A Thanksgiving Post

Isn't it so true that we often take for granted those who are just beside us, loving us in their quiet and understated ways?

Today I want to dedicate a post to thank my husband for his loving actions and support to me this stressful period. I thank him for learning how to cook for us by tirelessly flipping through the cook book, hoping to find some inspiration, cleaning up the dishes, budgeting for us, coming up with the menu every week, jotting down the details of each receipts, washing the laundry, printing out my notes, discussing with me about my readings, providing insights to me on what the readings mean, sending me to school, fetching me to school, attending a boring lecture to accompany me, researching everything else for our day to day living (internet plans, electricity and water plans, printer to buy etc) ...

Thank you my dear and if I forget to let you know often enough...

I Love you :)

A Day to St.Kilda's Beach

 

waiting for the tram at Southbank

 

 

Luna Park

 

 

Same God

Here's a post which I wrote on 28th August 2007 (That's like 6 years ago?!) in my ex-CG blog, which was titled: The Usual, with Something Different."

This is the tagline from the latest advertisment by KFC to promote their New Surf & Turf meal. Ever find yourself feeling this way before? Wanting to try something new yet retaining the sense of familiarity. I certainly do. Indeed human beings are interesting creatures who love to trace back to their past and oftentimes, relishing in these fond memories with feelings of nostalgia. I remember the first time I started work. I was filled with great anticipation and excitement on what was to come and tried to prepare myself to the best that I could. The first time I sang on stage in church. I was so nervous and felt very self-conscious yet very glad and joyful in my heart. Of course, there were the unpleasant first-times when you just feel like you wished it never happened. There was the first time I failed 5 subjects for my exams and the first time I sang out of tune in the KTV and was laughed by my cousin. The feeling of failure that comes with such experiences are overwhelming and damages one's self-esteem. However, unwelcoming as such experiences are, I cannot deny that they are part of what makes me grow as a person. It builds in me self-awareness and resilience to overcome my weaknesses. Despite knowing that every new experience has the potential to add on to me, I cannot deny the nagging fear that cripples me many a time. What if I fail? Afterall, I have failed and I certainly will not like to feel that way again. What if things does not turn out as planned? When these thoughts set in, I will think of retreating back to my safe & comfortable shell. The nice feeling of familarity is comforting as compared to the unpredictability of events. As I go on my FIRST short term missions trip to Surat Thani, Thailand; I am very excited at what is to come! There have been mixed emotions as I prepared for the trip. The initial excitement followed by fear when I heard news of occurence of flashfloods in the region we are going. Now,the feeling is one of child-like faith in God that He will protect and bless. So, here I am, saying to God, "The usual, with something different." The small still voice of God and His presence in a different land with people who are culturally different." And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him,who have been called according to his purpose." ~ Romans 8:28

 

The good thing about keeping a blog is that you can archive your memories and thoughts over the years so that they are not lost and forgotten :)

 

This week was a pretty intensive week with lessons kicking in, tons of readings to be done and a foreign classroom culture to embrace. It makes me realise how weak I can be and how small I can feel in a completely new environment which shouts out how different I am from the rest. How can I compete with the others when I don't even feel that we are at the same starting point? Helplessness sets in when you are faced with frowns from others not understanding your accent or rather, lack of accent. The bombshell came when I received an email today that my course's name will be changed as well as it's duration and I have to decide whether to switch course or keep to my original plan. I mean, not that it's a big deal but the changes on top of my insecurities just adds on to the anxiety I feel inside of me.

 

Same situation. Different place. Same God.

 

The Jiayan 6 years ago will encourage the Jiayan today with the same words below:

 

" The small still voice of God and His presence in a different land with people who are culturally different." And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." ~ Romans 8:28

 

 

Clarence & Junting's wedding

From the exhortation:

Women are unpredictable. Before marriage, she expects from her husband. After marriage, she suspects her husband. After he passes away, she respects her husband.

Really?

I am really happy for Junting and Clarence. 16 years of knowing Junting, I really thank God for her in my life. Without her, I will not be in Hope. Without her, I will not have grown in where I am cos she went the extra mile to pull me back when I wanted to leave church. Indeed, as Michael says, she is really kind, gentle and understanding...and even more than that.

All I can say is... Clarence really zhuan dao. He better cherish her!

My first Bali Trip

Today is the last day of our trip in Bali and I am at Tanaya Bed & Breakfast now, waiting to go to Tanah Lot, the famous temple in Bali. Hopefully we (June and I) will be able to catch the sunset :) Yesterday's sunset @ Kuta beach was not that spectacular, probably due to the constant rain before that. However, it was a beautiful sight to see all the surfers going at the waves, again and again. The waves was great for surfing. Instead of sipping pineapple juice or anything like that, we bought cup noodles and coffee/milo. Haha and I realised I get a headache without coffee. June says I am hooked :P

First day which was supposedly Friday did not happen. I couldnt find my old passport and was not able to collect my new passport at the Immigrations. What a boo boo and June sacrificially postponed the flight to the next day so we can travel there together. I really thank God for her :) And also thank God for the counter staff at the airport who waivered the cost for postponing the trip (I saved on almost $200 phew...)

First night, which was second night actually brought us to the rustic hotel, Taman Harum which June finds very beautiful and I find kinda scary as we walked in there in the dark, with all the statues in the garden (later on I get used to it as you see it everywhere else in Bali). A small but cosy room with a mosquito net covering the beds. There we were, first night in Ubud, Bali finally :) The long awaited stay.

Outside the room

Below are the views outside our rooms :) The statues which I find scarrryyy....

The swimming pool which is right in front of a large paddi field :)

Our sumptuous breakfast...

The day began with shopping, shopping and lotsa shopping. We got some pretty good bargains and bought quite a lot of clothes and stuff. Talking about Chinese New Year shopping. Lotsa of bargaining going on, using the calculation as our main form of negotiation for the price. The locals will usually give us the final price we want, saying that it's for good luck as it's bad luck to turn away a customer.

There were no mirrors so we took turns to take pictures of each other to see how we look :)

Ate at the famous Ibu Okar which sells their famous suckling pig - babi guling

The people have crackers with every meal haha

Their teh which taste like our herbal tea hee, nothing like the teh we order @ our kopitiam :P

We got to find out later on that it costs a lot to raise a pig in Ubud and a pig can be sold for millions of rupee when it grows up. That's why the dish is so popular. Every family needs at least a pig which is required for a wedding or a funeral and they rear their pigs so big that it can feed  a hundred! We love the people, they are VERY warm and polite. We love the food, especially the tea (the ginger tea which we managed to get the recipe. We love the culture, the architecture is beautiful, paintings are everywhere.

I was captured by the picture, the look was simply mesmerising...

The locals bathing by the river...They were just clad in sarong, in full view of passerbys...

We love the scenery, though we din get to see the nice view of Kintamani (the volcano), we saw the lovely rice terrance which can be harvested every 3 months. The first time that the volcano erupted was in 1963 which created the lake we were caneoing on :) When a volcano is going to erupt, the villages will first experience earth tremors so they will start to evacuate the place.

Our canoes :) There are many storage spaces within to put our camera, mineral water etc ...

It was drizzling so we had to put on these cute ponchos which comes with the pants too...cute ah

Poor June, she had 2 mosquito bites on her face...

The temple by the Lake Batur...

The fish farm. We got some bread and threw it into the water but sadly, not fish came up...

Some locals doing fishing by the lake...

Our lovely lunch, the fish was super fresh...

The majestic volcano which was covered by mist due to the rain...

June with Rachel, our guide for the day :)

She's a real cool lady, iron lady I say...

The rice terrace. Rachel told us that we can get an affordable meal at the hut (left of the picture) and sit there the whole day. I wish....It's so lovely :)

The paddi fields. The woman hard at work...

After the lunch was facial and then more shopping and lovely dinner at their restaurant.We had the famous Nasi Campur and crispy duck. Yummy. And the to-die-for cake - Death by chocolate.

The famous crispy duck...

Nasi Campur

Death by chocolate...

Look at how satisfied June is :P Yeah, we finished all the food!!!!

Everywhere you go, you see women carrying stuff on their heads. From their luggage to sand used for construction, you see them balancing the things very well. This is because women are trained from young to carry the offerings (which is very heavy) into the temples and hence, their sense of balance is fantastic. While it is a patriarchal society, the women is bali are very important. They carry offering, take care of the children and work in the fields. i really have to salute them :)The people are very superstitious people and are extremely faithful in their offerings. You see offerings every few steps you go in boxes made from pandang leaves with biscuits and flowers.

Yesterday, we went canoeing in the rain and the mist practically covered any nice scenery we could probably see. Cos this is the rainy season so we have to come back again during their warm season in mid of the year. The lake is said to be crystal blue and the mountains different colours under the sky. We fed the ducks though and get to visit the villages where the ingenious balinese stay (the 'forgotten' ones who are the northern balinese who are poorer). The children who took the clothes given by the tour guide were so estatic, as though it's a treasure. This is indeed a far cry from the kids here in Singapore, even those staying in a children's Home.

More to await ...

In Tanah Lot which is the temple on the rock, we saw lotsa people there. Well, while our agenda was to witness the beautiful sunset, we were so carried away with shopping that we almost missed it! Shopping and women :P It was a lovely place and time passes almost so quickly and before we know it, the sky was dark and we had to head to the airport for our trip back to Singapore.

I bought 2 mousepad that talks about the lifestyle and customs in Bali. It was really cute :) a person in bali sleeps in the day, surf (not the net but real surfing) in the afternoon and drinks beer at night haha. There are simply so many beaches over here and the waves were amazing! Many people who go there just to surf, it was a spectacular sight.

A sweet and beautiful moment :)

A guy chatting June up :P

Just renting a motor bike at 30000 ruppee for a day,you can travel around the place easily but one has to be truly skilled cos the traffic is certainly not easy to manuvouer around. There are many rules to follow such as the drivers at the right lane have to give way to those at the left.

There was a regret in my heart though as i missed an opportunity to go deeper into spiritual conversation with a lady who was doing my nails. We had some pretty good conversation and i realised my name, jasmine was pretty popular over there ;p She asked me, "Are you a buddhist? " and i said i was christian. Following that was a pause and we did not continue further. i am not sure what my hesitation was about. Maybe I thought I was 'respecting' her by not being confrontational but it remain as a regret with me as God spoke to me through Romans later through paul as he shared that he will preach the gospel to where it is not known. Next time, next time i will do it :)