Wednesday, December 24, 2008

It's Christmas Eve

Christmas isn't Christmas,
till it happens in your heart,
Somewhere deep inside you,
Is where Christmas really starts,
So give your heart to Jesus,
You'll discover when you do,
That it's Christmas, really Christmas,
For you...

I found it rather difficult to find the lyrics for this song, and a version I found said ''give your heart to people" rather than Jesus, in an effort to become politically correct. I think the original is more accurate though :) This is cos you can't really discover the real meaning of Christmas unless you know what Jesus' birth is about. I don't think giving your heart to people helps very much, because people can break your heart.

This song has been playing in my head all through December for some reason and that's why I HAVE to share it with you all. Its a really nice song because its so simple, and the reason for Jesus' birth is so simple too, if you care to listen. Storytime!! (haha, been babysitter for too long)

Long time ago in Bethlehem, (cue: the song!! ...so the Holy Bible Says, Mary's boy child, Jesus Christ, was born on Christmas day!!) a little boy was born to Mary and Joseph. Just a year ago, an angel visited Mary just before her marriage to Joseph, and told her that she would be with child, and no ordinary child, but one who would be the messiah, or the savior!

That night, angels visited some poor shepherds in Bethlehem and told them the good news of their saviors birth!! (cue: Joy to the world, the Lord is come, let earth receive her King!!). The shepherds were very, very excited, because it had long been prophesied that a messiah would come. So they asked the angels where the baby was, and then they rushed to the stable where baby Jesus was sleeping in a manger (cue: Away in a manger, no crib for a bed, the Little Lord Jesus, laid down his sweet head...) and worshiped him.

Not long later, three wise men came from far off lands (some say they came from Iran) following a bright star that positioned itself above the stable where Jesus lay. They brought with them gold, frankincense, and myrrh (cue: come they told me...a rapapumpum, a new born king to see, a rapapumpum...our finest gifts we bring, a rapapumpum rapapumpum so to honor him rapapumpum when we come...)

Like the little drummer boy, none of us have large gifts to bring. What we have is our lives and how we choose to live it. We also have talents that God has blessed us with. The wise men knew the worth of Jesus' birth. Most people don't know it, unfortunately, and the commercial Christmas we have nowadays are just ploys by people to make money out of other people.

If only they knew! Then Christmas would give you warm shivers down your spine and gladness and safety that a good God looks down from heaven and is always ready to listen to and guide you.

Jesus grew up and did a lot of wonderful things (cue: it's all in the B-I-B-L-E!!!) for mankind. Mankind did not appreciate it much, though. So because some jealous priests in the temple hated him for exposing their hypocrisy, they worked the people against him. Thus, it came to be that God's own people, the Jews, and sent Jesus to death on the cross.

It must have been the devil's greatest hour. Here, the Son of God, Jesus Christ, was being killed! He must have laughed with glee. But then, Jesus' death was part of God's plan. When Jesus hung on the cross, he took the sins of Adam and Eve, of you and me, he took lying tongues, murder, adultery, jealousy, pride, lust, greed and carried them on him. When he did this, he looked so ugly in God's eyes that God turned His face away from His only son.

Then Jesus died. When he died, many things happened at once, all of great significance. Lets take a look at the underworld. In hades Jesus descended, he has to go there because he possesses evil, and all evil is bound for hell. The devil laughs, he thinks that he has won.

Now lets look at earth. The sky grows dark, and hailstorms begin. In the temple, the curtain is ripped in two. This curtain for many, many years has separated the Holy of Holies (where God's presence is) from the common people. Now that Christ has taken all of man's evils, it is now possible for men to enter God's presence. (Some say that some of the Jewish priests believed in Christ when they saw the curtain rip cos they knew the prophecies).

Back to the underworld. The devil looks around him. Something is happening on earth. And what on earth is Christ doing? He has stripped off the sins of men and is wiping his hands. Sin is now in its rightful place. And Christ is getting ready to return to return to his rightful place. I bet the devil was wringing his hands now. His plans aren't quite going the way he wanted it to.

Back to earth. Christ has been dead for three days. Guards have even been placed at his tomb just in case he wakes up so that they can keep him dead. Then wolla, he appears to loads of people!! To his disciples, to the women who mourned his death.

Ok, I skipped some of the underworld bits. Well, Jesus was a man without sin. He was also God. (lets skip this theological debate) So because of that, he was able to overcome death and hades and come back to life, and not just life, but everlasting life.

And so Christ was the first one to overcome death, and that is also his gift to us. All we have to do is give our hearts to Jesus (cue: you know the deal...), believing that God loved us so much (dyou think a hating god would do that?) that He gave His one and only Son, that whosoever believe in Jesus shall not perish but have everlasting life.

Hmm, I've written too much. It's Christmas now. Disclaimer: The above is MY version of the Christmas story (hope you liked it, if you bothered to read it, thanks!!) and the original (and far more detailed and exciting story (extras such as the story of Abraham, Moses, Joseph etc included) (Oh, let me tell you there is loads of blood, gore, passion and betrayals in here as well) (erm, that's for those who like the stuff) is available in the B-I-B-L-E) Copies of this are available in most bookstores, and also available through your nearest Christian. I think I may be available.

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Gold

I'm wondering if I ought to be happy or very, very sad. I am habing a bad, bad gold. Bery, bery bad gold. In bact, I dink this ith the worth gold I'be had bor a long, long dime. Id ith a scientifically proven fact that colds tend to make one feel extremely low (or was it the flu?) but anyway, I am feeling terrible, and I look the part.

I have to get better tomorrow because I have a date with three secondary school friends. I miss them loads and I can't put it off because JY is flying away in less than a week's time. Hope I get better before tomorrow.

I am having a cold during Christmas. :(

On a happier note my cap has improved and I didn't fail Planet Earth. :) Thank God, thank God, thank God. My cap was so bad last time that even if I hadn't s/u-ed Planet Earth my cap now is still better than last sem's cap. So means I have really improved and I am very happy despite the fact that I have a bad, bad cold.

I hope that my cap will continue to improve in the future. I have broken senior's predictions that cap goes down every semester so I think I won't believe in predictions any more. Feel much better and less bad about myself. Thank God for my results!!!

Pray my cold will improve and my cap will improve too.

Cheers to that!!

I checked up on flus and colds and I think I have the flu. The symptoms of the flu are achy head and muscles and chills and decreased apetite. I don't have a high fever tho, so means that I may have a cold after all. I'm glad I'm not a doctor because I think I will diagnose everybody wrongly. I am also glad I am not a student doctor studying in imu because their finals begin on dec 30th and they have to study during Christmas. I wonder which is worse, studying during Christmas or having a cold during Christmas.

I am quite sad about that because I can't meet up with two of my f6 friends due to this exam.

Okay I will stop my ramblings because if I sit up too long the headache comes back.

Oh dear, here's Yuta, I nearly forgot to put him:


He is very handsome.

Thursday, December 18, 2008

I Want Haagan Daz Ice Cream

Mom is having the life. Now that I'm back home and I totally refuse to budge from the place (it happens) she is perfectly happy to go out gallivanting with her two best friends and leave me at home to be the maid and nanny.

Well, seems her gallivanting has done some good. Her two best friends decided to argue with one another and now refuse to talk to each other, so mummy decided to become mediator. Her form of mediation involved taking them both out to eat.

One thing about mummy, she has a knack for finding the cheapest alternative to anything. Sometimes it's good, sometimes it's bad. It's marvelous for dad's financial situation though. If left to himself our huge family would be living in tattered clothes and not enough to eat. I'm kidding. If left to himself our huge family would be living like princes for half a month and paupers the other half. Fine, I'm still kidding. But I was trying to make a point. :)

Anyway, so my mom found this place called Jogoya. Incidentally, a certain person by the name of Faffy who likes to forget things, forgot (naturally) that he owes me a meal at Jogoya. But aside, so she found this place called Jogoya that incidentally, because of it's 3rd anniversary celebrations, was giving a 50% discount on all meals for WOMEN ONLY. For two weeks only.

Fine, I'll stop beating about the bush. Mom thought it was a great deal and sent me, my two sisters and a friend off for a meal at Jugoya's today. It's decadent. I'll let the pics do the talking. I don't think I'll look a salmon in the face for the next five months.


The first helping. The white stuff is abalone, so imagine an unlimited supply of those for two hours.


Sashimi and raw oysters. I LOVE SASHIMI. Can't tell why. I think it's because of wasabe.


A white pomfret, the whole thing which I ate while waiting for my sis to get four bowls of Haagan Daz Ice Cream. I could go there and eat Haagan Daz Icecream for two hours and it would be worth the money I paid for it. These are all the pics I took. I think I was too busy eating.

Total bill for four people: RM173.oo plus taxes.

Not bad heh. But I think I would like to eat boiled rice and boiled vegetables for a week after this. Just kidding.


It looks like a cake.


The inside.

Christmas decorations at Pavillion aren't that great this year. Must be the recession kicking in. I remember last year they had a grand cake outside and a grander cake inside. Now they just have a grand cake outside and they rented the space inside to some people who wanted to sell Christmas decorations. Sad.

Oh ya, like I said, mummy is great at finding the cheapest alternative for anything. We have now a pool. Sound cool, no? Hahaha, wait till you look at it:

While the photos are uploading, I'll show you the maths:

A built in swimming pool: RM50,000

A swimming pool dreamt up by mummy: RM2,000

The five kids learning how to swim: Priceless

Ok.


That's dad. He likes to do weird stuff like walk around inflatable pools while it is filling up.

Ok. I am writing this at the piano (It fits my laptop nicely) and my battery is running out. Which means my time on the computer/internet for today is officially over. Hahaha. I love this cut off from modern communicative technology.

Till next time:


Ok, can't see him clearly here. But is he cute or what?

I got chased to the dining table. Oh yeah, daddy got me a set of books called Architecture in the 20th century. Actually, a set of two books in a pretty box. They are nice books with loads of pictures!!

The weirdest thing happened yesterday. I actually had a conversation with daddy about Frank Lloyd Wright! It's weird. Just one year ago, the only star-chitect he knew about was Geoffrey Bawa because Uncle Woon used to study under under the guy before he died (bawa, not uncle Woon). I'm touched. I can't believe he took time to read about architecture. Really touched. And daddy got the gist of Frank Lloyd Wright's work pretty well! He could talk about the guy very intelligently and knew about the type of buildings he designed. I only knew those stuff about Frank Lloyd Wright from my sustainable notes last sem. Whoa. He didn't just glance through an article about FLW, he actually studied him. I am touched. Really.

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Home 3

Kind of bored now so will blog. Life is great. I am too lazy to go out and do anything and just want to savor the sweetness of HOME. HOME=HOUSE in my case. I am suddenly feeling an extreme distaste for my room back in RH. I never felt it before. But then suddenly it hit me that I have only a tiny little space there in Singapore which isn't really mine anyway because I have to pack up and store my stuff everytime I don't want to pay and keep the room for the hols. This may be a reaction to the insane pack-every-single-thing-I-own-in-6-hours-after-an-exam-and-transfer-it-to-Sila's room exercise I did. It was a horrible experience. Haha. I suddenly love the fact that my old dairy is still in the same drawer in the same room in the same house for the last 4 years and counting. And hopefully no one will discover it yet.

I've been thinking how I've changed in the past year till now. When I first went to Singapore, I savored the freedom. RH was lovely. It still is nice, but not as nice as home. RH can only ever be a home away from home, until I leave and create another home for myself, I suppose. I will have to leave RH sometime. Haha.

I found an old manga I made up back in Form 5. It wasn't too bad. Hehe, I remember frantically drawing whenever I had free time in the midst of my spm examinations. Drat. I HATE drawing nowadays. Sucky. I think I work better at things I shouldn't be doing. Heh. Die. I was so much more creative when I didn't need to be. Now I think my creative juices just dry up when I see the word design. It scares me. I need to scare myself out of it.

I have been having bad dreams about failing Planet Earth. It sounds weird hahaa. Me is SUPERHERO! (*flies off tall building) Oh no!! (*Flaps arms to no avail) Me fail Planet EARTH!!! (*drops to the ground perpendicularly.)

Haih, parents back from Korea, and all they get for us is seaweed. And cabbages in chili paste. And salty preserved crab. And free thumbdrives they collected from the convention. Cheapskates. Oh, and chocolate with CHILI in them. Weird. But chocolates. So that's the least of my complaints.

Anyway, glad they're back safely!!

My hours are back to normal. I sleep at 11.30pm and roll around till 2.30am and wake up at 7.30am and roll around tilll 9am and get up. This is the life!!

Goodnite!

In response to Kling:

Looks quite princely in this photo huh? :)

In response to Ee Hiang:
I think it'll be lovely if both my brother and my bf resembled Yuta!! Hahaa...

Monday, December 8, 2008

Home 2

Well, a quicky update!!

Mom and dad are back! They're on the way back from the airport as I write this. We'll go out for dinner in a while...

The last few days? Semi fun...woo, the two monkeys are banging doors...now they're yelling at each other. Ok, now one monkey is doing maths, and the other is killing fighter planes with a mouse.

Had a semi adventure last night. Me and sis took the Pajero out to Tesco to get large pails and the alarm went kaput!! Mom still loves the thing even though she has now a Naza Ria to drive around with. She should overhaul the pajero, and dad should sell his car and use the naza.

The Naza is nice, but they won't let me drive it yet. It's an NGV so I guess its better for the environment. Anyway, back to the adventure. The Pajero alarm went kaput and the car refused to open. We pressed the button numerous times, praying wildly. This was apparently the worst thing that ever happened to my sister in the whole of her 18+ years. I think it was the 314th scariest thing on my list. I live a wild life. :P After about fifteen minutes, we gave up and went back into tesco to bide time and think. Then after looking through recipe books for 10 minutes (quite drool-worthy) we went out again to try our luck.

We did some more pressing and banging and praying, and suddenly it the car puip-ped (that's the sound it makes, really) open!! Wooo!! Then we realized the silly thing was out of petrol. At any rate it was low in petrol. Drat. We drove out of Tesco and tried to find a petrol station, preferably one on the way back. Seems that home is remarkably close to Tesco because we found that the way back took us a lot less time and a lot less road covered then going there. (Trust sis to find the long cut for everything!) (I was just kidding).

Adventure not over!! We pumped petrol, yes, and then the car refused to open again!! Not only that, the alarm went wild! Imagine sitting in a petrol station with the alarm going and the button to turn it off not working. Embarassing. Argh. We prayed a bit more, the alarm went on and off twice, but then nothing worked until suddenly the button started working again. Thank God. We went home, not stopping even once on the way, declaring never to take the Pajero out for the rest of the time mummy isn't home, and certainly never further than LenSeng anymore.

The end. :)


Cute!!

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Home

My brothers have a new array of pets, mostly aquatic.

These are their pets:

1) A lone guppy.
2) A large tortoise and a few turtles.
3) Two anemone. (They call it anemone) At any rate its some sort of underwater organism that is semi-transparent.
4) Five frogs in a box.
5) A strange looking mud digging fish.
6) More fish (several types, some fit for eating), I think an ikan haruan is among the list.
7) A few hermit crabs living on a bed of shells.

This is sans our three cats (one white, one grey and one black) and our three dogs (see below).

I think they kept a crab once, and a large frog, which they bought alive from a restaurant. Haha. Shocked, right? My family is super weird.

Mom and dad have set off for Korea. I pray they'll have a safe trip!! They'll be gone till Monday.
Meanwhile I have to make sure everyone goes to sleep and the house is locked up. Haha.

Won't be blogging much. Have a long to-do-list. Won't be going out much either...need to babysit. Bubyes.

Ooo, forgot Yuta!!



ps: Please tell me who you are when you comment or I won't publish the comments.

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

FREEDOM!!!

Ok, if your exams are not over yet, don't read this.

I just finished my SS exam 15 minutes ago!! It was at mpsh, and I'm sooo gonna miss that lecturer!!

Our exam started like this:

Dr.P: Okay guys, I know you're all dying to begin your examinations, but I'm afraid you can't just yet. (Murmurs of assent)

Dr. P: Hmm, how about in the meantime we do a bit of revision? (more murmurs)

Dr. P: Okay then. Let me ask you: What is the main cause of divorce in Singapore?

Dr. P: Hmmm?

Dr. P: Marriage, of course.

Dr. P: Alright, you can start your papers now.

Whoa, I'm really going to miss him!! And I'm going to miss the weekly lectures too (they are really entertaining, I go there for the show and to de-stress...) (but I couldn't make it for a lot of them...sigh, I wanna take this mod again!!) and I'm even going to miss tutorials that I always just manage to wake up for (with my stomach growling all through) and that I manage to speak up in (I normally hide in tutorials) with a rather amusing TA too, come to think of it.

Aaaah, I'll really miss this module!! I plan to take another Dr. P mod in the future - SC 3-something-something-something (I'll recheck) in Year 3 I think. I really want to attend his lectures again! It was fully worth my 400 points.

Anyway, exams are over, and I'll be home tmr!! ~weeeeeee haha, its so fast. Now I better pack and move my stuff to Sila's room...sooo convenient, it's just next door! :)

Haih, I will miss SS. It was fun taking it with Zhi Jun and Thierry and Li Wei!!! This is the first time I've been so reluctant to let go of a module. I think I rather like sociology!!! I should be in arts, haha. But I think I like archi too, sometimes.

I've been half watching another Jdrama called Tokyo Tower. Yuta is in it, haha, but I'm not watching it for him, for once! It's a very, very touching show, about a boy and his mother and sometimes his father. Sigh...a mother's love is sooo great!! The boy will grow up to be a famous illustrator and author. :) You know, jdramas really look up to people who are in the arts stream...in nearly all the drama's I've watched, fine arts, architecture, photography, fashion designing and the like are really super admired! Makes me feel proud to be in architecture...Oh!! And they also have an obsession with doctors, haha. Hmm, perhaps because the movie directors, prop designers and stuff are all arts stream people :)

Anyway, here's Yuta to sign off:

Cute hor. He likes dogs!! I like dogs too!! Pooch is waiting for me back home!! Yay!!


Poochie


Rambo


Sirius