Turning 10yo and the walk of fame I didn't want

Stomp up stage to shake hands, take cert and smile at cameras last night was overwhelming.
So was the heart stopping moments when my number gets called twice, but not in the right order.
There goes the smart tv! 😒

Even though my face muscles was sore all day from being nervous after he drop the bomb on me that I have to go up there,
I wish I could tell my boss I'm thankful....

That he smiled reassuring smiles all day.
That he made me go through this event.
And that he was up there right after me.

Here's hoping for another 10 years of working and growing old together.
May we continue to push each other and conquer all the new tech that comes along.

Time I have a restful day!

Sausaging!

Eating these today...made me felt like a sommelier that tasted different distinct grapes on a plate.

On another note,
Dear blog,
thank you for lasting so long with me.

The queen has arrived!

Sonia came out today.

It's one of those really mind blowing things to have watched Mookie's tummy grow.
And later on to have the privilege of feeling the little one wiggle about inside.

I'm just so thankful the delivery went so well and both of them was out in like 5 hours.

Oh how it's such an honor, such a privilege to have seen it all.
It's like watching the stars at night, being in awe of their beauty.
This has that same awesomeness to it.
Except stars only shine brighter in darkness, and this has been a constant gradual thing.

How can I not see God in all these?

Melbourne in one post.

The season of Spring is lovely to be in.
I loved going to Fitzroy Gardens and the Conservatory there.
I found so many dandelions on my way back home one day that I just plucked four and
made a wish.
These are all from mars, I actually took some macro flower shots with Blinky but am too lazy to upload them.

One of the days in the city, I made my way to the Art Gallery in order to play this Street Piano.
There was actually two Street Pianos, but the other was in the lobby and there was a lady sitting next to it with her laptop and I was too shy to play there. So I made my way down to the car park and found this one.


The last two days before I turned of age was spent playing board games.
It was nice hanging out with Shawn and Wei Jenn, cousins from afar and of a certain age gap yet able to play together.


The last hours before I turned was actually spent making sure the kids had their dinner and milk, stopping a squabble, clearing up and dozing off waiting for their parents to get home.
We went to 400 Gradi for lunch on the big day.
The world best pizza maker supposedly own this place.
The food was interesting, nothing like fast food pizza places.


This is the utterly awesome cake on fire with 73 candles,
before lighted where candles was demanding for space and after in a sea of wax.


Somehow every time I go over to Melbourne I end up adding to my stash of OPI.


There are so many things to be thankful for.

My first day in the city I actually lost my Myki card, and was back tracking 3 different places looking for it. It had the worth of quite a few trips to the city in it so I was upset with myself for being so careless. Was already calling my bro and telling him about it as I was checking out the last place to look for. Lo and behold after hanging up, I asked the sales person at this last place and someone had handed in a Myki card. It really made my day.

It was nice to be around the kids, giving out hugs and kisses in abundance.
When I ask the youngest what he will miss about me going home, he said he will miss playing with me.

It was nice to be together, wishing each other Happy Birthday in the morning.
To have that one moment where even he realizes that the last time we actually celebrated together was when I was in primary school so long ago. And how now we have turned 73.
Then to have the cake on fire (which my older nephew thought was the stupidest idea ever), was just awesome. It took quite a number of huff and puffs to blow it out.
I'm thankful that my sister in law let me have it that way.


The whole idea of the trip was to celebrate together.
To embrace the sharing of birthday, instead of being awkward and wondering why it had to be like this.

To just be the part of me, that belong to this bond of day.
And I'm glad I did it from the pure thought of wanting to.
Not doubting how silly or wasteful of money it is.

Letting go is beautiful..

The truth is,
unless you let go,
unless you forgive yourself,
unless you forgive the situation,
unless you realize that the situation is over,
you cannot move forward.
 ~Steve Maraboli

It's been over 1 year since I knew of something,
9 months since things ended,
and 3 months since I left.

Today I was finally ready to delete all the saved conversations and passwords I once held dear.
I logged into the accounts for one last time.
In a moment of insanity, I even updated an information.
And then it was poof!
Cleared away everything from the Recycle Bin.

There's a sense of relief.
And being utterly amazed and thankful for the boldness and strength to have arrived at this stage. :)

Visiolibriphobia

I thought you had visiolibriphobia..

                     
                              .....said a dear brother. 

I had to google that one up.
And yes I do. It was riling me up why it demand for REAL NAME to register.
Especially in this day and age where for me personally, I would rather have put my pen name.
Who knows with some certain influence, I can actually be one someday.
So I did my best to Keeping It Short and Simple despite the stupid rule of no initials.

And then the next hyperventilating phase was looking for every 'Public' button and bringing my security level up.
There was so many of those! I felt it was almost as if there's a purposeful conspiracy to have you leak something regardless of what it is. No matter how much they say you are in control of what goes out.

What can I say?
I am finally putting myself through this torture because I am choosing to conquer my bloody fear.
Just let me calm down before I log in again to continue the assimilation process.
Otherwise I might just need to dig up my Inderals.

It's been a long while...

Knitted stuff

For a little loved Ray Yuen in Queensland.

I'm so glad they made it in time and he hasn't grown too big for the booties Jen and I bought.

 ~

Birthday stuff

And a meal with Jen that can't be describe with pictures.

(Because the pics will just expose what a pig I am when I'm with her. =))

~

Tough stuff

R.I.P. Uncle A.

I miss your bass lines.

It's been 2 months since he passed away.

But I couldn't post about it without posting this....

Because he was so happy for you, Xian!

*teary eyed*

Congratulations Evan & Xian!!!

And I'm thankful that just days before it happened, 

we met up after quite a long time, 

and that week he managed to call Xian as well.

And it's with these little bits and pieces of events, 

fitting in together,

that God has comforted me with.

=)

The Martian has arrived....

I'm really tired today.
So I'd keep this post short.

Martian Pink

And yes that is a baby blue cover,

because the other choices was pink and dark pink.

AND WE ALL KNOW I AM NOT A PINK PERSON.

If I regret this,

I'll blame it from having watched John Carter yesterday.

Lol.

But I remember daringly wishing for this when this Samsung model first came out.

At that time, I was thinking why pink only in Korea.

So it was a seriously cannot believe this! moment when the seller took it out.

And I couldn't not buy it.

So here's to contradicting covers!

And please be patient while I learn this Martian up.

A worthy weekend.

What happened:
McD at 10ish.
Drive.
Lunch at Tapah.
Drive.
Reach Nana's cousin's place.
Twinkled on the piano (Can't believe I've forgotten how a real piano feels like.)
Bathe and head out.
Found Wangsa Walk and had BBQ Chicken. (They seriously have hot spicy chicken!)
Metro.
Supper at NZ.
Slept.

Woke up early but slept back hence no breakfast.
Straight to Metro for 10am service.
Ate Wendy's for lunch! (freaking finally! The mushroom burger is way better than BK's!)
Slept til Tapah.
Drive.

Picture stolen from Nana's instagram

Israel Houghton's concert.
The crazy rushed weekend to KL was all for this one event.

I'm so glad I went.
On a spiritual high now.
(Wonder how long it'd last in this reality I live in though...)

Was just completely awestruck to find that the super talented drummer is the one playing the keyboard in the quiet moments. While his left leg keeps the high hat going. Like... OMG!!!!!

It was such a crazy time of praising Him.
And to just let the songs minister to my soul.
Singing those words out so heartily, you couldn't just be faking it.
Something had to give in, and it did.

And they ended it all with my favourite of the Decade album: I am not forgotten

I think the fact there wasn't a keyboardist helped.
Like, I'd be auto tuned to analyzing synthy sounds if there was one.
And the drummer was way too good to even bother to wonder what's going on there.

I'm thankful for the weekend that has been.
Have tons of sleep debt to catch up on before this weekend's on-call.

The stuff I wasn't expecting...

*post birthday post*

How do I even start counting my thankfuls this round?

I made some pretty concrete plans this year.
Like ordering the cake, bowling around 5pm and Koyah at 8.30pm when they start frying the noodles have been on my mind for a few weeks.
Add-ons just last week was that there was breakfast with the girls who flew in a day earlier and a movie before bowling.
Which was fine. Still on the plan. And I was content with my plan.
Even when there wasn't the 1.30pm slot I wanted for the movie and had to go for the 11.50am slot,
I thought I can surely kill 3 hours hanging out at 1st Avenue before PB.

In actuality, I had to kill like 5-6 hours because the movie wasn't that long and bowling was super short.
And then Koyah was closed.

Yet...
Ended up it was better than what I had planned.
Or maybe I was enormously relieved that emo day finally came.


Ended up I managed to include a so called prank I love that involves showing up unexpectedly at people's house.
And I didn't fail that morning. =D


Ended up I managed to do 3 other stuff that I've been wanting to do but there hasn't been a proper time for.
And there's such a beauty, being in awe and having an awareness that not being a stickler to concrete plans or to be disappointed when plans fail can bring little surprises to myself.

What was priceless and uncountable is the time and effort spent with all I met up with including a sick Jen.

Each of them that's such a blessing in my life right this moment.

Then there was the things I received.

Chocolate from Lyin!

Angpow.

From Rachel's mum. A really unexpected surprise in the morning.

I think I'm a first outside of family to get it, no?

McDonald's Float

Stolen from a Spice and Ice meal.

The cemetery I've been longing to visit.
This happened only because;
a) Parking at Penang Bowl was just nearby.
b) It was still broad daylight
c) I was safe.

Walking all around the Padang before Koyah.
Having random conversations.
Eating gummy worms and roses.
Watching a kid flying a very interesting set of small kites.

The mosque I've been dying to take shots of every time I passed by.
Somehow there was less traffic that made stopping Odie in front of it possible.

Lovely western food that happened because Koyah was closed for their Raya.
First time visiting this place.
And it was befitting a birthday meal.

Pupu, my new USO from Jen and Popo my old baby all hooked up.
Lol.

Birthday Card
Teary at the heartfelt words from Vi.

Nandos
Just imagine. Of all people. Treated by Slavedriver at dinnertime today. Lol.

#227 Thank God I don't have to wash my hair today!!!!

Because I'm still tired.
And I'm already tired at the thought of being stuck in dresses today.
I've only gone for long hours in one on the 1st day of CNY!

Today is going to be worth the struggle.

Congratulations, San!!!!!!

Yesterday was awesome, out of my mind.

Was out for over 12 hours!
So many unexpected gifts and things.

Chocolates, an angpow, a Unidentified Soft Object (USO) called Pu Pu, 

the cemetery, fireworks and the mosque.

So Freakin' Friggin' BLESSED!

Am so thankful.

The only regret is probably forgetting to call my brother to wish him in the midst of everything.

But then, I also forgot all my directions in Penang.

Lol.
And oh, not only my Birks decided to give up on me,
the strap of the bag I was carrying for the day came off as well.



I so need to pack my things now.
Photos will have to wait!

You are 5 year old!

Happy Birthday, Blog!

Can you tell I'm so excited?
Was going to do the whole midnight thing.
But someone had a football match on and I was pooped from a long day at work.
Ended up waking up at 6am for a little SELF INDULGENCE.
=D

All packed and ready for distribution!

Now I can go back to snuggling in.

Woo hooo!!!!

I reached my 10 Million NPs goal!!!

What a pretty sight!

This is the day that the Lord has made....

Proudest moment of the day had to be...

1 2

Crash 2 3 4 5 6 Tat Tat (x3)

Crash 2 3 4 5 6 Roll!!

Pom Pom Tat Tat Pom Pom Tat (x7)

Pom Pom Tat Tat Rolls!!

Crash 2 3 4 5 6 Tat Tat (x3)

Crash 2 3 4 5 6 Roll!!

Pom Pom Tat Tat Pom Pom Tat (x8)

Crash!!

I finally completed a short song.

Stories From A Place To Call Home

Happy Birthday, Nana!
Here's your birthday review.

Based on the musical A Place To Call Home, Anna Tan (Nana) has launched an ebook, giving us 10 short stories for the characters in the musical. 

Being Nana's first book, I'm super happy for her.
She has so totally worked hard for this and its beautiful how her passion for writing is being realized. 

Some of the stories in the ebook gives us an in depth look on how the characters felt about the central character Daniel being adopted into the Lee family. 
Since I actually watched the musical, I was delighted that I get to read more then there was about each character than what was portrayed in the musical. 

'Cock of the Walk' gives us a sense of background to the musical story. 
Like a prologue to what Daniel the main character gets himself into.
'So Surreal' dabbles into how Daniel is torn between seeing his prayer answered yet dreading what his new life would be like from the first impressions he had at the welcoming party. 
'Picking Fights' is one of those stories from the other characters. 
'Letting Go' sees things from Emily, sort of like the mother's POV. 
I felt for her during the musical. 
'Falling For Him' is like a scene from a girly sleepover.
I really liked this as it gives us a little more about the female characters in the musical. 
'He is Not My Son' is like the father's unmasking his disappointment with Daniel. 
'Leaving' gives us a little more background on Diane. 
'Closure' story is part of the thoughtful ending scene in the musical. 
'The Bench' is a sweet story from the future. 
'Dreams' is the ending that could have been. I would have loved to see the romantic scene, but at the same time reading the story lets me imagine it myself. 

Overall, I think I enjoyed it more after watching the musical. I'm not sure if I would be lost without having watched the musical. But then I have to be honest that I could be biased since its Nana's book. =) 

These stories were either in a POV style or third-party view. I like the third-party view ones better as I think the POV ones all have the same level of thoughtfulness for each character which lets you see how much thought Nana puts into each one of them but yet makes them somehow slightly the same. 
Having said that, I liked that there was both an Emily and an Edmund's POVs as it shows that a couple can see the whole adoption thing differently.

My favorite story of all has to be 'The Bench' as it gives us a happy ending of sort that can belong to both endings ('Closure' and 'Dreams'). Happy ending that equate couple did get together (oops spoiler!) isn't exactly the point of the whole musical, but that's my cup of tea. Which makes 'Falling For Him' kinda my second favorite story. =) 

Go have a read here. =)

#193 God made all my plans possible.

*Warning! Long post ahead*

Definitely deserving a #192 on my list....

Thursday night was such a blessing to catch up with Vi.

I had SK with her. Hahaha!
The mini Mars bars were like icing on the cake.
I was just telling my dad last week that I no longer get chocolates from Singapore in defiant to him complaining to my aunt that I have a big chocolate stash. Which I don't, not really.
The look on his face was really something when I showed him the Mars bars. Lol.

~
Had my day off on Friday.

Made a surprise magic act of appearing where the security bar should have blocked me off.
There was people doing maintenance on the security bar hence the ability to drive straight through. Hee!
It was like, the first thing I was thankful about and just felt that things were going to go well from there onward.

Even with a detour to Crystal Point in the morning, back to back movies at 1st Ave was still possible.
Three Stooges was pure slapstick comedy and made me laugh til my voice was hoarse.
It would be the one show I'd watch again.
It was so funny I'm thankful there was only like 4 of us in the whole cinema, so it wasn't so embarrassing that I was laughing away like I own the place.
Yeah, with no control volume button. Just imagine.
I was still having giggle spasms even after I've gotten out of the cinema area. It was that enjoyable.

Total Recall made me cringed and squealed quite a bit with the fast-paced action scenes.
And because I had such an empty cinema for Three Stooges, I kinda forgot about the other audiences when I first sat down for this second movie.
Had to remind myself a couple of times to keep the reaction to the screen down.
The gravity changing scenes was quite a mind-boggle to me.
Something to do with passing the core of the earth, or near the core of the earth.
The synthetic police reminded me of the white baddies in Star Wars which made them not so scary after that.

Killed an hour or so by trampling over to Komtar and crossed like the craziest intersection ever....with me squealing away because no cars was stopping to let us walk across.
And all that just so to check out a music shop opposite Gama.
Then was back and over to Prangin to check out if there was any new skeleton anklets which I'm crazy about right now.

Then it was FINALLY time for Nana's musical!!!
Bought her an emo bar. Lol.
The musical was awesome!!!
Or maybe I'm biased because I've never been to a local one.
(And everything Nana does is awesome anyway after she created Max....Lol)
Thankful of the early passes so I can choose where I wanna sit.
My spot was just right because I could watch the musical, the band and the choir on the other end without twisting my neck much. And if I turned all the way behind, I see Nana's serious face on as a bonus!
I got all teary when the mum grieves over the lost son. It was THAT moving.
And the band was *swoon* worthy!
Are they that cute all the time? When can I audition for the music team, Nana? Lol.

Since the musical ended around 10ish, we could make our way up to Rasa Sayang to watch Sound of Lights play.
An out of the blue spur of the moment drive based only because its been weeks since we last saw them.
Unfortunately, they had ended the session earlier for that particular night although their time slot was suppose to be until 11.15pm every night.
Was kinda disappointed having driven all the way up there to come back down again.
And without dinner at that point. My tummy was more or less influencing my mood by then.

So instead we had take-out food (ending the reign of Glass meals) and ate at the promenade.
Had my sundae ice cream in the car, and was in a better mood by the time we got there.
It never fails to amaze me when another of God's creation would let me spoon feed them.

Lost track of time eating, watching the gentle ripples of waves, having random conversation topics and just being intoxicatedly calm in the peace between fireworks, dog barking from a boat at sea and other noises.
After a long day that I went through so many different emotions, it was just right to end my day there.
I wouldn't have mind just dying on the spot there.
Got home way way late and was super glad to find my dad asleep.

I can't even begin to list down all the thankfuls about Friday because there was just sooo many details to be thankful about. So there's my title as a roundup to that.

Calls

(#150)
20minutes.
A record never imaginable.

(#151)
24minutes.
A gesture I can never repay.

(#152)
30minutes.
Just me, Clara and God.

(#153)
What if your blessings come through raindrops?
What if your healing comes through tears?

(#154)
And the things of the earth will go strangely dim
In the light of His glory and grace

(#155)
For letting me know I was wrong.
The raging seas calmed at His command, not any other striving or obedience made from mankind.
And definitely not bottled up.

What a night!

Things were looking really gloomy at the start of this week.

What with my hand and all.

I wasn't expecting GDOP worship to turn out so well.

I wasn't expecting this amount of fellowship in a week.

And how He turned my sorrows into joy this week.

Had dinner to celebrate an 18th birthday.

Had a seriously hilarious time.

And high from the sugar rush and tons of laughter, I did something I never imagined I could.

I pulled slave driver's ears!
I don't mean to be so excited and silly, but I am!!!

Feels like a wall broke down this week.

We've all been out three times in just one week and there's more to come!

Maybe this is just momentarily because he's changing jobs and I was kinda home all week.

Like meeting at an interchange.

But whatever it is, I'm grateful for the way things turn out.

For bravery in that early morning hour to speak out my heart.(#147)

For people like Vi that prayed.(#148)

For Him who loved me enough to know I needed all this.(#149)

BG and a wedding

Was at Botanical Gardens on Friday.

The Orchid Festival turns out to be a time for orchid farmers to sell their orchids.

There's way too many monkeys there now, I have to admit it's dangerous to walk alone.

I bought this white plant. Felt like it was Christmassy.

Dad commented it is certainly an unusual plant.

I think I startled him.

After all, I haven't got a greenthumb in me.

Lyin's luggage was over by 5kg.

I'm glad nothing was confiscated this time.

My goodies. =))

And then there was Nesa's wedding.



It was just so calming to pet and pet and pet Nesa's dog.

I was so close to kissing him and he wasn't the licky kissy type!

Things I was reflecting on after the wedding.
~10 years ago I would not have the courage to go from table to table distributing snacks and smiling at total strangers. Hiding out of sight would have been more likely.
Funny thing was, the aunty gave me the way out because there was *enough people* to handle it. But I didn't back out. I was actually slightly annoyed which made me more determined!
In honesty, I thought she was looking down on us for not taking it so solemnly or seriously. And she was wrong about the timing of when to do it, ha!

~10 years ago I won't get so excited seeing so many teachers outside of school. Probably would have lost my appetite instead.
I think I've let go. So what if I had crummy marks for Chemistry and Add Maths? I haven't had to applied them anywhere in my life so far. And the teachers have aged too.

~We've come such a long long way as friends. All of us.


Thankfuls.
#131 Thankful for the distraction the wedding was from myself and whatnots.
#132 Thankful for Getty's soothing voice.
#133 Thankful for Jen. Her little words that spoke BIG volume.
#134 Thankful for dog therapy sessions.
#135 Thankful that He reminds me where I've come from.

Updates 2

Big Brother's  leaving. It's hard for me.
But I think it's harder still for him, as I watch him nearly tearing up while talking about it.
Maybe the worst part of this all is knowing that so many are leaving or have left in the span of 2 months.
So many that I care about, that is. Fife. Bass.
The volume of loss is just too much too soon. T__T
And this whole situation breaks up this question within of 'What am I doing here if everyone is leaving?'.
*EMO*



I went kayaking on Sunday.
Would have been awesome if slave driver haven't lost his fuse at me for screaming hysterically.
In my defense, it was my first time hence the screaming and panic.
And I still can't swim. >.<