The opposite of stressed is desserts.

Since I'm home all alone with a painful tummy and barely able to get out of the house, here I am in an attempt to revive this piece of virtual land I somewhat own.
Or perhaps it is an attempt to appease myself from tucking away this nearly neglected corner of my life.
Being unwell is such a chore :(
I'm craving for Crystal Jade la mian xiao long bao.

The past weeks or rather should I say months have been filled with my own fair share of downs and ups, but most importantly timely reminders from Him on life paths and priorities, which we will eventually have to juggle full-time.
But along with the arduous task of keeping at the balls of my feet on my 8-6 routine everyday, little joys like weekends well spent with my boy + filling up my schedules with all the love from my colleages and friends and girlfriends on the weekdays to the brim. (Up to the point I sometimes exhaust myself from Mon-Fri)
Attending launch invitations and served fine dining has been an experience, but not to be blinded by it to forget the amount of hard work put into each assignment and project that scrolls along.
Scholarship and university applications/assessments are nearly coming to an end, I dare hope.
And I'm looking forward to the day getaways next week, following Russell's POP two days ago.

Pictures galore, most on facebook though.

D&D promos - Jester and the King





Food for Thought - North Bridge branch with the girls! Sandra's birthdayyy, we love you ♥♥♥



Dinner out at Demsey's Culina
Ben & Jerry's @ Demsey


Vatician masquerade ball D&D @ Marriot




Desserts @ 2am desser bar



In-between office breaks :)








Wala wala @ Holland Village






Gang @ The white bar

Assessment with the Superheroes, you guys were awesome! Glad to keep in touch :)

Gang @ Mindcafe Boat Quay



Carren's Baptism on Easter @BPGC, congratulations on your new chapter of life ♥♥♥



Group shot outside @ Dragon Restaurant for dim sum buffet




Girlfriend's birthday pictures @ her place, happy nineteenth once again, I love you and thank God for such a close friend I can connect with spiritually and emotionally ♥♥♥
Thanks so much for having us over, plus your mum's hospitality :)
And company of my AC girlfriendssss :}






POP finally!




Next week promises to be sweet, hopefully at least.
God bless!

KAREN, PLEASE READ THIS:

"She and Karen make a good pair and they work well together, which should make it easier for them to be GYLC representatives. Both Yan Ting and Karen are hard working and seem able to balance their time. As they continue to develop into courteous, capable and considerate young ladies, I strongly believe that more such opportunities would come their way."
- Our beloved lower secondary Literature teacher.

♥♥♥♥

Gloomy overview?

"God has not promised Skies always blue,
Flower-strewn pathways All our lives through;
God has not promised Sun without rain,
Joy without sorrow, Peace without pain.
But God hath promised Strength for the day,
Rest from the labour, Light for the way,
Grace for the trials, Help from above,
Unfailing sympathy, Undying love."

--Anne Johnson Flint

We are too Earthbound,

The devotional places perspectives too apt to be true.
I'm not in the most pleasant of moods right now with all the circumstances going around. (Lack of sleep makes a person cranky too)
Well, no one said it was ever easy.

And like Audrie said, this place is dead so I shall revive it...soon enough.
For starters:
- Met up with the galpalzxzz after a gazillion years, yay! ♥
- Girlfriend's birthday with Chin, Car, Nico and her mummsie (Happy birthday once again my dearest!) ♥
- Scholarship apps + Interview with lunch with Girlfriend and the gang
- Juggling a lot of work
- Xiuyun and Jill's farewell dinner with Mindcafe and White Bar for night out fun :)
- Silly office jumpshots and in between lunch adventures teehee
- Masquerade D&D with pretty handmade masks and dressy dressessss with night out thereafter with the booked out boy
- Jester + King silly outfits at the office lobby tending to the booth, hahaha @ us

Possibly having another dinner with the girls soon + Carren's baptism (really want to go give my moral support!) + the boy's POP, yes finally ♥ + Crashing Chin and Noreen's restaurant with Yikai and catching up + MacDonald happy meals during office lunch hours

A lot of pictures to be put up :}
And for the sake of screaming out: I need a massage!!!
I think I've been spending too much time with everyone and my work, thou shalt not neglect thy self.
Can't wait for the weekend even though our plans may not fall through, ah :(

Spot on,

Perhaps it's clairvoyance.

Fragments to dust,

Life is very, very fragile.
So daintily beautiful, it gets whisked away in a blink of an eye.
May God's peace be with you, and I pray for strength and comfort for you to overcome the grieve.

Sunshine

We could grow up together, defining the boundaries of the countryside.
We could smile like we mean it, lighting up the whole town.
They say, summer doesn't last forever.
But what goes out will and must come again.

Train ride,

Just a minute I was subtly judging her mismatched frumpy sleeveless top with her prized Prada tote.

Then came a bunch of Primary School kids toddling onto the train carriage, speaking of their big dreams filled with bombastic car brands and animal farms.The next thing we knew was that the unspoken silence brought about a series of choked giggles and amused glance exchanges.Why stretch our differences apart when we can pull them together while taking joy in such little things. Not a word exchanged but a connection to remember, it made my long train journey to the East :)

Because all girls are precious,

"I believe in pink, that laughing is the best calorie burner and that happy girls are the prettiest girls."
- Audrey Hepburn

I'm just a little bit caught in the middle of Life;

We're caught in this awkward loophole in time where we're no longer treated as kids yet not matured enough to be considered as adults.
This transition is rather perplexing at times, like fattened hamsters scrambling out of their outgrown wheels, only to fall through the gaps.
On a side note, your tulips are still alive!
Even though it has been (barely) a week, and the petals are dropping one by one ♥

And congrats to all the A level graduates, no matter what God has blessed you with, be contented with them :)
Like always, opportunities may go by but others will come knocking on your door so stop shutting yourself out and go get some sunlight!

Wise choices do pay.

Grab me tight,

I realize how such a wimp I am when it comes to changes.
More than the superficiality of drastically chopping your hair locks to a short crop, or painting a bold new coat of nail lacquer for a special occasion.
Changes define life, as simple as it sounds, and the next decade looming in front of me is filled with so many decisions and spaces in between to fill.
David Russell once said that the hardest part about life is really to know which bridges to cross and which to burn.
You parallel it to your life choices, and you somewhat think that it makes a lot of sense.
The world's your oyster, you say.
(Other the fact that you can't keep on burning bridges because the world is round and they'll eventually come and haunt you in the end if you keep burning the wrong bridges)
(Burning bridges is such a paradox!)

I guess my only gripes about such changes is that emotional attachment and familiarity you develop, even for routines.
I've grown fond of my routines, I wished kindergarten never ended and my parents never had to leave me on weekdays for work.
Now that I've graduated from IB, I wished I had cherished my time with my classmates more, now that we're slowly drifting away when everyone's schedule is so extremely conflicting.
I wished I never had to transfer my girlfriend out of AC, I wished my parents never had to go through a rough patch, I wished my bestest friend never had to be whisked away for NS, I wished I could just stay nineteen forever (but I said that for every year since I was 7)
It's only natural that the above list is non-exhausive if I could go on but I guess the point here is really the contentment that keeps me going form year to year, day to day.
It's more than a phase, and it's more than mere adaptation out of your comfort zone.
It's difficult to accept these changes at the start, and it may be painful to deal with in the process but it produces a new you.
The fear of making one small step in your life that could affect the prospects of your future.
The stability and security you redraw from your daily routines, with the amount of emotional deposits you bank in every day, assuming the non-existence of familiarity breeding contempt.
It's hard to accept circumstances as they come along, when you know you could have taken an alternative road and things could have turned out much better than expected.
We hate the unknown, yet we love being attracted to it's mysterious realms.
And these choices define who we are, and render us to depend on our spiritual mind.
As cliche as it sounds, Life is really just a journey that you really want to say out loud that "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith" 2 Timothy 4:7
These changes may seem insurmountable or impossible to accept, but life's never a bed of roses.
And to enjoy the beauty of the rose, why not accept these thorns to appreciate it's true value?
We're here with a bigger purpose in Life, why spoil the full pictures with these minor hurdles along the way.

Inevitably there will be times in your life when you feel deep down in the dungeons or tossed down into a well where the sight of the sky above does not heighten your hopes. There will be times where you'll cry yourself to sleep and red eyes are yours to keep. There will be times where you feel neglected and question your self-worth. There will be times where you felt every inch of effort was worth it one moment and your hopes are dashed the next, or times where you feel so alone even in a crowd of many.

Sure, life slaps us blows but let's take pride in all the little joys of life.
Waking up early in the morning only to find out it's a Saturday, taking off your heels/socks after a long hard day of work or even that one person who laughs with you when you just told a really bad joke and no one gets it but him/her :)

2 Timothy 1:7 tells us "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind."
Now as we embark on these major transitions in the upcoming decade of our lives, let's just keep trusting in Him and seek comfort in His words.

Summer rush,

I could not see a leaf on the tree,

And now I could count them, one, two, three,

Count them over and over,

Leaf from leaf like lips apart,

Like lips apart for a lover.

And the hillside beats with my beating heart,

And the apple-tree blushes all over,

And the May bough touched me and made me start,

And the wind breathes warm like a lover.

- The Milkmaid's poem, Sydney Thompson Dobell

In dire need for retail therapy.

Private post: Click to enter password

Keep fighting, keep the faith.

Keep fighting, keep the faith.
So many people have been through it and they know how you feel.
It's seeing what the future has to offer and what His plans for us/you that gives us the will to move on, to push on with Life.
This applies to many, many souls out there so don't you dare give up on yourself because somewhere out there, there's someone special praying for you to pick you up and get back on the pavement.

I CAN'T WAIT FOR 12 HOURS MORE YESSS THE PROSPECTS OF WEEKENDS HAS NEVER BEEN SO EXTREMELY MOTIVATING.

Au revoir,

Ariel's farewell (Au Revoir Ariel!♥) with the girls + 2 guys, dinner with Girlfriend and Carren ♥♥♥ and work has been going well on well.
Pictures up here soon, I think.
It was really good to catch up with everyone, sharing problems and all :)
I know I haven been very open about my feelings but thanks to those who asked because it really means a lot.
I know I've gotta be better than that, in-camp calls have been very muffled and thousands of commotion going on in the background but I'm still so comforted from that spare few minutes, and more importantly on the fact that we both have God.

♥

" If I had my life to live over, I’d dare to make more mistakes next time. I’d relax; I’d limber up. I would be sillier than I have been this trip. I would take fewer things seriously. I would take more chances. I would climb more mountains and swim more rivers. I would eat more ice cream and less beans. I would perhaps have more actual troubles, but I’d have fewer imaginary ones. You see, I’m one of those people who lived sensibly and sanely hour after hour, day after day. Oh, I had my moments, and if I had to do it over again, I’d have more of them. In fact, I’d try to have nothing else. Just moments, one after the other, instead of living so many years ahead of each day. I’ve been one of those persons who never goes anywhere without a thermometer, a hot water bottle, a raincoat, and a parachute. If I had it to do over again, I would travel lighter than I have. If I had my life to live over again, I would start barefoot earlier in the spring and stay that way later in the fall. I would go to more dances; I would ride more merry-go-rounds. I would pick more daisies."
- Nadine Stair

Do we all dare to do the same to be different?

Love,

My dear Girlfriend, I hope you're coping well! You have to stay strong, just because, because :)

"The past is always going to be deep inside our souls. You can’t run from it, you can’t hide from it. You just have to accept it and remember that you can’t bring the good memories back, but when you’re having one of those days, you can sit back and reminisce on the times you had and the feelings they brought."

"You've got to risk love. It doesn’t mean that you’re never going to get hurt but the pain you feel will never compare to the regret that comes from walking away from love." - Ghosts of Girlfriend's past

Sunday,

Sunday send-offs are so achingly beautiful.

Life,

Have you ever though of life as a musical and you just singing your heart out in the shower or dancing in the carpark not caring one bit if the security guard spots you out as a looney?
Everyone needs that bit of escape once in a while, and it feels really good to just walk out of the back gate greeting the guards and thanking the last person who extended his arm to keep the gate open to save you the trouble of toggling the greyish button an arm's length away.

The week has been bliss, starting off with Chinese New Year and his first long book out :)
Tacky Chinese dinners, family time, time with my girlsss ♥♥♥♥ (Happy birthday Sandra once again I need to find your old pictures to put up HAHAHA), catching up with my Girlfriend ♥♥♥♥ in between work (please take extra care, I'll definitely see you soon!!) and my colleagues who never fail to cheer me up during/after work!

The future certainly is dauting at times but not overpoweringly so, our prayers and foundation in the Lord will sustain us through. I don't believe so, but I know so.
Thanks for all the few minute rush calls, prayers and 5am shot conversations, your family and loved ones are supporting you all the way even though training is getting very tough.
"I am able to do more for you than you could possibly imagine" - Ephesians 3:20
Trust in the Lord always, and this applies to all of you out there too :)

Content,

"Why it is that she gets all the attention, and still isn't happy? If I had half of what she gets, I would probably be on top of the world."

Contentment.

Dedication,

From Sandra's tumblr, dedicated to my special Girlfriend:

People say that walking away is the hardest thing to do, but it isn't. Staying, even when you know it will break your heart is the toughest. Staying right where you are, waiting for your heart to be ripped apart is much harder than walking away and starting anew.

Grey's

"I stand here, not optimistic, not hopeful. Yes, not optimistic, not hopeful, but very sure."-Preston Burke's wedding vows (Grey's Anatomy)
Wah so romantic, okay back to my sleep, MC for the day while my friend's assembling his new wife faraway.

Edit:
YOU HAVE TO WATCH THIS

Shoutout,

You're the coffee to my morning, you're the coffee to my morning, you're the coffee to my morning.

Thanks for all the in-camp calls and taking turns to pray each other even though we sparingly get a few minutes sometimes, FRIDAY :)
And I'm falling sick :(

And here's a shoutout to my special Girlfriend:
Take heart, keep the faith going.
No matter what, just keep praying and know that your girlfriends are here for you all the way yeah? ♥♥♥♥
It may seem very hard now but even as you look back next time, I'm sure there's so much joy to give thanks for :)
I'm keeping you in my prayers, extra hard and for your health too.
I pray for that anxiety to be translated to peace to fill your heart and for the clarity of mind and wisdom to be discerning! Sending my love :) YOU WILL PULL THROUGH.

Journal,

Our journal is my sanctuary, and I'm very thankful for that.
Work's been good, after work even better :)

Reveal,

Who comes here anywayyyyy, reveal yourselves haha I found my ancient password for the counter hits and they are so high.

Hide and seek,

One more day and back to work, and the days will zoom by very quickly :)
Plus, I get to see my AC girls on Thursday yessss ♥♥
Because they are those who can really, really cheer up very much :)

Imogen Heap - Hide and seek

Everyone's familiar only with the last part, in Jason Derulo's Whatcha Say.

Update again,

Just hoping maybe you're somewhere walking after midnight searching for me,

1. Cut my hair
2. Retail therapy
3. New specks
4. Dental check up
5. More work clothes
6. Videos transcripting
7. Meeting minutes to be compiled
8. Settling my schedule for next week
9. Spring clean my room before the festive season
10. Wait for Friday to come and sweep me off my feet yay

Oh, and of course my scholarship essays and USP.
If I get in, I'll stay local.
I'm considering Minor Cultural Studies locally or International Relations if I go UK.
So now I'm waiting for NUS's reply because I received all my UK offers, I'm utterly confused, still praying about it :)
4 years Vs. 3 years.

I started a journal yesterday, it keeps me sane and a perfect avenue to wave down my thoughts.
It really helps when you're not here to tolerate my nonsensical nonsense and eat sandy sushi with me on the beach singing Unwell by matchbox twenty totally out of key.

Classical country is so amazing, Patsy Cline is quite a legend :)

Something about this song just draws you in.

Can't wait to meet the girls for Sandra's birthday (yay!) and my AC girlssss with my Girlfriend yay so much to update you about I hope I won't whine you to death :}

And no more waking up at 3 am plus in the morning, and no more bizarre dreams please.
Very puzzling.

This isn't a cryptic post.

Journalling,

Today's just the second, and that nudging empty feeling still lingers with that sour feeling in my tummy. Yesterday I started the journal, you're my ending note. The wax sealed golden letters await me every morning as I wake up from bed, the black outline of the numerals and the shaky handwriting in the inside causes me to quiver slightly with the sincerity that pours out with each character. Toasted waffles from London just fills me up with such warmth while the parka holds on to your traces, and this makes me cry.

This will not be a place for any empty feelings we hold, but the cherish of the memories time will unfold. These wooden frames around our faces will not cap the boundaries of time, the beauty of the years ahead will sublime.

On a side note, thanks Sean for the conversation this morning, really helped to cheer me up :)
Esp when I think of you and Kat together! God bless you two, too :)
And to Jeanie who understands me and feels the same way too, we shall be stronggg.

Goodbyes,

Today, Tekong stole my bestest best friend.
Goodbyes are so sad :(
Shit this is harder than I thought it would be.
But the prospect of Chinese New Year has never been so exciting :}

♥

As we grow up, we learn that even the one person that wasn't supposed to ever let us down, probably will. You'll have your heart broken and you'll break others' hearts. You'll fight with your best friend or maybe even fall in love with them, and you'll cry because time is flying by. So take too many pictures, laugh too much, forgive freely, and love like you've never been hurt. Life comes with no guarantees, no time outs, no second chances. You just have to live life to the fullest, tell someone what they mean to you and tell someone off, speak out, dance in the pouring rain, hold someone's hand, comfort a friend, fall asleep watching the sun come up, stay up late, be a flirt, and smile until your face hurts. Don't be afraid to take chances or fall in love and most of all, live in the moment because every second you spend angry or upset is a second of happiness you can never get back.

We're growing up so, so fast.
We're like rain to puddles, coffee to mornings.
We'll trust God to unfold His plan slowly and it'll soon be revealed in time.
Slowly but surely.
He really knows how to send timely reminders and I'm immensely grateful for that.
Peace and Patience is a strong combination.

Hold tightly to what is eternal, but loosely to what is temporal.