wholesale price which was less than $2k -_- Of course we never went back to them since. Side Note: the ID who attend to us very good looking.. whahaha jem is smitten by him... LOL

A&D Design
http://www.interior.sg/

This ID is located in Upper Serangoon. They are quite patience people and the person who attended us was Raymond. His quote was about $16K and quite a number of things we liked to have and they belong to the list call "nice to have" not "good to have" or "must have". If not for a friend's contact, A&D would be the one we will likely to go with. They had done about 4 projects in our blocks and that's shows they are quite good.

Baroqued Design
http://www.baroquedesign.com/

Another popular ID engaged by most forums users. By far they have the best praised carpentry by all the home users. Price was on the high side. When we asked for the quote, it was around $16K and quite a number of items was not yet counted in yet. Certainly I would have to say their works are pretty well done and judging from my neighbours new home, they really look warm and cozy :) Looked for Lawrence.




Very sweet Daddy who had made a warm and cozy home for his 2 sons. Total damage heard was $50K++ (include furnishings)

Summit Design

Only 1 neighbour of mine is using them. They were the last ID I had approached to before we made up our decision. Personally I felt the response was abit slow and we didn't really meet and we were only communicating via email. Maybe I am a very e-person, everything must communicate via email before meeting up. The quote was around $15K as well. But I have to say my neighbour new home is very nice looking and was full of praise when comes to defect checking and such - basically this ID is a very efficient person. *ironic - it just contradicts my impression*





Total damage is around $32K (includes furnishings as well)


Contractor - Friend's Contact

The contractor was quoted slightly on the low side cost about $14K+ to $15K+ (note compared with IDs this quote will cover more items). The reason why I had quite trusted this guy was kg's good friend's cousin who would be coordinating this. He was quite patience and explained to me when we met up at our friend's new home about what is needed and what's not needed. The only "negative" thing would be I had to come up my own design and tell him what I need. I was really concerned cos then I was doing my report and I felt that this would be a major Project to me - to design my own home. Of course it would be nice to design your own home and who wouldn't want? But when I had tried to create my own 3D drawings i think i was roaring away. Then I also got Kg to try to do 3D drawings too. Think he went bersek. Apparently that led us to the deciscions - pay more and let the expert plan and do. Don't bother to crack your brains till dust...

But my friend did a wonderful job in his new home!





Theme: Red & White

Finally drum roll - good friend's Kok Keong contact ...

Plush Creative Living Pte Ltd

Avee is Kok Keong's ex-colleague. She is really nice and friendly. When we met up with her, she was able to explain very clearly of what we wanted. She showed us many photos of her past works and advices what we can do and what not we can't do. As we bargained and negotiated, we finally managed to come out with the final quote which we both are quite happy with. What impressed us the most would be her persistence and professional personality. Personally she was the first lady in the IDs we had spoken to and the rest were all guys. Somehow, female IDs will have a more gentle touch and can communicate better with the customers :) Keegan and I were glad that after 4 months of marathon, we finally concluded our IDs searching and settled for this.

Of course friends really helps and i guess they had probably had gone mad with my consistence pestering. hehehe. Thanks Kok Keong :)