Monday, January 28, 2008
Tue 22 Jan
A short day in school, and the last short day it will be, because my timetable just got changed to have one lesson in the afternoon. I think this term's timetable that had befallen me was one designed to keep me in school. Most of my days either have lessons starting only after lunch or something, or have lessons right at the start of the day, leaving me with a 5 hour gap before the next lesson late in the afternoon. Looking on the bright side (boy, am I ever the optimist), I have plenty of time to finish work in school between lessons so that I need not bring anything home to do! Theoretically.
Wed 23 Jan
Another long day in school. After the staff conference, there was still a training session for the new Learning Management System developed for use this year. By the time that was over, I was dead beat. I transfered money to a friend who is importing booster boxes of the latest Magic the Gathering expansion for a whole bunch of us. I can't wait to get my hands on the box I ordered. I hope I can find time to play though. Fortunately there is always my colleague who I see everyday that I can play Magic with. Bwahaha.
Thu 24 Jan
It was another long day in school. Maybe I am getting old. Or the long days of my timetable are getting to me. But nowadays I seem to lack the drive to finish my work way in advance like I used to. After school, my wife and I went to her parents' place to have dinner, before we headed home so that I could do some work at home.
Fri 25 Jan
My wife was not feeling well, so she stayed at home to rest. Good for her, because I think the current Masters' module at times is quite, frankly, a waste of time. The lecturer, though I admit that he knows his stuff, did zero facilitation, and made us do "cooperative learning", which was what the module was about. He printed five long chapters of reading, split us into expert groups, asked us to confirm with one another in the group what we want to teach from the chapter, and asked us to rehearse it with the group (that took up a 3 hr lesson), and then the following week, asked us to rehearse again, and gave us 15 min each to present to our home groups (which took up another 3 hr lesson). He delayed the assignment deadline two weeks in a row because he did not know what to give us for assignment. I think my colleague is right. Suffer a bit first and go get a PhD, and then you can earn money easily like this too.
Sat 26 Jan
It was a peaceful day at home. My mother-in-law dropped by to visit, and chip in some cooking for dinner. In the meantime, I cleaned the cages of the hamsters. Most websites mention that pregnant women should avoid cat and dog litter, but I think to play safe, my wife should avoid even hamsters' waste. I did the main bulk of the washing, and my wife did the drying and disinfecting.
Sun 27 Jan
It is Go Green Day today! I went back to school, and joined my colleague's class for the old clothes collection. Unfortunately I don't know any of the students there, and I forgot to swap with other colleagues to be attached to a class that I do teach. I guess it would have been more fun to be going with my own students.
The collection ended at around 1 pm. I went to grab a quick lunch before making my way down to City Hall to run some errands. I squeezed out some time to go buy Lost Odyssey (at last a proper RPG on the Xbox 360!), and then headed down to Suntec City. I went to Perfect Mum to pick up some pants that my wife had altered, and got persuaded by the glib salesladies there to buy yet another top. I made my way to Gain City at Marina Square to pick up some free gift that came with a Fire Insurance, before going home to catch a nap.
In the evening I met my blood brudders for the birthday celebration of Junzhong. He wanted some zi char place, so I recommended him Hiang Suar Restaurant, which was just a block away from my wife's parents' place. The food is quite good, and at an affordable rate. I seized the oppportunity to announce my wife's pregnancy, which managed to shock them quite a bit. Haha.
Mon 28 Jan
School started one period later today because of Go Green Day yesterday, so I managed to have a little more sleep, and have a slow breakfast at the market opposite. In the afternoon, I met a peculiar student. There was some confusion over a venue that the students booked, and they mistakenly thought that the room I was assigned in my timetable was theirs, and tried to chase my class out. When I reached the room, there was this year 1 girl trying to enter the classroom, and my student was trying to keep her out. When I told her that this was the venue for my class, she actually said that she didn't believe me, quite innocently. I had to tell her that I am a teacher, and this was my classroom, and she went, "You are a teacher meh?"
...
What else can a guy dressed in shirt and pants, carrying a laptop, walking around in the school be? A Toshiba tablet salesman? Haha.
A short day in school, and the last short day it will be, because my timetable just got changed to have one lesson in the afternoon. I think this term's timetable that had befallen me was one designed to keep me in school. Most of my days either have lessons starting only after lunch or something, or have lessons right at the start of the day, leaving me with a 5 hour gap before the next lesson late in the afternoon. Looking on the bright side (boy, am I ever the optimist), I have plenty of time to finish work in school between lessons so that I need not bring anything home to do! Theoretically.
Wed 23 Jan
Another long day in school. After the staff conference, there was still a training session for the new Learning Management System developed for use this year. By the time that was over, I was dead beat. I transfered money to a friend who is importing booster boxes of the latest Magic the Gathering expansion for a whole bunch of us. I can't wait to get my hands on the box I ordered. I hope I can find time to play though. Fortunately there is always my colleague who I see everyday that I can play Magic with. Bwahaha.
Thu 24 Jan
It was another long day in school. Maybe I am getting old. Or the long days of my timetable are getting to me. But nowadays I seem to lack the drive to finish my work way in advance like I used to. After school, my wife and I went to her parents' place to have dinner, before we headed home so that I could do some work at home.
Fri 25 Jan
My wife was not feeling well, so she stayed at home to rest. Good for her, because I think the current Masters' module at times is quite, frankly, a waste of time. The lecturer, though I admit that he knows his stuff, did zero facilitation, and made us do "cooperative learning", which was what the module was about. He printed five long chapters of reading, split us into expert groups, asked us to confirm with one another in the group what we want to teach from the chapter, and asked us to rehearse it with the group (that took up a 3 hr lesson), and then the following week, asked us to rehearse again, and gave us 15 min each to present to our home groups (which took up another 3 hr lesson). He delayed the assignment deadline two weeks in a row because he did not know what to give us for assignment. I think my colleague is right. Suffer a bit first and go get a PhD, and then you can earn money easily like this too.
Sat 26 Jan
It was a peaceful day at home. My mother-in-law dropped by to visit, and chip in some cooking for dinner. In the meantime, I cleaned the cages of the hamsters. Most websites mention that pregnant women should avoid cat and dog litter, but I think to play safe, my wife should avoid even hamsters' waste. I did the main bulk of the washing, and my wife did the drying and disinfecting.
Sun 27 Jan
It is Go Green Day today! I went back to school, and joined my colleague's class for the old clothes collection. Unfortunately I don't know any of the students there, and I forgot to swap with other colleagues to be attached to a class that I do teach. I guess it would have been more fun to be going with my own students.
The collection ended at around 1 pm. I went to grab a quick lunch before making my way down to City Hall to run some errands. I squeezed out some time to go buy Lost Odyssey (at last a proper RPG on the Xbox 360!), and then headed down to Suntec City. I went to Perfect Mum to pick up some pants that my wife had altered, and got persuaded by the glib salesladies there to buy yet another top. I made my way to Gain City at Marina Square to pick up some free gift that came with a Fire Insurance, before going home to catch a nap.
In the evening I met my blood brudders for the birthday celebration of Junzhong. He wanted some zi char place, so I recommended him Hiang Suar Restaurant, which was just a block away from my wife's parents' place. The food is quite good, and at an affordable rate. I seized the oppportunity to announce my wife's pregnancy, which managed to shock them quite a bit. Haha.
Mon 28 Jan
School started one period later today because of Go Green Day yesterday, so I managed to have a little more sleep, and have a slow breakfast at the market opposite. In the afternoon, I met a peculiar student. There was some confusion over a venue that the students booked, and they mistakenly thought that the room I was assigned in my timetable was theirs, and tried to chase my class out. When I reached the room, there was this year 1 girl trying to enter the classroom, and my student was trying to keep her out. When I told her that this was the venue for my class, she actually said that she didn't believe me, quite innocently. I had to tell her that I am a teacher, and this was my classroom, and she went, "You are a teacher meh?"
...
What else can a guy dressed in shirt and pants, carrying a laptop, walking around in the school be? A Toshiba tablet salesman? Haha.
Monday, January 21, 2008
Sun 13 Jan
I went to church service as usual, and had cell group with my boys, this time at Sakura Restaurant at Eastpoint. It was actually a little odd to conduct cell group there because it was a halal restaurant with many Muslim workers. I was wondering if it would seem disrespectful when I was praying with my boys, but the waiters and waitresses there seem to be alright about it.
Mon 14 Jan
I was anticipating that I would finally be able to start work on my lecture powerpoint slides due on Thu, and right in the morning, my principal saw me, summoned me to her office, and asked me to help her rework (i.e. beautify) her presentation slides for the coming External Validation (EV) on Wed. I realized that there was much work to be done, and even though it was a whopping 190 slides, I took it up. From a graphic designer (even if only freelance long ago) point of view, presentation is everything. Along with a colleague who helped create some nice powerpoint templates, I started working like mad on it. I took the whole morning to discuss with my colleague how it should be designed, and went to work all through the afternoon, and even the evening to the late night (or early morning, rather). I have not rushed that many slides in one sitting ever before.
Tue 15 Jan
Fortunately I had no lessons today, so I was working non-stop on the slides. My colleague jokingly told me that there was no need to put in so much effort, but I couldn't bring myself to do slipshod work even if I were in a hurry. I think God's call to excellence spills to everything I do, so if it was a powerpoint presentation entrusted to me, it must be as perfect as I can make it. Actually my colleague was as much a perfectionist as I was, so there she was, slogging away alongside me on different things. It was finally completed as of 6.15 pm, after some additional slides were added on request, and by the time the college leaders had looked through it, it was 7 pm.
Fwah. That was a whopping 20 manhours of work. For these two days, I didn't quite feel like I was a teacher. More like some graphic designer or something.
Wed 16 Jan
I think this whole week is EV week. After I was finally done with the slides yesterday, today I was supposed to have an interview with a member of the EV team, alongside other colleagues of course.
The best part of the day was during Contact Time. My colleague had tasked me to share about my passion (weblog and web design) with the students at one venue (the students had four to choose from), and the good thing about it was that I need little preparation, except to update one of the sites. I think it was good because I showed the students the video I made for my wedding, and it was in fact my wife's salvation testimony, intricately linked to how we eventually got together. Although I thought my web design skills were still fairly amateurish, apparently I still saw quite a few jaws drop. That was quite satisfying.
Thu 17 Jan
I think the more satisfying thing about yesterday's sharing was that I had students coming to me saying that they were inspired, or borrowed books to learn Flash, and etc. It is always intrinsically rewarding to teachers when they know they had left some indelible mark on their students, no matter how small it may be.
I had an extremely long day, starting my lectures, and having many classes, ending eventually at 4.40 pm. I had dinner with my wife at her parents' place before her dad drove us down to our respective cell group venues. Amazingly enough, today we guys took a really long time for cell group. Usually the guys finish talking way earlier than the girls. Of course, it helps that there are only about 4 regular guys in my cell, and some 12 girls on their side. Today we shared so much that on average each of us took at least half an hour. Now that my wife has joined my cell leader's wife's cell, I am now part of the Husband/Boyfriend Waiting Gang. The good thing is that I get free transport over, since my cell leader is sure to go pick up his wife. Haha.
Fri 18 Jan
Another mad rush doing some administrative work, and then we were off to our Masters' course. The lecturer on the pretext of teaching cooperative learning, made us do a lot of group discussions. Personally, I think he did very minimal facilitation, so I wonder if he is that good in the first place. I'm still waiting for him to exhibit some skills that I can learn or something. I'm not too optimistic, since he had yet again postponed a graded assignment (without us even requesting for the delay), and could not even tell us what he wanted us to do for the assignment. Hmmm. I'm beginning to wonder if he took up teaching the course just so that he could make us buy his $40 book as textbook...
My wife and I decided to have dinner at Crystal Jade at Tampines on our way back home. I still think Tampines is revoltingly crowded, but that aside, I tried a different porridge today. The chicken and duck porridge was superb. I have not tasted such tender meat for a long time. I think I will order a different porridge every time I'm there to try them all.
Sat 19 Jan
I woke up early in the morning to head down to Suntec City Convention Centre. Today was the prerelease event of Morningtide, the latest Magic the Gathering expansion. Unbelievably, I am still playing! Haha. This is one part of me that remains boyish at heart. Now that I have a colleague who is as passionate about the game as I am, it is easy to see why I'm still in the game. Today's results were average, winning two and losing two games. One game I lost was due to severe bad draws, twice in a row to the same opponent. I gallantly fought on despite really terrible starts, but well, it was too uphill a task to recover.
I had a really late lunch at the Food Republic at Suntec, and the prawn noodles were of poorer standards than the last time we ate there. Magic kaki Yichuan came over to eat with us, but had to rush off before we could show him the cards. My wife and I then went shopping all over Suntec and Marina Square, eventually settling for dinner at Secret Recipe. I had the award winning lamb stew which was still excellent, but my wife's order was stunningly good. It was the pan-fried catch of the day in lobster sauce, and boy, was the lobster sauce thick and rich indeed! That has got to be one of the best sauces on a piece of fish I have tried so far.
Sun 20 Jan
I woke up early to do work, instead of the usual sleep-to-lunchtime-on-Sundays. I went to service as usual, and had cell group at Eastpoint, with my wife and her girls joining us at the same venue some time later. We had dinner at her parents' place before I headed home to do more work.
Mon 21 Jan
What a way to start the day - the train service was interrupted. My wife and I were walking to the train station when I noticed that there were no trains on the platform. It then hit me that I didn't see anyone walking about within the station (as in beyond the gantry). We quickly boarded the nearest shuttle bus when we saw throngs of people getting on, and that only managed to get us to school just 2 min before the assembly time. A hectic way to start a hectic day.
I went to church service as usual, and had cell group with my boys, this time at Sakura Restaurant at Eastpoint. It was actually a little odd to conduct cell group there because it was a halal restaurant with many Muslim workers. I was wondering if it would seem disrespectful when I was praying with my boys, but the waiters and waitresses there seem to be alright about it.
Mon 14 Jan
I was anticipating that I would finally be able to start work on my lecture powerpoint slides due on Thu, and right in the morning, my principal saw me, summoned me to her office, and asked me to help her rework (i.e. beautify) her presentation slides for the coming External Validation (EV) on Wed. I realized that there was much work to be done, and even though it was a whopping 190 slides, I took it up. From a graphic designer (even if only freelance long ago) point of view, presentation is everything. Along with a colleague who helped create some nice powerpoint templates, I started working like mad on it. I took the whole morning to discuss with my colleague how it should be designed, and went to work all through the afternoon, and even the evening to the late night (or early morning, rather). I have not rushed that many slides in one sitting ever before.
Tue 15 Jan
Fortunately I had no lessons today, so I was working non-stop on the slides. My colleague jokingly told me that there was no need to put in so much effort, but I couldn't bring myself to do slipshod work even if I were in a hurry. I think God's call to excellence spills to everything I do, so if it was a powerpoint presentation entrusted to me, it must be as perfect as I can make it. Actually my colleague was as much a perfectionist as I was, so there she was, slogging away alongside me on different things. It was finally completed as of 6.15 pm, after some additional slides were added on request, and by the time the college leaders had looked through it, it was 7 pm.
Fwah. That was a whopping 20 manhours of work. For these two days, I didn't quite feel like I was a teacher. More like some graphic designer or something.
Wed 16 Jan
I think this whole week is EV week. After I was finally done with the slides yesterday, today I was supposed to have an interview with a member of the EV team, alongside other colleagues of course.
The best part of the day was during Contact Time. My colleague had tasked me to share about my passion (weblog and web design) with the students at one venue (the students had four to choose from), and the good thing about it was that I need little preparation, except to update one of the sites. I think it was good because I showed the students the video I made for my wedding, and it was in fact my wife's salvation testimony, intricately linked to how we eventually got together. Although I thought my web design skills were still fairly amateurish, apparently I still saw quite a few jaws drop. That was quite satisfying.
Thu 17 Jan
I think the more satisfying thing about yesterday's sharing was that I had students coming to me saying that they were inspired, or borrowed books to learn Flash, and etc. It is always intrinsically rewarding to teachers when they know they had left some indelible mark on their students, no matter how small it may be.
I had an extremely long day, starting my lectures, and having many classes, ending eventually at 4.40 pm. I had dinner with my wife at her parents' place before her dad drove us down to our respective cell group venues. Amazingly enough, today we guys took a really long time for cell group. Usually the guys finish talking way earlier than the girls. Of course, it helps that there are only about 4 regular guys in my cell, and some 12 girls on their side. Today we shared so much that on average each of us took at least half an hour. Now that my wife has joined my cell leader's wife's cell, I am now part of the Husband/Boyfriend Waiting Gang. The good thing is that I get free transport over, since my cell leader is sure to go pick up his wife. Haha.
Fri 18 Jan
Another mad rush doing some administrative work, and then we were off to our Masters' course. The lecturer on the pretext of teaching cooperative learning, made us do a lot of group discussions. Personally, I think he did very minimal facilitation, so I wonder if he is that good in the first place. I'm still waiting for him to exhibit some skills that I can learn or something. I'm not too optimistic, since he had yet again postponed a graded assignment (without us even requesting for the delay), and could not even tell us what he wanted us to do for the assignment. Hmmm. I'm beginning to wonder if he took up teaching the course just so that he could make us buy his $40 book as textbook...
My wife and I decided to have dinner at Crystal Jade at Tampines on our way back home. I still think Tampines is revoltingly crowded, but that aside, I tried a different porridge today. The chicken and duck porridge was superb. I have not tasted such tender meat for a long time. I think I will order a different porridge every time I'm there to try them all.
Sat 19 Jan
I woke up early in the morning to head down to Suntec City Convention Centre. Today was the prerelease event of Morningtide, the latest Magic the Gathering expansion. Unbelievably, I am still playing! Haha. This is one part of me that remains boyish at heart. Now that I have a colleague who is as passionate about the game as I am, it is easy to see why I'm still in the game. Today's results were average, winning two and losing two games. One game I lost was due to severe bad draws, twice in a row to the same opponent. I gallantly fought on despite really terrible starts, but well, it was too uphill a task to recover.
I had a really late lunch at the Food Republic at Suntec, and the prawn noodles were of poorer standards than the last time we ate there. Magic kaki Yichuan came over to eat with us, but had to rush off before we could show him the cards. My wife and I then went shopping all over Suntec and Marina Square, eventually settling for dinner at Secret Recipe. I had the award winning lamb stew which was still excellent, but my wife's order was stunningly good. It was the pan-fried catch of the day in lobster sauce, and boy, was the lobster sauce thick and rich indeed! That has got to be one of the best sauces on a piece of fish I have tried so far.
Sun 20 Jan
I woke up early to do work, instead of the usual sleep-to-lunchtime-on-Sundays. I went to service as usual, and had cell group at Eastpoint, with my wife and her girls joining us at the same venue some time later. We had dinner at her parents' place before I headed home to do more work.
Mon 21 Jan
What a way to start the day - the train service was interrupted. My wife and I were walking to the train station when I noticed that there were no trains on the platform. It then hit me that I didn't see anyone walking about within the station (as in beyond the gantry). We quickly boarded the nearest shuttle bus when we saw throngs of people getting on, and that only managed to get us to school just 2 min before the assembly time. A hectic way to start a hectic day.
Saturday, January 12, 2008
Mon 7 Jan
Tutorials have started this week! I met my two classes after such a long break, and saw some changes. One class had a new student who changed classes due to timetabling issues, and another class had three more students from another class combining lessons for chemistry.
Shocking news came in the afternoon when I found out that my mother-in-law was hospitalized in Changi General Hospital for suspected dengue. When I went down to the hospital to visit her, she had already broken out in rashes, so it looked almost certain, and the blood test results later proved it. I bumped into a couple of old friends at the food court, which offered mediocre food, surprised to find out that one of them is a doctor here, and the husband is now in teaching.
Tue 8 Jan
I went over to my colleague ZH's place in the afternoon to let him test my new mikes, since he was considering getting some new ones to replace his old and battered wired mikes. We had a fun time singing karaoke together, but he was so dead beat that halfway through trying out my Assassin's Creed, he decided to hit the bed for a nap. I headed down to CGH to have dinner with my wife, pleasantly surprised to find a Qi Ji there. I think the nasi lemak at this particular outlet was pretty good. The chicken wing was crispy, the ikan bilis and peanuts were well-fried, and they were generous enough to give two pieces of fried egg. I had a bowl of laksa in addition, and despite the seemingly harmless gravy, which was just a light brown colour, the spice was deeply buried within.
My mother-in-law's platelet count was still dropping, and her fever was still at fluctuating temperatures, but she still seemed fairly energetic, so that was a good sign, I guess.
Wed 9 Jan
After my lessons and before the staff conference, a few of us headed out for lunch. The planned destination was Old Airport Rd, but my colleague missed an exit, and we were on our merry way to Rochor exit on the ECP. My wife then suggested the army market, and I immediately recommended several stalls. They went, and they were satisfied with what they ate. A few tried the char kway teow with the ikan bilis, which was up to the usual standard. The roast pork was also good, and almost everyone tried the waffles and ice cream. It turned out to be a pleasant detour.
After that I headed back home for a change of clothes before heading to the Youthnet Leaders' Meeting. For the first time, my fellow G12 brothers joined me, now that they each have their individual ministries. Too bad my spiritual father was absent.
Thu 10 Jan
This is really the hospital week for me. After a really long day at school ending at 4.40 pm like Mon, I grabbed dinner at Bedok Interchange before setting off for Buona Vista. My boy's mother was hospitalized, so I decided to make my way to NUH. I was so tired that I slept on the train from City Hall onwards and overshot the station till I hit Clementi. I made my way through maze-like corridors to get to the correct ward, and stayed there a while. I think knowing the Lord is really an amazing thing. Even in the face of cancer, the mother was still joyful and cheerfully talking to us. The father was also joyful, and talked about God all the time, saying that if God had healed her once before, He can do it again. Now that is true faith. Before I left, I prayed for her, and in Mandarin no less, but I was fumbling with the words.
I headed down to Simei to CGH this time, and fell asleep along the way again, but woke up just in time. This was the moment in time when I think that CGH, or rather the nurses in the ward my mother-in-law was at, pretty much sucked. I was horrified to see that the drip was empty, and there was backflow of blood in the tubes. It was even more disgusting to realize that my wife had already told the nurse at 6.30 pm before she went for dinner, and the nurse said that she would attend to it. When I was there, it was 9.25 pm. After I told the nurses there, they said they were changing shift and needed fifteen minutes. By 9.50 pm, twenty-five minutes later, the nurses were still sitting around, with half of them looking like they were actually doing work. A doctor came by so I went to alert him, and I told him about the situation to which he gave me a why-are-you-bothering-me-about-such-a-small-issue look and said, "Just tell my nurses. They'll take care of it." Duh. If they handled it, would I be talking to him? So I told him that it had been 3+ hours since the drip ran out. The doctor went to talk to a nurse, and I thought she went on her way. Nothing happened till about 10.15 pm, I stood up prominently and kept glaring in the nurses' direction, and finally someone got up, went off, and returned with the drip.
No wonder everyone exclaimed in horror, "Why CGH?" when my wife mentioned the situation to others.
Fri 11 Jan
I had double practicals today, so although the day wasn't long, the voice was a bit strained. Or maybe I was coming down with sore throat anyway. Hmm. After school, my wife and I headed down to Teachers' Network for our Masters' module. Yes, it has started once more. We went there for the Cooperative Learning 'elective' in which our only choice was the day the module was on. The lecturer seemed boring at first, but after a while, we got used to his wry and dry humour, and the activities kept coming, so we were kept actively awake. After lessons were over, we went to Rabbit Restaurant at Lucky Plaza for dinner, and man, it was a wonderful dinner. I ordered three set meals for the two of us, and it amounted to only about $20, but I feasted like a king on delicious steamed eggs with shark's fin, bean sprouts, fish maw soup, chicken and mushroom soup, while my wife had hor fun with abalone pieces.
After dinner, we headed down to CGH, and this time round I prayed for my mother-in-law in Mandarin. I think I was still stumbling with the words, but whatever it was, that was an open door to minister. I just wondered why it took that long for me to dare to ask her if she would have me pray for her.
Sat 12 Jan
I woke up late today after rushing the tutorial for the next topic, which I am about to start lecturing. The term started as a mad rush before my topic was shifted forward a month, and I found myself having only a one-week deadline from the first week of school thereabouts. That was frantic. My wife and I cleaned the cages for our hamsters, before heading down to CGH to fetch my mother-in-law. Prayer works! Today her platelet count hit a healthy enough range to be discharged, so we were bringing her back home. We took a cab, and man, the cab cost now is really scary. The peak hour surcharge being 35% makes it beastly expensive, like the usual midnight charge.
In the evening, I headed down to the Cathay to meet my blood brudders for dinner, celebrating in advance the birthday of blood brudder Shaofeng. We ended up at Billy Bombers, and we each got a set meal. This particular outlet had excellent food. I ordered marinara chicken, and it was well baked till the skin was crispy and the meat was succulently tender. The red-skin potatoes were well prepared as well, with just the right softness and taste. The cream of mushroom soup was thick and rich, but the best thing was the milkshake that costed $4 in addition to change the usual drink to. I had orange milkshake, and another two had banana and cookies & cream milkshakes, and they were all extremely thick and brimming with flavour. I believe that was probably because Ben & Jerry's ice cream was used. Dessert with the set was a scoop of Ben & Jerry's cookies & cream. Really good stuff. Especially since I got to eat Shaofeng's scoop as well. Bwahaha.
Tutorials have started this week! I met my two classes after such a long break, and saw some changes. One class had a new student who changed classes due to timetabling issues, and another class had three more students from another class combining lessons for chemistry.
Shocking news came in the afternoon when I found out that my mother-in-law was hospitalized in Changi General Hospital for suspected dengue. When I went down to the hospital to visit her, she had already broken out in rashes, so it looked almost certain, and the blood test results later proved it. I bumped into a couple of old friends at the food court, which offered mediocre food, surprised to find out that one of them is a doctor here, and the husband is now in teaching.
Tue 8 Jan
I went over to my colleague ZH's place in the afternoon to let him test my new mikes, since he was considering getting some new ones to replace his old and battered wired mikes. We had a fun time singing karaoke together, but he was so dead beat that halfway through trying out my Assassin's Creed, he decided to hit the bed for a nap. I headed down to CGH to have dinner with my wife, pleasantly surprised to find a Qi Ji there. I think the nasi lemak at this particular outlet was pretty good. The chicken wing was crispy, the ikan bilis and peanuts were well-fried, and they were generous enough to give two pieces of fried egg. I had a bowl of laksa in addition, and despite the seemingly harmless gravy, which was just a light brown colour, the spice was deeply buried within.
My mother-in-law's platelet count was still dropping, and her fever was still at fluctuating temperatures, but she still seemed fairly energetic, so that was a good sign, I guess.
Wed 9 Jan
After my lessons and before the staff conference, a few of us headed out for lunch. The planned destination was Old Airport Rd, but my colleague missed an exit, and we were on our merry way to Rochor exit on the ECP. My wife then suggested the army market, and I immediately recommended several stalls. They went, and they were satisfied with what they ate. A few tried the char kway teow with the ikan bilis, which was up to the usual standard. The roast pork was also good, and almost everyone tried the waffles and ice cream. It turned out to be a pleasant detour.
After that I headed back home for a change of clothes before heading to the Youthnet Leaders' Meeting. For the first time, my fellow G12 brothers joined me, now that they each have their individual ministries. Too bad my spiritual father was absent.
Thu 10 Jan
This is really the hospital week for me. After a really long day at school ending at 4.40 pm like Mon, I grabbed dinner at Bedok Interchange before setting off for Buona Vista. My boy's mother was hospitalized, so I decided to make my way to NUH. I was so tired that I slept on the train from City Hall onwards and overshot the station till I hit Clementi. I made my way through maze-like corridors to get to the correct ward, and stayed there a while. I think knowing the Lord is really an amazing thing. Even in the face of cancer, the mother was still joyful and cheerfully talking to us. The father was also joyful, and talked about God all the time, saying that if God had healed her once before, He can do it again. Now that is true faith. Before I left, I prayed for her, and in Mandarin no less, but I was fumbling with the words.
I headed down to Simei to CGH this time, and fell asleep along the way again, but woke up just in time. This was the moment in time when I think that CGH, or rather the nurses in the ward my mother-in-law was at, pretty much sucked. I was horrified to see that the drip was empty, and there was backflow of blood in the tubes. It was even more disgusting to realize that my wife had already told the nurse at 6.30 pm before she went for dinner, and the nurse said that she would attend to it. When I was there, it was 9.25 pm. After I told the nurses there, they said they were changing shift and needed fifteen minutes. By 9.50 pm, twenty-five minutes later, the nurses were still sitting around, with half of them looking like they were actually doing work. A doctor came by so I went to alert him, and I told him about the situation to which he gave me a why-are-you-bothering-me-about-such-a-small-issue look and said, "Just tell my nurses. They'll take care of it." Duh. If they handled it, would I be talking to him? So I told him that it had been 3+ hours since the drip ran out. The doctor went to talk to a nurse, and I thought she went on her way. Nothing happened till about 10.15 pm, I stood up prominently and kept glaring in the nurses' direction, and finally someone got up, went off, and returned with the drip.
No wonder everyone exclaimed in horror, "Why CGH?" when my wife mentioned the situation to others.
Fri 11 Jan
I had double practicals today, so although the day wasn't long, the voice was a bit strained. Or maybe I was coming down with sore throat anyway. Hmm. After school, my wife and I headed down to Teachers' Network for our Masters' module. Yes, it has started once more. We went there for the Cooperative Learning 'elective' in which our only choice was the day the module was on. The lecturer seemed boring at first, but after a while, we got used to his wry and dry humour, and the activities kept coming, so we were kept actively awake. After lessons were over, we went to Rabbit Restaurant at Lucky Plaza for dinner, and man, it was a wonderful dinner. I ordered three set meals for the two of us, and it amounted to only about $20, but I feasted like a king on delicious steamed eggs with shark's fin, bean sprouts, fish maw soup, chicken and mushroom soup, while my wife had hor fun with abalone pieces.
After dinner, we headed down to CGH, and this time round I prayed for my mother-in-law in Mandarin. I think I was still stumbling with the words, but whatever it was, that was an open door to minister. I just wondered why it took that long for me to dare to ask her if she would have me pray for her.
Sat 12 Jan
I woke up late today after rushing the tutorial for the next topic, which I am about to start lecturing. The term started as a mad rush before my topic was shifted forward a month, and I found myself having only a one-week deadline from the first week of school thereabouts. That was frantic. My wife and I cleaned the cages for our hamsters, before heading down to CGH to fetch my mother-in-law. Prayer works! Today her platelet count hit a healthy enough range to be discharged, so we were bringing her back home. We took a cab, and man, the cab cost now is really scary. The peak hour surcharge being 35% makes it beastly expensive, like the usual midnight charge.
In the evening, I headed down to the Cathay to meet my blood brudders for dinner, celebrating in advance the birthday of blood brudder Shaofeng. We ended up at Billy Bombers, and we each got a set meal. This particular outlet had excellent food. I ordered marinara chicken, and it was well baked till the skin was crispy and the meat was succulently tender. The red-skin potatoes were well prepared as well, with just the right softness and taste. The cream of mushroom soup was thick and rich, but the best thing was the milkshake that costed $4 in addition to change the usual drink to. I had orange milkshake, and another two had banana and cookies & cream milkshakes, and they were all extremely thick and brimming with flavour. I believe that was probably because Ben & Jerry's ice cream was used. Dessert with the set was a scoop of Ben & Jerry's cookies & cream. Really good stuff. Especially since I got to eat Shaofeng's scoop as well. Bwahaha.
Sunday, January 06, 2008
Sun 30 Dec
It is great that my wife and I ended the year with a victory! Her mum and aunt came to join us for the Chinese service, first time ever! That was great. God again gave me a word that the coming Year of Sabbath would be one where the people who left the church will come back. The amazing thing was that one of my boys, Shiyi, who had left the church a couple of years ago, came for the Youth service. I left before that, so I didn't know until much later, but I think this was a sure sign of God's word to me. The interesting thing was that God released the same word to me in early Dec during cell group with my G12 brothers, and around that moment in time, Shiyi also felt prompted to come back but procrastinated. And precisely this weekend when he came for service, Ps Khong spoke about people who had previously left church returning. And that is the impeccable timing of God.
Mon 31 Dec
It is New Year's Eve! My wife had a gathering with her cell, and one of my boys, Junhui, came over to have a good talk with me. My boys all came over, together with my G12 brother, Collin, to drop off their things at my place because they (including my long-lost spiritual son Shiyi) would be staying overnight later. I accompanied them to the food court at White Sands for their dinner, and we made our way to Expo Max Pavilion for the church countdown party. That in itself was a real blast. It started with a moment of embarrassment when my face was captured on the screen (one of those random shots thing, and I happened to be directly behind the woman who was the focus of the camera), followed by lots of entertaining programs, and a magic show by our senior pastor. The most amusing thing was that one of my boys was picked to go up on stage, and no, he was not planted. I think even Ps Khong was surprised; the conversation went like this:
Ps Khong: Now we have here a real winner! And what is your name?
My boy: Sherwin.
(Ps Khong actually blinked, and had a one-second stunned loss of words. He probably thought, 'Sure win? What are the odds?')
Ps Khong: Sherwin? Right. Let's give Sherwin a round of applause!
After the whole thing, we took the shuttle bus to Simei. We had moments of confusion, losing people here and there before we eventually made our way back home. Junhui wanted to share his testimony of victories with the rest of the cell, so I left him to do it since he already met me earlier to tell me everything. After that, we played Pictionary, which was superb fun (I must buy a set!), and eventually Collin and I playing mahjong with a few of the youths (no money involved, of course) till about 8 am in the morning. Whoa.
Tue 1 Jan
After the kids left, I went to get my long-overdue sleep. By the time I woke up, it was late afternoon already. We went over to Swensen's for dinner, as I had a voucher from buying an Epson printer during Sitex. I think I am a typical Singaporean, with the usual mentality. The voucher stated that I had a complimentary main course, side dish, drink and soup. I went straight for the most expensive main course (ribeye steak) and side dish (baked cheese mussels, a new dish apparently). The steak was surprisingly good, and the meat was tender and succulent. The mussels were fantastic, so now I know there are other things to order besides fish and chips. We got a scoop of banana-split flavour ice cream, and decided that it wasn't enough, ordering a sticky chewy chocolate concoction that was absolutely sinful.
Wed 2 Jan
It was the first day of school, and I must say, there is always a reluctance to return. This is not because of the school since I really do like my school environment, but just that I have gotten too used to the lifestyle of the holidays. In fact, at the time I wake up to go to school was probably the time that I entered deep sleep during the holidays. It was good to see everyone though, and start work proper. There was a lot of work in store apparently. After school, I went for a haircut together with my wife at Hair de Vogue, and Calvin never disappoints with his expertise, of course. We also bought a few tops from Bossini; I love sales! Bwahaha.
Thu 3 Jan
Today was a long day. We had a staff meeting from 10 am to about 3 pm, and there was essentially information overload. The interesting part was when the topic was on teachers who blog (hey, that's me!), and about protocol for civil servants, etc. So, I guess I should put up a disclaimer to say that the views on this blog are my personal ones, and not representative of my school, MOE or government at large. Anyway, the stance that was taken sounded fair enough, and I could easily see the logic behind it, except that the portrayed information made it sound like teachers like to blog complaints and negative things about their work/department/HOD/school. I think they probably overlooked the existence of happy, optimistic, challenge-liking teacher bloggers like yours truly here.
Fri 4 Jan
There was still a staff meeting from late morning to early afternoon, so I didn't manage to get much work done. Two students from my first batch of AVC came back for a visit, and it was a pleasant surprise. I think this is yet another intrinsic reward for the profession - seeing returning graduated students...especially if they look more mature, changed for the better, or generally appreciative of their time spent here.
My wife and I headed home for a short nap, and then headed out to meet our friend, Angeline, to celebrate her dinner with her. She picked Seafood Paradise, and we made our way to Defu Lane by public transport, which actually, took about 45 min in total from Pasir Ris only, which I think is reasonable, given the quality of the food. We ordered crab cooked in butter and cream sauce, drunken prawns, and honey-baked pork ribs. Incidentally, Angeline mentioned that I sound very restrained on my blog when I'm recommending food, and I think she was right. Often it may not do the food justice. So from now on I'll try to devote more words to describe the astronomic gastronomic experiences.
The drunken prawns were served first and we gladly got our hands dirty. The soup was phenomenal, with just the right touch of sweetness mixed amidst the strong herbal flavour, and the splash of wine, although we thought the taste of wine could have been a tad stronger. The prawns themselves were exceedingly fresh and succulent, and the deliciously sweet juices squirted out as we peeled off the heads. The texture of the meat was smooth, and the shell came off easily as a proof of how skilful the chef is. As Angeline aptly commented, we could each easily finish one pot (and that is about fifteen big, fat, juicy prawns) by ourselves.
The ribs arrived slightly earlier than the crabs. Ironically, out of the three of us, I was the only one used to eating pork ribs. The two ladies do not usually eat that, so it was out of sport that the birthday girl ordered it. I think the ribs were baked excellently, locking the ambrosial taste of honey within the meat. The ribs had a fair crisp to them, and the meat under the surface was deliciously tender. The serving was generous, as each of the six big pieces had only small pieces of bone left in them. This though is nothing compared to the crab. The buns that accompanied the dish were fried to a golden hue, and the skin had the right amount of crispiness to bite into, and the inside was soft and moist enough to retain the flavour. The butter and cream sauce that the crab was cooked in tasted heavenly. I had previously tried the black pepper and chilli variations, both of which were superb, but still common, considering the usual zi char stall. This sauce was rich and flavourful like pasta sauce, but the fragrance of butter was accompanied by a perfect dash of sweetness from the cream, and the buns tasted wonderful once dipped into it. The crab itself was fresh beyond measure, and because of the sheer amount of effort it took to unearth the flesh from the shell, the two ladies ate only a relatively small portion, leaving me to excavate all the meat slowly for myself. There is a good reason why the name of the place is Seafood Paradise.
I hope my descriptions were sufficiently droolworthy to tempt you into making your way there. Only in such a case, I do the good food I eat proper justice. Anyway, I was chatting with the boss, Edlan, after we settled the bill (I wasn't gunning for a discount, you see), and he generously threw in a (cream of mango with fresh pomelo) dessert for each of us. Now, I was aware of the quality of the dessert since the rockmelon sago at our wedding dinner, but the cream of mango served here is the absolute best I had tried thus far. The mango was so sweet, viscously thick and rich that the ice didn't manage to dilute the taste after melting. The best part, and this is what I use to judge this particular dessert, was the pomelo. The pomelo sacs were juicy and, more importantly, very sweet. Most of the time, the pomelo leaves a slightly bitter aftertaste, but not this one.
Alvin, one of my church friends and mahjong kakis, called me, and in an interesting twist of events, namely Angeline's actual new year resolution of learning mahjong, he came down to pick us up and sent us to my home to play mahjong. By the time we started it was about 11 pm already, but we went ahead anyway and played till 4 am plus. My wife finally won a substantial sum (of $5.80), which is a sign of her improvement, especially when I won 20c less than her. Still, this was probably the first time when we both played together and both of us won money. I slept only at 5 am, and this was despite knowing that I have to wake up by 7 thereabouts. I was just curious to find out if I could still survive this kind of sleeping habits after marriage.
Sat 5 Jan
I went back to school (yes, on a Saturday) after a miserable two hours of sleep. Today there was a breakfast with the parents of the new batch of TA kids. I actually survived the whole duration without coffee! That went up to lunchtime, and I realized that the only reason why most of us were called there was simply for the parents to take a look at us, and remember the faces of those teaching their kids. I suppose the takeaway for me was a profile of the parents this year, and have a general sense of the batch, since, after all, kids are often reflections of their parents.
I rushed home right after to catch a short one-hour nap before leaving for Choa Chu Kang with my wife. We were visiting a couple who are friends of ours for a (sort of) housewarming. Another couple was supposed to join us, but the poor husband (in Civil Defence) was summoned to handle a fire so they couldn't make it. The place was very nicely done up, though almost of it was done by the previous owner, who I must say, had good taste and must had spent a ton of money on renovation. It felt very cosy to me because primarily their place had a similar colour scheme (red, gray, black and white). We ended up playing board games - Connect Four (haven't played it before, but I owned them!), Careers and the Game of Life. The latter two were nostalgic, as I hadn't played them since secondary school days. I think my wife enjoyed the games enough to finally accept my plan of stocking up board games for guests. She had the view that nobody these days would want to play board games with consoles competing for attention. I will minimally get Taboo and Pictionary, both of which can entertain way more than just six persons.
Sun 6 Jan
I went to service as usual, and I was overjoyed to see all my boys there, including Shiyi who has really returned. When I saw him jumping and praising God during the worship, I shedded tears. I have read the parable of the Prodigal Son many, many times, and thought I understood it, but today, I felt it. I had a glimpse of what God the Father must feel everytime a person is saved, or returns to Him after straying away. It is the realization of the promise that God said to me in early December last year, and repeated again last week during service, and all within the first week of 2008! It is simply amazing.
We had a good time of fellowship at Eastpoint after service, and I think this year of Sabbath will turn out to be anything but rest. In my spirit, I sense that God will be doing something big even this year.
It is great that my wife and I ended the year with a victory! Her mum and aunt came to join us for the Chinese service, first time ever! That was great. God again gave me a word that the coming Year of Sabbath would be one where the people who left the church will come back. The amazing thing was that one of my boys, Shiyi, who had left the church a couple of years ago, came for the Youth service. I left before that, so I didn't know until much later, but I think this was a sure sign of God's word to me. The interesting thing was that God released the same word to me in early Dec during cell group with my G12 brothers, and around that moment in time, Shiyi also felt prompted to come back but procrastinated. And precisely this weekend when he came for service, Ps Khong spoke about people who had previously left church returning. And that is the impeccable timing of God.
Mon 31 Dec
It is New Year's Eve! My wife had a gathering with her cell, and one of my boys, Junhui, came over to have a good talk with me. My boys all came over, together with my G12 brother, Collin, to drop off their things at my place because they (including my long-lost spiritual son Shiyi) would be staying overnight later. I accompanied them to the food court at White Sands for their dinner, and we made our way to Expo Max Pavilion for the church countdown party. That in itself was a real blast. It started with a moment of embarrassment when my face was captured on the screen (one of those random shots thing, and I happened to be directly behind the woman who was the focus of the camera), followed by lots of entertaining programs, and a magic show by our senior pastor. The most amusing thing was that one of my boys was picked to go up on stage, and no, he was not planted. I think even Ps Khong was surprised; the conversation went like this:
Ps Khong: Now we have here a real winner! And what is your name?
My boy: Sherwin.
(Ps Khong actually blinked, and had a one-second stunned loss of words. He probably thought, 'Sure win? What are the odds?')
Ps Khong: Sherwin? Right. Let's give Sherwin a round of applause!
After the whole thing, we took the shuttle bus to Simei. We had moments of confusion, losing people here and there before we eventually made our way back home. Junhui wanted to share his testimony of victories with the rest of the cell, so I left him to do it since he already met me earlier to tell me everything. After that, we played Pictionary, which was superb fun (I must buy a set!), and eventually Collin and I playing mahjong with a few of the youths (no money involved, of course) till about 8 am in the morning. Whoa.
Tue 1 Jan
After the kids left, I went to get my long-overdue sleep. By the time I woke up, it was late afternoon already. We went over to Swensen's for dinner, as I had a voucher from buying an Epson printer during Sitex. I think I am a typical Singaporean, with the usual mentality. The voucher stated that I had a complimentary main course, side dish, drink and soup. I went straight for the most expensive main course (ribeye steak) and side dish (baked cheese mussels, a new dish apparently). The steak was surprisingly good, and the meat was tender and succulent. The mussels were fantastic, so now I know there are other things to order besides fish and chips. We got a scoop of banana-split flavour ice cream, and decided that it wasn't enough, ordering a sticky chewy chocolate concoction that was absolutely sinful.
Wed 2 Jan
It was the first day of school, and I must say, there is always a reluctance to return. This is not because of the school since I really do like my school environment, but just that I have gotten too used to the lifestyle of the holidays. In fact, at the time I wake up to go to school was probably the time that I entered deep sleep during the holidays. It was good to see everyone though, and start work proper. There was a lot of work in store apparently. After school, I went for a haircut together with my wife at Hair de Vogue, and Calvin never disappoints with his expertise, of course. We also bought a few tops from Bossini; I love sales! Bwahaha.
Thu 3 Jan
Today was a long day. We had a staff meeting from 10 am to about 3 pm, and there was essentially information overload. The interesting part was when the topic was on teachers who blog (hey, that's me!), and about protocol for civil servants, etc. So, I guess I should put up a disclaimer to say that the views on this blog are my personal ones, and not representative of my school, MOE or government at large. Anyway, the stance that was taken sounded fair enough, and I could easily see the logic behind it, except that the portrayed information made it sound like teachers like to blog complaints and negative things about their work/department/HOD/school. I think they probably overlooked the existence of happy, optimistic, challenge-liking teacher bloggers like yours truly here.
Fri 4 Jan
There was still a staff meeting from late morning to early afternoon, so I didn't manage to get much work done. Two students from my first batch of AVC came back for a visit, and it was a pleasant surprise. I think this is yet another intrinsic reward for the profession - seeing returning graduated students...especially if they look more mature, changed for the better, or generally appreciative of their time spent here.
My wife and I headed home for a short nap, and then headed out to meet our friend, Angeline, to celebrate her dinner with her. She picked Seafood Paradise, and we made our way to Defu Lane by public transport, which actually, took about 45 min in total from Pasir Ris only, which I think is reasonable, given the quality of the food. We ordered crab cooked in butter and cream sauce, drunken prawns, and honey-baked pork ribs. Incidentally, Angeline mentioned that I sound very restrained on my blog when I'm recommending food, and I think she was right. Often it may not do the food justice. So from now on I'll try to devote more words to describe the astronomic gastronomic experiences.
The drunken prawns were served first and we gladly got our hands dirty. The soup was phenomenal, with just the right touch of sweetness mixed amidst the strong herbal flavour, and the splash of wine, although we thought the taste of wine could have been a tad stronger. The prawns themselves were exceedingly fresh and succulent, and the deliciously sweet juices squirted out as we peeled off the heads. The texture of the meat was smooth, and the shell came off easily as a proof of how skilful the chef is. As Angeline aptly commented, we could each easily finish one pot (and that is about fifteen big, fat, juicy prawns) by ourselves.
The ribs arrived slightly earlier than the crabs. Ironically, out of the three of us, I was the only one used to eating pork ribs. The two ladies do not usually eat that, so it was out of sport that the birthday girl ordered it. I think the ribs were baked excellently, locking the ambrosial taste of honey within the meat. The ribs had a fair crisp to them, and the meat under the surface was deliciously tender. The serving was generous, as each of the six big pieces had only small pieces of bone left in them. This though is nothing compared to the crab. The buns that accompanied the dish were fried to a golden hue, and the skin had the right amount of crispiness to bite into, and the inside was soft and moist enough to retain the flavour. The butter and cream sauce that the crab was cooked in tasted heavenly. I had previously tried the black pepper and chilli variations, both of which were superb, but still common, considering the usual zi char stall. This sauce was rich and flavourful like pasta sauce, but the fragrance of butter was accompanied by a perfect dash of sweetness from the cream, and the buns tasted wonderful once dipped into it. The crab itself was fresh beyond measure, and because of the sheer amount of effort it took to unearth the flesh from the shell, the two ladies ate only a relatively small portion, leaving me to excavate all the meat slowly for myself. There is a good reason why the name of the place is Seafood Paradise.
I hope my descriptions were sufficiently droolworthy to tempt you into making your way there. Only in such a case, I do the good food I eat proper justice. Anyway, I was chatting with the boss, Edlan, after we settled the bill (I wasn't gunning for a discount, you see), and he generously threw in a (cream of mango with fresh pomelo) dessert for each of us. Now, I was aware of the quality of the dessert since the rockmelon sago at our wedding dinner, but the cream of mango served here is the absolute best I had tried thus far. The mango was so sweet, viscously thick and rich that the ice didn't manage to dilute the taste after melting. The best part, and this is what I use to judge this particular dessert, was the pomelo. The pomelo sacs were juicy and, more importantly, very sweet. Most of the time, the pomelo leaves a slightly bitter aftertaste, but not this one.
Alvin, one of my church friends and mahjong kakis, called me, and in an interesting twist of events, namely Angeline's actual new year resolution of learning mahjong, he came down to pick us up and sent us to my home to play mahjong. By the time we started it was about 11 pm already, but we went ahead anyway and played till 4 am plus. My wife finally won a substantial sum (of $5.80), which is a sign of her improvement, especially when I won 20c less than her. Still, this was probably the first time when we both played together and both of us won money. I slept only at 5 am, and this was despite knowing that I have to wake up by 7 thereabouts. I was just curious to find out if I could still survive this kind of sleeping habits after marriage.
Sat 5 Jan
I went back to school (yes, on a Saturday) after a miserable two hours of sleep. Today there was a breakfast with the parents of the new batch of TA kids. I actually survived the whole duration without coffee! That went up to lunchtime, and I realized that the only reason why most of us were called there was simply for the parents to take a look at us, and remember the faces of those teaching their kids. I suppose the takeaway for me was a profile of the parents this year, and have a general sense of the batch, since, after all, kids are often reflections of their parents.
I rushed home right after to catch a short one-hour nap before leaving for Choa Chu Kang with my wife. We were visiting a couple who are friends of ours for a (sort of) housewarming. Another couple was supposed to join us, but the poor husband (in Civil Defence) was summoned to handle a fire so they couldn't make it. The place was very nicely done up, though almost of it was done by the previous owner, who I must say, had good taste and must had spent a ton of money on renovation. It felt very cosy to me because primarily their place had a similar colour scheme (red, gray, black and white). We ended up playing board games - Connect Four (haven't played it before, but I owned them!), Careers and the Game of Life. The latter two were nostalgic, as I hadn't played them since secondary school days. I think my wife enjoyed the games enough to finally accept my plan of stocking up board games for guests. She had the view that nobody these days would want to play board games with consoles competing for attention. I will minimally get Taboo and Pictionary, both of which can entertain way more than just six persons.
Sun 6 Jan
I went to service as usual, and I was overjoyed to see all my boys there, including Shiyi who has really returned. When I saw him jumping and praising God during the worship, I shedded tears. I have read the parable of the Prodigal Son many, many times, and thought I understood it, but today, I felt it. I had a glimpse of what God the Father must feel everytime a person is saved, or returns to Him after straying away. It is the realization of the promise that God said to me in early December last year, and repeated again last week during service, and all within the first week of 2008! It is simply amazing.
We had a good time of fellowship at Eastpoint after service, and I think this year of Sabbath will turn out to be anything but rest. In my spirit, I sense that God will be doing something big even this year.