We've only just begun...

White Christmas

Sunday, November 29 1:52 AM

Today was an eventful day. I'm so tired now, but am gonna try to blog about it before I sleep. We went for church visitation which included a visit to the Cathedral of the Good Shepard being our first stop of the day. We had a dialogue with our Archbishop, Nicholas Chia. I found the exchanges interesting and engaging. He's such a nice man, difficult to think of him as some stern head of the church cos he's always smiling.

2nd stop was at Our Lady Star of the Sea (OLSS) at Yishun area. The architectual of the church is very unique, replicating that of a ship. If you know the history of the church, you'll know why. so I won't bore you with the details. And Clara, I think I was super near your house. I somehow still recall how to get to your place. Haha. We had lunch at OLSS and then proceeded to St Theresa.

We reached there around 2pm and there was a wedding at 3pm today. The car is the exact bridal car I want and the bride looked splendid in her white gown and long train. I was practically just staring at her while the rest prayed to the rosary. Felt so guilty. Yikes. Shortly after, we adjourned to the Carmelite Monastery which was just right beside it and had a dialogue with one of the Carmelite Sisters.

The entire session ended around 3.15pm as the bus brought us back to Holy Trinity. I totally dozed through the entire ride, was sooo sleepy having woke up at 7am for the visitation. Hahah, retrieved our car and headed down to Loyang area. At Loyang, we purchased our chimney hood and glass hob! It's soo pretty!! =)

I sound super aunty-ish getting excited about cooker hob and chimey hood, but you gotta understand that's all that drives me these days. Seeing my nest come together as a picture, piece by piece is so satisfying. I'm also (as you may already know) not some chef wife so you can expect that the chimney hood and glass hob's gonna be purely aesthetics in our new house. I have, however, promised to learn to cook! If anyone's keen (to learn with me or to teach me), please let me know! I'll be more than happy to have someone with me on this. ALternatively, Ally, you gotta teach me some of your recipes when you return. I'm quite determined to learn to be a wife who knows how to put food on the table, literally. Haha! With the hood and hob settled, we are basically done with the shopping of the furniture and fittings! Efficient right? Once the momentum is there, quite difficult to stop... hee hee

Adjourned to town, haven't been in Orchard for at least 3 weeks. And I got a new toy for myself this Christmas! It's the 16gb iPhone 3GS in white. Pretty, pretty! =) I haven't quite explored it for today, have sent it to charge. Will play more of it tomorrow and let you know if it's indeed as good as it has been hyped about.

Dear and I also caught the movie, 'Happy Flight'. A jap movie on a clumpsy stewardess and a rookie pilot who embark on their 1st international flight to Honolulu. It's really cute and funny and is somehow close to our hearts, given we travel quite a bit during the year. The show sheds new light on what goes on in the flight before the passengers board the aircraft. Very insightful.. haha.

Tomorrow's 1st week of Advent.

As we begin Advent, we light one candle in the midst of all the darkness in our lives and in the world. It symbolizes our longing, our desire, our hope. Three "advents" or "comings" shape our desire.

Also attending Mui Choo's wedding tomorrow evening @ Furama. I haven't even decided what to wear, good luck to me.

Have a blessed Sunday ahead.

XoXo
Gina

Hymn of the day

Friday, November 27 12:08 PM

You are my strength when I am weak
You are the treasure that I seek
You are my All in All
Seeking You as a precious jewel
Lord, to give up I'd be a fool
You are my All in All

Taking my sin, my cross, my shame,
Rising again I bless Your name
You are my All in All
When I fall down, You pick me up
When I am dry, You fill my cup
You are my All in All

Exciting Weekend ahead

Tuesday, November 24 10:49 PM

The major prezzo today went well! Thanks to all who prayed for me! Hee. That is one huge load off my mind, so much so I even find time to blog at 5 mins to 11pm.

No la, actually I just came back from Church and just bathed so am waiting for hair to dry before I hit the KLIA eskpres to Snoozesville. Okay, now, I'm suddenly thirsty.

-runs to get water-

Ahh.. better now. Where was I?

Just to sidetrack, I'm always afraid of getting thirsty at night cos you know what people say about drinking too much water at night. Water retention and all that stuff. Not that I dunk gallons of water just before I lay on my bed but you never know how much is actually 'too much' to these people who came up with those warning, so drinking water at night has always been as much as just to wet my throat. Hahaha

Okay, coming back to subject proper.. (not that I have a proper structure in any case, since this is so random)

I had a light hearted chat with one of my colleagues today and it was surprisingly interesting as we shared certain issues we had in common, some views we had, some exchanges of ideas. It was a great way to destress just by chatting with a fellow colleague, things other than just work. We already commit more than 9 hours to that daily, so it's always good to take a short break here and there.

Oh yah, my department's having our very own X'mas gift exchange next month and by random picking of coloured papers, I have selected one of my colleague's name. Hehe, shall think of what to get for her, not that I know her well enough but I'll give it my best shot! :)

This weekend - I'm already looking forward to it is gonna be pretty exciting too. There's a church outing to visit the Carmelite nuns as well as the Archbishop on Saturday. And for a first time in 3 weeks (perhaps?), Dear and I could well head to town. We haven't been to town for a while since MPC started cos MPC was typically held on Saturday and by the time it ended around evening, we preferred to hang out in the east instead of making the long drive down town.

Come Sunday is Mui Choo's wedding banquet. Shall ask Ber what she's gonna wear there. Am attending with a couple of colleagues from office so it may be a good gathering.

To top this all off, this Friday's a Public Holiday! Wheee... =)

Oh yah, I have also just signed up for this year's D&D at the NUSS Guild House. The theme's back to school, definitely not the first of its kind, so please feel free to give me ideas on what I can wear to the function. SAC uniform? Haha

Okay, it's now 8 mins past 11, overshot a little here. I'm going to sleep now. Shucks, I really need to drink proper water, I'm thirsty!

Nights!

-runs off to kitchen for more water-

MPC Graduation

Monday, November 23 10:35 PM

It's been a fabulous weekend for us! I hope you guys enjoyed yours too.

For Robin and I, we took a short break, graduated from our Marriage Preparation Course and have started to piece our new house together bit by bit. =) All in one weekend.

For a first, MPC finally concluded after 6 weeks of coming together to share experiences, to discuss topics, to get to know one another, to bond, to love. While the course has ended, I'm sure this will not be the last time our group will see one another again. In fact, we have signed up to help out in the next MPC run in Feb next year so I'm definitely looking forward to meeting everyone again.

Rachel and Andrew, Peter and Suzon would be married by then, followed by Nick and Sandra, Robin and I in June. Haha.. Through the last 6 weeks, I really felt bonded with this group of people coming from different walks of life, different countries, just for one single purpose - to love.

Our presenting couple, Willie & Julie were also the best mentors we could have. Through their generous sharing and gracious hospitability, each session was filled with meaning and was definitely eventful. The sessions have also helped to strengthen my faith and I'm glad I took up this course with Dear.

We were even asked to be one of the 3 testimony couples during the graduation session yesterday at SJI. We agreed immediately as I know this is one good way to give back to the course having benefited so much from it.

True enough, we enjoyed every moment of drafting our speeches, right down to the actual delivery yesterday at SJI. It was nothing stressful, cos we know nobody's judging and it was all fun and enjoyable. We even received a copy of the 'Cathechism of the Catholic Church' by the late Pope John Paul II as a token of appreciation. I'm pretty excited to get started on the book once I am done with the busy stuff at work. =)

We were also presented certificates for completing the course which will eventually be submitted to the Church before we can hold our wedding in Church. The presentation of the certs as we huddled together, couple by couple with Willie and Julie was touching and heartwarming as they wished us the best and blessed all of us before we embarked on this beautiful journey.

Having been through this course, I would strongly recommend couples who are intending to get married in a Catholic Church to attend it and experience the process of getting to know your future spouse all over again - in a good way. I enjoyed myself a lot and our relationship has only gotten stronger with each passing day, so yay to that! =)

A group shot of our MPC Group 5, Q4, 2009.

I will miss everyone and my best wishes to all the couples!

(more photos available on facebook)

In other great news, we have also contracted our interior designer for our renovation and designing works which are due to start very soon. We also bought our air-conditioner, flat screen LCD TV, refrigerator, DVD player and dining table and chairs.

The house will be taking shape very very soon and we're eagerly anticipating that day's arrival! In the meantime, here's some shots of us to conclude the very eventful week with this entry!

By the way, I have a huge prezzo tomorrow, so if it's not too much to ask, do keep me in your prayers ok? Thanks!!

Love!

Gina

OPTIMISM

Monday, November 16 10:41 PM

I think I'm starting to like my blogskin. Hehe. Not that I didn't like it yesterday when I changed it but now it's starting to look pleasing to the eye. I even feel like blogging on a Monday - so what are the chances?! Haha

I don't have something specific in mind to blog about but for some reason, I googled 'optimism' and I got this picture which I think is quite interesting.

We (or maybe, I in this case, I) tend to get piled by tonnes of work on a daily basis and sometimes the going gets tough. I saw this quote by Robert H. Schuller at some MRT station that goes, "Tough times never last, but tough people do'.

Makes sense to you?

Perfectly, to me.

Or put in another way. "When the going gets tough, the tough gets going."

Oh well, enough quotes for one night. I hope I can clear the major list of work and all the meetings before me. There always seem to be some huge prezzo each week. Somehow it never seems to ends. I just want to be counting down to a Merry X'mas, like everyone else.

XoXo

New blogskin!

Sunday, November 15 10:20 PM

I finally changed my blogskin!

The earlier template and all the error messages on the skin was giving me a major headache. Do let me know what you guys think of this. :)

Love,
Gina

2012 - End of Days?

8:05 PM

I caught 2012 yesterday. For those who haven't heard, 2012 is this movie about the Mayan's prediction of the end of the world in 2012, December 21.

Given the storyline, you can expect that the movie was overall depressing. Many people died, the US president in the movie stayed behind and died, lands over the world were overturned, some even went underwater. Others included volcano eruptions, huge balls of fire, shattering earthquakes, high tides of tsunami, comets smashing onto Earth. The milder ones revolved around strikes, riots, famine, financial crises. Oh well, pretty much what we see on the papers quite often now.

While the cinematography was pretty impressive, I was somehow more perturbed about how true the Mayan's prediction may be. No prizes for guessing, after I got home from the movie last night, I started to google on the 2012 predictions which led me to a few links. Some didn't seem so convincing, some cited failed predictions, others brought me to biblical references.

One of which I chanced upon was the Letter of Mark 13:24-32.

"... Heaven and Earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. But as for that day or hour, nobody knows it, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, no one but the Father."

Without thinking further into this very morbid issue, I gave it a rest. But the more incredulous and coincidental thing is that during Sunday mass this morning, this was the exact reading that was shared during Gospel. It was mainly talking about the second coming of Christ.

Fr Edward also shared in his homily about the end of days and how many people had predicted the second coming of Christ since the 1960s. He reiterated that nobody knows when the day will come so people should stop predicting the apocalyptic.

Instead, we should live every day like it was our last, so that we will not be caught offguard or regret not doing something when our Father is near, at the very gates. In addition, we should take stock of what good we have done if we were to reach the end of our lithurgical years. Have we loved the people around us as we should? Have we made anyone's life better? Have we been good as a Christian?

During sharing session after mass, I also candidly explored this topic with a couple of church friends and they too did not know how best to live in an expectant and watchful way, although we all know we should.

It is inevitable that after the whole session coupled with some vivid imagery from the movie last night, I got a little scared and worried. My instant thought was, "Nooo.. not now." But thinking again on hindsight, I think no matter when it will be, it's never a good time for anyone of us.

To make myself feel better, I shall not think about it anymore. Sorry for the very anti-climax and abrupt ending to the topic. Hahaa, Hope you didn't think I wasn't going to conclude it with any perfect live-by Bible quotes, I just wanted to set some of you pondering (and maybe get scared) with me as well. Haha, sorry!

Moving on to MPC. We had our last home session yesterday. As I concluded the session with the closing prayer, I think that this course had been really enjoyable in all aspects. I met really fabulous people during the last 5 weeks and made new friends from all around the world. =) I also managed to sneak a peak at Willie's kindle yesterday. So cool, makes me wanna get one too! Hope Amazon brings it to Singapore.

Next week is the final week of MPC, with the presentation of the certificates. Robin and I have also been invited to be the testimony couple which I am really happy to do so! Good to give back to the course in some ways.

It's Monday tomorrow, I feel so tempted to rest early tonight. Afterall it's already 9.15pm and I'm already running on 1/2 (body) batt now. Haha. Need to recharge before a long week looms ahead.

APEC has also wrapped up nicely. Proud of Singapore for being such wonderful host. Hey, we are also gonna receive some cute pandas in 2011, so kudos to that! I saw the pictures of the pandas on ST that day, I have to admit they're kinda cute.

Nothing much to blog about. I wonder if anyone's still reading, really. Haha. Nonetheless, I'd still continue to blog here cos this is my only avenue of airing my thoughts.

Have a good week ahead everyone. I have a huggggge meeting next Tues, 24 Nov, do pray for me. :)

XoXo

4th MPC / Robin's Birthday

Sunday, November 8 12:33 AM

Hello. We've just crossed the very precious Saturday (now past midnight) and I'm trying to find some time for blogging. Today's been a long day. As much as I want to sleep now, like right now, my hair's still wet.

We attended our 4th MPC session today at W&J's place. Met up with the other couples and over the period of 6 hours really bonded and had quite a bit of fun, especially dinner over beef straganoff, pizza, salad and apple crumble. :) It's kinda sad MPC's ending in 2 weeks especially when these people are starting to feel more like close friends than acquaintances.

After we left Frankel, we headed towards Century for our Saturday night movie. Decided to give town a miss since it was already quite late when we finished dinner. Caught the korean flick 'My Girlfriend Is An Agent'. Think I was too tired to enjoy the movie properly but I heard plenty of people laughing so there you go. Your pick.

Dear turned a year older on Wednesday and it's been a stretch of celebrations with him all through the week - with his folks, with my folks. I can't help but think of how we would celebrate our birthdays in our new house next year. :) Some photos below.

Christmas is coming soon! :) Everywhere I go, from Raffles City to Orchard to Tampines 1 to Ikea, it's always this huge atmosphere of Christmas and celebration that hits me. It's a good hit and I like it. Although it's still more than a month away, I look forward to spending Christmas this year. A different Christmas with a special meaning, as I journey through RCIA. As with other years, I can't wait to shop for cards, christmas eve dress and gifts for my loved ones. And yes, shopping while the christmas carol is on repeat mode in all malls! :) Carols never fail to make me happy (and spend a lot!) .. haha

As the year draws to an end, I also look forward to the coming year and all that it promises! Till then, there's a major meeting this week and I pray that all will go well during the meeting.

Oh yes, there's BOW at noon tomorrow, not much time left to sleep. Nights everyone!

Gina