I'm back from Canada, USA, Hongkong, and VCF Orientation camp.
And I'm missing all of them terribly. :(

It's really strange. When I was in Vancouver, I wished I could go home as I sat idly around and whiled my time away on the computer or watching countless movies.
However, as I stayed there, I loved the cool weather, the carefree lifestyle of having nothing to do all day long.
No need to sit in front of a desk piled high with a mountain of books, no need to keep glancing at the clock to see if it was time to switch studying another subject, no need to keep munching on tidbits to satisfy my "mental and physical welfare" while mugging.
Even though I was grousing over my canadian-ised cousin who didn't appear to care about my presense, I was thankful I made friends with a bunch of youths at the church over there, Victory Family Church.
They were so friendly and nice to me even though I was just a visitor.
I wished I could bring them back with me to Singapore.
The 4 weeks flew by so quickly.
After taking a few days rest, I packed myself off to the VCF camp, firstly at NUS, then Sentosa.
It was great getting to know other Christians on campus, and of course they were super friendly and everyone was like one big family.
During the camp, God spoke to me about reaching out to other people, especially non-christians.
One line seemed to claw at me and has stayed unforgettable: It's a matter of life or death.
Okay, I shall remember that.
So here are a few pictures.



Here's a really outdated pic of us seniors at our last Strings concert in May. Note that there're only 2 guys! hehe.






This is my VCF camp group Solomon the Wise! They're really friendly and fun, but I think I spoilt it by being quiet and anti-social. I just have nothing to say especially when meeting new people. I'm starting to worry about making new friends in school :(. But overall the camp was great! Lots of worship and theme talks and reflections. And our camp Tee's really cool, it says 'Faculty of Christ!'






Oh this is a blurry pic of me, hannah my pri sch classmate and bryna our senior who's always so adorable and lovely!






This is rach & dean, our Bunny gal & Bunny boy!






Another group pic but without me. We were supposed to put together a skit about The Matrix and Humility, and Liz (the gal in the middle) was our Trinity!






Well now I have about a month before school starts and I am really scared, no, it's more of apprehensive, about what school would be like.
I've been accepted into King Edward Vll Hall.
Actually I knew nuts about any hall, and I only chose KE Vll cos it looked like the nearest to the Science Fac on the campus map.
But after talking to some of the fellow VCFers I met at the camp, it seemed as though I had made the wrong choice :(
One girl said the facilities at KE was 'lau kok kok', that is, old and lousy.
Another said that the KE is very boring and unhappening.
I kept thinking about my wrong decision and made myself unhappy by regretting not choosing Temasek or Eusoff.
I almost wanted to back out of my "hostel plan" and go to Plan B, which was to drive to school everyday.
But after sitting on the fence for the past few days, I've decided to go ahead and just try out hostel life, just for the experience and fun of it.
Who knows I may get to meet really nice friends, you know, the friends-for-life kind.
Or even better still, meet my jc, secondary, primary or kindergarten long lost friends!
And I plan to take up self-defence like judo or taekwando or wushu (KE's the only hall which has wushu!).
After all, if I really hate sharing rooms with someone else and carrying a bag of stuff to the toilets just to shower and eating I-don't-know-if-it's-nice hall food, I always have the option of moving out after this 1st semester.
Maybe I'm worrying too much.
Mrs Tay, the mum of the cute little p6 girl I'm tutoring, told me that whenever I'm unsure of what the future holds, just PRAY!
And that's what I've been doing!
Yeah, it really helps, God hears and answers prayers :)
Now I have to decide whether I wanna go for the Hall camp or not.
I'm definitely going for the Sci-o-week, since I'm told it's rather important to go for that.
But Hall camp is 2 weeks long! That's crazy.
I'm thinking of leaving halfway or in-between, they can't stop me anyway.
That way I won't be so burnt out cos I still want some time to bum around before school starts!

Yesterday I went out with a new friend I made at the church here.
She's reallllly nice and friendly, (and her brother's really cute too! :))
Well, we had a great time together yesterday, since she didn't have school.
She picked me up in the morning and we went for breakfast at this danish place called "De Dutch".
And the food was super-lecker!
I was enjoying the food so much that I forgot to take a picture of it cos it was so unusual and prettily arranged on a huge plate.
We ate Pannekoechen and omelette with cheese and ham and Hashbrowns, which were really special cos they were all diced up.
Gwen was so nice, she treated me to the breakfast, even though it was really expensive.
So I told her I would pay for the lunch afterwards.
Here's a picture of us at the dutch place.
I wish I had taken a pic of the food!



After that we drove to Metrotown.
It's the 3rd time I've been there.
Gwen said ok now you've gotta buy everything and anything you want cos it's gonna be your last time shopping here.
Actually, in my heart I was thinking of not buying anything, cos I've already spent a bomb in America over the weekend.
And I felt sooooo guilty cos I've never spent that much my whole life.
I had written to my mum and told her I was going broke, but fortunately she didn't scold me, she just told me to enjoy my holidays and don't worry about the money, cos apparently Uncle Chris still owes her money.. I think.
Anyway, there was the summer sale going on here in Canada, so there were lots of great deals around.
I couldn't resist and bought a black and white stripey tube and a stripey short skirt.
Which were really cute!
Gwen tried on the same stuff and we ended up buying the same stuff!
I told her that I'll think of her when I wear them, and she must think of me when she wears them too!
Actually I was wondering if I could find cheaper clothes in Hongkong, cos I was supposed to leave the rest of my money for Hongkong shopping, but ohwells.
I wanna buy bags and accessories in Hongkong!
Anyway, Gwen bought lots of stuffies from Metrotown, then we went for lunch at 2pm at this Japanese Hotpot place.
My goodness, the portions here are really huge.
This is Gwen's Special Balls Combi



And this is my Special Lamb Combi



Actually I didn't see anything special about the Special Balls Combi, cos they look like normal Yong Tau Foo to me, which you can easily get in Singapore, but Gwen said she always orders that cos she finds the different types of Balls interesting.
Well we stuffed ourselves until we were over-full, but left the vegetables, and so we asked the waitress to pack it for us to take home.

This is another picture of us!



Gwen's from Singapore, her family migrated to Vancouver when she was 9.
And I find it amazing how she speaks with a totally Canadian accent, with no trace of Singaporean accent.
I thought that the Canadian and American accent were the same, but Gwen told me that the Canadian's accent's nicer, cos it sounds more musical, more wavy, and I realised that's quite true!

I've always wondered how my life would've been like if my family had migrated to Canada, cos my dad was contemplating it when my uncle's family migrated 17 years ago.
Right now my uncle still wants my family to migrate to Canada.
But I think it's too late now.
I don't think I'll fit in with the Canadian lifestyle now.
I think I still prefer Singapore to Canada.
Everything here's so expensive, ie food, clothes.
Only the houses and cars are cheap.
Maybe it's because I keep converting the canadian $ to SG$ that's why I find everything expensive.
And the most annoying part of buying things is that you hav to pay taxes which is 14%, super high huh.
And they give you back so many coins my wallet is full of quarters and pennys.
When you dine in restaurants you have to give tips, 10%, which is troublesome too, but Gwen says the waitresses deserve it, cos they're really polite and friendly, and they attend to all your needs. You get really good service here and in USA.
Anyway, I guess that's about all for now.
tata! :)

We went to Victoria, B.C yesterday!
sat the B.C. Ferry there, and it was really cool.
the ferry is so huge, our tour bus (and all the other tour buses, trucks, lorries and cars) could drive into the ship and park there for the journey, while the passengers spill onto the decks and enjoy the facilities on board.
Actually the food there was a total ripoff, so my ah-ma, aunt and me munched on the muffins and scones we bought from Starbucks earlier.

Oh check out these Candied Apples!!
Aren't they mouth-watering!!!





I wish they had it in Singapore.











This is my aunty looking like E.T. (She said so herself not me! hahaha)







We were on the top deck of the ship and it was awfully windy and she kept complaining that it was freezing!

Anyway, we went into the Victoria Parliament House and that was kinda boring.
Reminded me of Germany, when Schraudie our german teacher would make us go on tours in the parliament house and i would look so bewildered and bored cos I didn't understand what the guide was saying in super cheem german!

I met Terry Fox...






And he said this:












Aww... How inspiring!

I really really wanted to visit the Miniature World and the London Wax Museum, but we didn't go cos the tour guide didn't tell us it was free-and-easy and up to us whether we wanted to go or not!
Argh.
We just walked around aimlessly for 1 1/2 hours along the harbour cos we thought the tour guide would bring us there later.
But he didn't :(
He just drove us straight to the Butchart Gardens.
Which I really really LOVEEEE!! :)



It's like PARADISE!






This is my sweet ah-ma



and she's on a donkey!



















The flowers are really amazing, you can never see such an exotic spread in Singapore.
Reminded me of this song,

All things bright and Beautiful,
All Creatures great and small
All things wise and wonderful,
the LORD GOD made them all!

See how supreme and wonderful our Lord God is?
I wanted to lie down in the bed of flowers (like what they always do in movies!)
but I couldn't, cos there was a barrier of chains around the pretty flowers :(

Our tour guide told us that Victoria has a very high percentage of elderly people, largely because many people retire in that state.
The air is fresh, the scenery is beautiful.
There was even this huge signboard that says "The day is for resting, the night is for sleeping."
How interesting! :)

Hi there all you people in Singapore!
Haha if you didn't know, I'm in Vancouver now, staying at my uncle's house for 25 days, after which I'll be going to Hongkong so I'll probably go back to SG end of this month.

Well, it's been quite fun down here, visited lots of really cool places and took lots of pictures.
Scenery is beautiful too!
Weather's great!
Food is heavenly!
I'm definitely going on a diet for two weeks when I get back to SG.
And... of course not forgetting SHOPPING! hahaha.
We drove for 3 hours to USA last week on a day trip to Seattle Premium Outlets.
I went trigger-happy & bought so much stuff!
Cos all the branded stuff there's so so so cheap!
Like Nike, Guess, CK, Tommy, Polo Ralph Lauren, Burberry.... the list goes on.
I could've even bought the whole store, if my aunt didn't control me.
And the stores were so empty, not even crowded, no one would be fighting with you for all the great deals, unlike in singapore.
It was the HAPPIEST DAY OF MY LIFE.
hehe.
the GREATEST SHOPPING EXPERIENCE ONE COULD EVER HAVE in the world.
At least you know the branded stuff you're buying is GENUINE and not fake.
I can't imagine myself carrying fake goods around.
I bought presents for my family too.
My Uncle said I should have bought more!
So he booked a 3-day tour for us to USA again this weekend.
I'm gonna list down and plan what to buy.
hehehe.
But I must be careful not to overload my luggage.
My mum told me that each person (me, my aunt and grandma) is allowed two 32kg bags, but I don't believe it!
Isn't 64kg per person a bit too heavy??
Anyway, we managed to come to Canada with a total of 117kg for 3 ppl, which is already very heavy.
I think it's insane.
Anyway, I do feel a bit guilty about spending so much, and I'm still gonna spend somemore in Hongkong.
So I've decided NOT to buy anymore things when I go back to SG, even though the GSS is now on.
Anyway, everyone in SG would be wearing/carrying the same stuff, and that's not good.
I'm gonna buy exotic stuff which I've never seen in SG.
That's the purpose of shopping overseas, right?
haha.
Ok enough about shopping.
My long-lost cousin (whom I've not seen since we were 2 years old) is not very nice.
He hasn't been entertaining me at all, except he took us to Metrotown (the biggest mall equivalent to Suntec city) and we played with his Xbox once only.
He keeps going out with his ang moh friends, some of whom I've seen and think they're BAD influences.
Ohwells.
I don't care anymore since he can't be bothered about me.
At least my uncle has been really nice and concerned about my welfare.
He took my mountain-biking, golfing, hiking and almost every night he would put a DVD for me in his ultra-cool movie room.
The walls are black and the ground vibrates because of the super powerful home theatre system.
I think I've watched about 8 or 9 movies in the past 2 weeks.
oh, Resident's Evil is a really creepy show, don't watch it alone!
I'm looking forward to the 1 day tour to Victoria Islands tomorrow.
OKIE DOKE, I'll update more another time! :)

Hi!
It's been eons ago since i last updated.
haha. anyway, here's some stuff which has happened so far.

Firstly, I must thank God for his grace and blessings.
God is Good, all the time!
I actually passed my TP!
Haha. That was 2 weeks ago.
I was SO SO HAPPY.
Believe me, you'll never understand how amazingly exhilarating it can feel, to be able to get your driving license.
No more having to put up with my egoistic instructor, no more having to fork out money for every lesson, it's not cheap okay!
And my instructor would always "eat snake" during my lessons. How annoying!
He would go to the toilet, sign his car insurance, update his bankbook, buy vegetables and bread, while I would be so fuming mad waiting in the car.
So I burn his petrol hehe.
I press down hard on the accelerator and the engine would go "VRRROOOOOMM!"
HA.
I don't care if I'd spoilt the car.
Serves him right anyway.

So I complained to my mum about his bad deeds.
And she said, don't I do that during work too? as in eat snake.
Well I guess we all try some way or another to slack, or not put our best effort in our work.
Like my friends and I would go to the toilet for half an hour, or switch off all the lights in the pantry and hide in the dark and chat with each other.
HAHA.
Anyway I've already tendered my resignation so I'll leave my job in 2 weeks time.
I've been there for 5 months already!
Yes, I can't even believe it myself.
ARGH.
Then I'll start preparing for my one month holiday in Canada. YAY!

Last Friday I drove over to Cyn's house to fetch her to mine, cos she was going to sleepover.
It took me half an hour to reach there, cos of the rally at serangoon stadium. :(
But fortunately we went by hougang on the way back so it took only 10 mins.
We had a great chat :)
I always love talking to cyn, we can talk about absolutely anything under the sun.
Woke up at 8am the next day, had our breakfast of Werner's Oven bread bought by cyn's mum.
Then we drove to Pasir Ris to fetch my brother who was booking out that morning.
We had to wait at the bus stop across the MRT, since the bus alighted the boys there.
Busloads of boys hopped off the bus dragging their big bulky black luggage-like bags, which probably contained all their dirty clothes from their field camp.
And then we started looking at the cute army guys.
haha.
Cyn said we seem like we were actually there to boy-watch than to pick up my brother!
There was this malay guy who hugged his mum and I found that really sweet!
I wondered if he happened to be among them.
haha.
It was quite fun to be there.
I mean, you can actually feel their excitement of being able to go home for the weekend, even though it was less than 48 hours.
Then my brother arrived with his friend, who stays in Woodlands and doesn't talk, so even though I graciously sent him back all the way to Woodlands he remained silent throughout the journey and I thought that was utterly boring and not fun!
Haha.
But never mind.
I miss my brother when he's away at camp, and I pray for his safety everyday.
Well, he does look more grown-up and more muscular now. haha.

Our strings concert last Tuesday at the Esplanade was great.
I absolutely love the pieces we played.
They're so exciting, compared to those traditional stuff we usually play.
It was wonderful to see the rest of the stringies especially the exco and my juniors.
I hope I do not forget the whole Esplanade experience.
We seniors (alumni) had a whole dressing room with an attached bathroom to ourselves, it felt like we were in a hotel.
Putting on our make-up, changing into our black clothes, waiting behind the doors.
Having dinner in the Green Room, which consisted of Pizza Hut, Ya Kun kaya toast and mango juice, sponsored by jesher's dad!
Love strings very very much :D
If I'm not so busy in Uni in future, I'll go back and play again! :)

So that's just a little update on what's happened so far.
Actually there's lots more but I'm pretty lazy right now :D

PHOTOS GALORE!!!

Choc buffet at Fullerton to celebrate Maria's birthday! :)


Maria, Jo & me


Cyn loves strawberries!


Pj, meera & shubei!


Huming & meera at the chocolate fountain :D


Maria the STAR of the night reading her birthday card. ;)


Me & cyn! :)


We went to Sentosa for a class outing...

Me & Maria!


Huighee & me


Nic & me


Franc & Yihui


Class playing Frisbee!

started work a few weeks ago, at SP services as temp admin.
i was so happy when i found out that pan was working at the same place as me! :)
nowadays we always have lunch together, tog with another gal huiqi from ajc.
work is pretty boring, just updating, filing, counting, sorting, those normal admin stuff.
my colleagues are quite nice, helpful, friendly, and there's this joker who is really funny & makes work seem more fun.


my supervisor's a bit scary.
she can be quite nice at times, like when she buys dinner or breakfast for all of us, and last week she bought 3 cakes to usher in the new year.
but if you step on her toes or do something wrong, you'll get it from her.
she doesn't just talk, she barks, and it can be really annoying, so i just listen to my mp3 the whole day long.
today, she was quite nice, she gave me a lift back.
on the way, she started telling me things, like how the girl who left after i came "is actually a crook".
so mean of her to say that right!
i totally disagree with her, cos that girl was real nice.


Anyway, work can be quite okay, and sometimes i'll chance upon little jokes which make my day more fun.
like when Pan had to call a customer, who's called Kim Kong.
she was laughing so badly she didn't dare to make the call in case she bursts out laughing.
then yesterday there was this customer called King Hong.
really! i'm not kidding!
haha
okay sorry it's mean of me to laugh at people's names :P


i am so very excited.
you know why? you wanna know why?
cos my mum bought a car for my brother & me!
OMG OMG OMG AHHHHHHHHH!!!
hehe
it's the kia picanto, which i find really cute.
it's orange.
it's manual.
it's a weekend car, cos it's $17,000 cheaper.
it's gonna be sort of MINE, cos my bro's enlisting in March.
and after i pass my driving test in april (cross my fingers!) i'll get to drive it the next 2 years.
which is vital cos i'm not looking forward to travelling 2-3 hours to NUS.
i was telling my mum, but since it's a weekend car, that means i have to leave my house before 7am and go home after 7pm.
then my mum said, "nvm, you can always go to the 24hrs Mcdonald's".
haha.
owells.
and that means i have to be my younger bro's chauffeur also, drive him to school everyday.
i think i am thinking too far ahead.
haha
well i wanna thank God for everything He has done in my life.
Amen! :)

Today i did 2 things i have never done before.

It was like this:
We (my family) went for hi-tea at Marriott today.
was so-so. i think the food was pretty boring. maybe we shouldn't go there anymore.
then after that my dad ate so much and got so sick.
i think he should stay away from hi-teas from now onwards.
when we got back to the clinic he asked me to give him an injection, cos my mum wasn't there, went out with her friend.
i was like, WOW. that is SO COOL.
it was quite easy to give someone an injection.
Just pierce the needle half way through the skin, pull the plunger up a little to make sure the needle did not reach the vein, then push the plunger all the way in.
hee. i was so excited.

then half an hour later my poor dad puked all over the floor and on his shoes.
being the good girl i was, (haha) i cleaned up the smelly vomit with a mop and a pail.
took me 45 minutes to soak up the mop with the vomit, swish it around in the pail of water, then after all the liquid vomit was cleared, the food particles were still there.
so i had to use a cloth and pick up the horrid semi-digested carrot & watermelon & honeydew.
the honeydew stench was so intense i felt like retching.
i think i won't eat honeydew for a couple of months.
and i told my brother i won't go for hi-teas for the next 20 years.
hi-teas are bad.
i don't enjoy the mixing of different flavours of so many different kinds of food in your mouth.
it just isn't pleasant.

so that was the 2 things i did today.

had my 2nd driving lesson today.
it wasn't so good.
i had a grouchy instructor cos my kind grandfather-ly one went on holiday to Indonesia.
he's so bad la.
it was only my second lesson, and he thought i know how to really drive.
he kept saying "kou fen, kou fen" (deduct points) wbenever i did something wrong.
oh fine.
i think i made him almost want to vomit blood because of how many times i stalled the car & looked into the wrong mirrors.
and there was even once i lifted both hands off the steering wheel after turning, cos i had thought the steering wheel would spring back on its own, and he started lecturing me about getting into accidents and other stuff.
he kept saying i would fail my exam if i drove like that. like hello, this is only my second lesson lor.
i hope i won't have to meet him ever again.
i want my kind grandfather-ly instructor back on friday.
my brother told me he has had his fair share of bad experiences with ill-tempered and cranky instructors, especially when the instructors always change at the driving school.
i vow to be more attentive in future and observe my brother or dad when they drive, instead of falling asleep in the car.

helped out at my dad's clinic today.
someone called & was mumbling so inaudibly i could not make out what he was saying and passed the phone to my dad.
think that guy asked for sleeping pills, and my dad simply dismissed him by saying we don't sell sleeping pills.
then after my dad put down the phone he went off shaking his head and commented "Another drug addict".
haha. i guess my dad was a little too curt.
if it were me i would suggest to that person to come down for a consultation, cos i would genuinely want to help that person, if he really is unable to sleep.
i think maybe i like to help people, or make others feel happy, and this is one of the reasons i really desire to be a doctor.
but my intellect doesn't seem quite right, and it's really disheartening.
sigh.
i dont' wanna get back my results next year.
even when i receive my result slip in my hands i won't have the courage to look at it.
i think i shall bundle up a few of my most precious possessions and run away to... some country.
right. we shall see. :S

wanted to go for Stammtisch with cyn today, but couldn't :( cos we had our senior's farewell today evening at the Trevose. sorry cyn! we'll go next month hopefully.

was really cosy & enjoyable, prolly because we had gone through so much together this year. syf & chan & lau pa sat & other stuffies.
thanks so much to my darling juniors, esp those who turned up today, cheryl, elizabeth, grace, lauren & yanshao.
thanks for the food & pressies & organising everything.

even though there were only 5 of us seniors (me, amos, serene, pam, singyin) we still had a great deal of fun, just talking & laughing.
amos & pam were hilarious! i'm gonna miss them lots. pam ate so much pink jelly until she was so full. the pink jelly came in all shapes and sizes, fish, rabbits, and even a large round one with an apple shape moulded on top!
pam kept reminding us that she wanted to go home by 10 to watch her show Project Runway. haha. she's so funnyy!!!

amos juggled the fuji apples and they got bruised and wasted cos he dropped them onto the floor. waste food lor! amos do you know the hungry children in africa are starving? tsk tsk.

yanshao told us about his smart friend Adrian had 100 percentile for 4 subjects and 96 percentile for GP, so we concluded that our future child should have a name starting with "A", and it should consist of only 3 letters, so that he/she would be smarter than amos!

i think it is so wonderful to be with a group of ppl who share common interests and even experiences.
such as, when amos told us about how naughty he was in Yamaha, all of us started reminiscing about our musical childhood spent there, cos almost everyone would at least have attended music lessons there since age 4 or 5.
then serene started talking bout the Exorcism of Emily Rose & we started to freak out.
Especially when singyin said she could see people who weren't actually there. omg. that's real freaky man. like she said when she looks into the mirror at home, she would sometimes see a girl with long hair, then when she looks again, the girl would disappear. and no one in her family has long hair. creepy!

well our 3 strings teachers, mrs chung, ms ong & ms chan were there too. mrs chung told us she was leaving for MOE headquarters, and guess what, she's going to the Pre-school department there!
we were flabbergasted. from jc to pre-school! haha. but it's her choice. she explained that her daughter's in pre-school too that's why.

grace was so cute, kept addressing us as "seniors".
really, i have never specifically been addressed as a senior. but it sounded nice :)
we kept bombarding grace with questions about Prom night. like about the emcee. apparently he's Harry Foo or sth, and he's a big shot. everyone disliked him though. amos said he's disgusting, serene said he's gross. haha.
oh ya, did you guys know the bar of soap in our goodie bag was the "free gift" for the first 150 or so ppl who bought tix for prom? lol.
anw, thnx for everything grace :) you did a great job!

cheryl said they were gonna play at the Istana park on 23rd dec and asked us seniors to play too. sounds fun, i haven't played there before. But then it's gonna be hot, cos i heard that it's gonna be in the open and furthermore i think we're too soft to be heard.

love strings, gonna miss it big time. i'll never forget our music in strings EVER.

Prom pics are up! took me quite some time to upload it though. here.