All for Love

It is heart wrenching to see, hear & feel the entire episode of seeing someone you care about torn between the one she loves and her family whom she also cherish deeply. Every heated argument. Every family feud. Watching every knife stabbing words spoken to the heart in the heat of the moment. Words that wasn't supposed to hold a meaning from one party had sadly resulted in a lasting effect to another. Every party has their own opinions of one another and what's sad about it is that their perception is reality when in actual fact, this isn't the case. Such a hopeless case.

So when my girlfriend told me that her oldest sister will be coming to the wedding, we finally saw a glimpse of hope for a chance of reconciliation between two families. However, not long after that, another incident happened which resulted in her sister turning down the invitation altogether. My g/f was devastated and she hid it well from her sister who had no idea...

As her emcee for the wedding as well as her friend of 12yrs, I decided it was time to intervene.

I made my phone call to ask for a coffee, pretending I wanted to know everything about her little sister. She agreed to meet up.

So at Coffee Club, we sat down and talked the whole night about a girl described as 'daddy's little princess' maturing into this beautiful vivacious woman who always manage to 'shine in the crowd'. She had photos to show me. Three in fact were of a once happy family of their first time in Australia taken 14yrs ago.

Everything was great until she started to cry. My heart really felt her pain as she was the eldest of the 5 and to see her little sister, my g/f, finally getting married to a man that she saw tore her family apart. This entire episode have caused such a huge division in her family that her parents have now migrated back to Malaysia to live for good in an attempt to deny their pain of losing their most loved daughter. Her entire family all fell apart because her sister chose to marry the man of her dreams. They lost & 'he' had won. Yet despite all the feud, she was still happy that her sister had found her true love and have fought all the way to be the one she believes will complete her. That takes great courage, true perserverance, real love.

Although I didn't manage to convince her to come to the wedding, she did however agree to go to the hen's night which will be a huge surprise as my g/f has no idea that I met up with her sister tonight.

Her sister also told me that despite the fact that she can't be there for the wedding, she would still love to see it on video. What's more, maybe just maybe, when her parents come around to accepting it one day, they can too share this moment with their daughter even if it's just a video footage. What a great idea!

Only time will tell how this story will pan out. I just pray that the once happy family portrait will be updated again but this time, with a new & accepted member added onto it.

*Happy Merdeka (Independence) Day to my birth Country*

The Verdict

Vs

The clock is ticking and finally my Work & Development Plan is due tomorrow. It is 90% completed except one section - Career Path.

After being so confused as to where to go after my role here in Melbourne, I decided to seek professional advice as well as personal advice.

So I asked about 4 of my peers in Singapore as to the working environment there.

All said 'it's very stressful Vicky'. Great! just what I wanted to hear!

The only people supportive of my move so far are my high school chics and Pastor Ken Li. All of them told me to go and fulfill what my heart always desired. Thank you!

As for everyone else? well, they all don't want me to go...

Then, I decided to write an email to Barron (someone whom I respect immensely) and to my suprise he replied the next day to tell me of my options. I was touched by his help. But his response still didn't quite help me to make my decision.

Finally, today I had a 1:1 meeting with Kir. I told her how lost I was yet again. That I can't seem to make up my mind. She told me 'to stop seeking advice from everyone and go with what my heart desires even though I may think it's impossible'. BINGO! I took her advice onboard.

I have finally completed the Career Path section today. My next desired destination selected.

All locked and loaded.

2007 will definitely be a year filled with surprises!

In the mean time, all I can do now is entrust my future unto God's hand and claim His promise in Jer 29:11 because I know He will not disappoint me...

Superwoman

Here's 10 reasons why:

1) Olay - Finished work at 7-8pm this week all thanks to the massive upcoming Olay promotion that Coles have just agreed to! Can't wait till it hits in the catalogue! Get ready Australia, every household is sooo going to be swimming in a pool of Olay after this MASSIVE event! Ah.. my brilliant touch of work ;)
2) Father's Day - Being consumed with Father's Day planning for church this coming Sun. I'm in charge of literally everything! Serve me right for putting my hand up to organise this event! I need to buy the Father's Day gift and wrap it (still have no idea what it'll be). Then I still need to get the food for the little 'after party' afterwards and in charge of cooking it. Then there's the tambourine dance item we're doing just for Father's Day PLUS on top of that, I'm also the worship leader! God give me strength!
3) Hen's Night - That's still in limbo.. and it's next SAT night too! OMG! Serve me right for delegating it to someone else. A friend once told me 'If you want it done right, do it yourself!' Should've taken that advice onboard..
4) Engagement Party - That's also coming up and I still haven't got Terri & Tim a present yet! yikes!
5) New Born Babies - Praise God! Pst Ken Li & Yuli just received their angel from Heaven name Caitlin Audrey last Sun! & Janelle should be expecting hers real soon! Need to organise presents!
6) Birthdays - 2 of my dear mates' birthday (who's born the same day, same year! and no they're NOT twins!) coming up in the month of Sept! Need to organise more presents & their party!
7) Wedding Planning - every Tues nights! With August nearly finished, this means only one thing --> The wedding is just around the corner! OMG! We still haven't finalised the program for the night yet or the music or doing up the powerpoint slides! ALL DK's fault! soooo going to chop him up for curry and he knows it too! Actually the poor guy wrote me an email to 'ask for special consideration' cos he didn't finish his end of the agreement which means we can't meet up tonight! Gosh his email was so funny!
8) YGII - every Wed nights!
9) TGIF - every Fri nights!
10) God's Day - Every Sat arvo for worship Practice & Whole of Sun!

Ceh...and here I am wondering why time flies sooo fast!!

A tribute to my manager(s)

Congratulations to Kir, my direct report, who won the best manager out of the entire Asia pacific region in P&G for the category of Best Gillette P&G integration (AAI Awards of Excellence)

After all, we the Coles Myer team were the first team in the WORLD to integrate! Now that's something to be proud of!

I am incredibly blessed to have both her & Al as my managers. They have shown immense support to me both professionally and personally.

I am so encouraged by Kir. A very successful and competent woman. She's the only woman in Sales of Australia that is band III. She told me today that she was the first woman appointed National Sales Manager in Gillette (and that was only in 2001)! My goodness that so deserves a medal! I've learned soooo much from her in account management. Everything from negotiating, presenting, problem solving to personal development. She has really given me confidence in what I do by simply believing in me.

I've told her already that one day when I'm a manager overseeing subordinates, I will too use the qualities and skills learned from her.

As for Alastair, he's absolutely the best people's manager I've ever met! Such a busy person, yet always have time for his ppl when they need it. Even if it's just for a personal chit chat. What's more he's very protective & supportive of the team. I remember just an incident 2wks ago when we ran out of stock for the Olay Complete launch all because WWs had over ordered and took our shipment. I wrote Al an email to tell him of the news at 6pm on a Wed. The next morning at 9am, this issue had already been escalated all the way to the CEO! And boy, you should've seen his email after mine. He was pissed off! AND he supported me all the way stating in the email "Vicky had done all the right thing and what happened is absolutely appalling!" (and don't forget this was cc'd onto at least 20ppl from Australia, to Singapore to Thailand!)
Next thing you know, the supply planners had to do an emergency airfreight of the stock - a plane filled with Olay Complete flown into the country over the weekend! All this because my manager believed in me and supported me.

I am incredibly blessed!

Back to Sunday School

Today at church, I decided to join the Sunday School kids to see what they're doing nowadays especially since I used to be a sunday school teacher.

Anyhow, all the powerkids (preschoolers) were busy drawing and colouring all the creatures from the book of Genesis. For a moment there, I had forgotten that colour pencils, textas & crayons actually existed. I can't even remember how long ago since I've used one! Gosh it really brought back memories from my primary & sunday school days...

Then I went into the eaglets room (Primary schoolers) and decided to join them in making origami. They were all busy making cubes and some ninja looking stars to stick on the cube for Father's Day next Sunday. We're planning to put encouraging scriptures inside the cube as a word of blessing for all the Fathers.

I know I'm already in my mid 20s but seriously today made me realised just how time has flown. It really felt like it was just yesterday that I was a kid doing all these crafty things in sunday school...

ECCC: Youth Rally Night

Tonight, We had our first ever Youth Rally held at Ron's house. All the small Youth groups were combined for an awesome night of God, friendship & fun.

First up was the balloon game. All of us had a balloon tied up to our leg. The aim of the game is to pop another one's balloon. Gosh you should've seen the noise we made! There were pops, screams, large footstep noises made in the middle of the night! Thank God there were no neighbour complaints!

After that it was time for an awesome night of P&W which Mel, Ron & Joel lead. Mel's prayer during the session was powerful like always!

Then Enoch took over to share his message of the night which was all about prayer. He referred to the book of 1 Kings Chp 17 & 18, the story of the Elijah (a messy looking hairy guy who was an absolutely nobody) who obeyed God's calling and told King Ahab the prophesy that there was not going to be any rain (during the time when the King had prayed continously to his own Mountain god called Baal who was the god of rain). We looked at how fervently Elijah prayed during this time for God's sovereignty to shine through. Of course in the end, God delivered according to His perfect timing. (Thus 3 principles learned were: 1. You don't have to be a somebody for God to listen to your prayer after all Elijah was literally a nobody 2.Patience is the key to prayer 3. Standing firm on God's faithfulness & His perfect timing for your prayer to be answered).

So Enoch made us all write a very specific prayer point that we really want God to give us a breakthrough in. We then have to pray continously, without ceasing for the month of September on the prayer point written.
I will let you know whether or not my prayer will be answered come Oct ;)

Towards the end the night, we ate all these junkfood while playing the Mafia game which Ron introduced to the group. Everyone was addicted to the game so much so that us leaders literally had to act like Nazis to say 'no more! We have to go home!'. We all had some good laughs and learned 'how to lie' in order to win =)

It's so good to fellowship with one another and 'do life' together.

"I came that they may have life & have it abundantly..." John 10:10

My Love Song: None But Jesus

I've been listening to the new United Live album for this entire week. Gosh when I heard the song 'None But Jesus' it really struck a chord in my heart. The words in the song was exactly my prayer to God at this very moment in time! What's more with the stunning voice of my fav. singer Brooke Fraser singing this song made it even more heart piercing! I literally listen to this song on repeat until I fall asleep. After all, It's my own personal love song to God.
I hope it will be yours too...

None By Jesus

By Brooke Fraser

V1:
In the quiet, in the stillness
I know that You are God
In the secret of Your presence
I know there I am restored
When You call I won’t refuse
each new day again I’ll choose

C:
There is no one else for me

None but Jesus
Crucified to set me free
Now I live to bring Him praise...

V2:
In the chaos, in confusion
I know You’re Sovereign still
In the moment of my weakness
You give me grace to do Your will
When You call I won’t delay
This my song through all my days

B:
All my delight is in You Lord
All of my hope, all of my strength
All my delight is in You Lord, Forevermore

(fade out: I am yours & you are mine...)

*A very happy qtr of a century years old to Edric*

Daffodil Day

"For those Touched by Cancer..."

Today is Daffodil Day. Since I'm a huge supporter of the Cancer Council, I decided to make it a theme event at our office on behalf of the social club.

So I went out at lunch time to get all all these Daffodils (the flower that symbolises hope), tissue paper & ribbon to wrap them. Huw came to help me. I must say he's a great ribbon curler! even I couldn't curl it as well!

We had lotsa fun for 1hr locked in my office talking about crap! Ha!

Nothing is forever...

Ever since young, I've always heard from the elders, the church leaders, the teachers, people who's seen more of life in general say to me 'people change', 'friends will come and go' or 'the world around you will change'...

I must admit, it wasn't until I hit my 20's that I finally tasted exactly what that saying really means..

Things change. Circumstances change. The world around you will change. You will change.

So, I tried my best not to change (for the worse that is). The older you get, it seems that the less time you have for things. Simple things. A walk in the park that may be a common past time is now a forgotten hobby. The values you once believed in have now become somewhat important. The people you once held dear to the heart is now just a distant memory. Rather than be an influencer to the evolving world, you have subtly became the influenced.

I caught up with my dear friend tonight at GJs after 3months of not seeing each other. I expected things to be the same after all we have known each other for years. What is a qtr of a year past right?

I made an effort to just listen, to hear all the stories that had happened since May. The near death experiences. The chaotic schedules he's now consumed with. The new girl. The friends that betrayed him. The more I listened, the more I longed for my friend to come back. He wasn't the same person I once knew any more. I could see that the lessons and heartaches he's endured over the months have accumulated so much so that the count down has finally finished. He's detonated to this person with much bitterness. So easily piqued. Nothing can break him now...

I wanted to say so much back. But I realised my job was to just sit & listen. With every word he spoke, I couldn't help but wished for things to be different. To play the rewind button and re-inact the scenes all over again, just so I could have my friend back...

As I drove back home tonight, God reminded me of just how things can change in an instant or how people can change too especially when we least expect it to.

I've experienced this the most this year. Accepting the fact that sometimes you just have to let go of the people that you thought would be there forever as circumstances have now changed; 'that was then and this is now', how true in deed! Friendships that I thought were for life had subtly ceased to exist.

How I wish while growing up that someone would also tell me the true meaning of 'friends forever'; that forever in this instance actually means living out of our infinite memories made from the past...

"Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever..."

Hebrews 13:8

'I bet you never knew' - take 2

Up to date --->

The most regretful thing that I did not do was
speaking to my beloved late uncle for the last time before he breathed his last breath..

The most regretful thing that I have done is
being a bully to 2 of my ex-best friends during my primary school days to the point that one had to leave the school...
(How I wish I could turn back time and gain their friendship back)

The sweetest gift one has ever given me is
actually two things:
1) A huge mosaic photo of me (beautifully framed) and if you look closely, it is actually made of another 300 photos of my friends and I. At the back of the frame it says
"It is the experiences and ppl you go through in life that makes who you are today".
2) A photo album and contained inside were 300 memories of him and I. Nicely worded, formatted, printed, cut & inserted. All 300 of it!

The sweetest thing I've ever given to someone is
a dozen of eggs that I made from scratch. I literally emptied all the eggs out and filled them with something that symbolised what that person meant to me (eg. a small chilli inside the egg and once cracked it would also say 'you spice up my life' etc).

The most expensive gift received
is my Canon ixus 4.0! love it love it love it! ;)

The earliest & fondest memory I have
is of my grandmother holding me while doing her sewing when I was about 5y.o.

The proudest moment of my life
was walking on stage (on separate occasions) to receive 1. my award of excellence for my marketing degree 2. my double degree with triple majors in front my friends and family and holding the degree to the crowd thinking 'I have finally done it!'

The biggest disappointment so far
is letting go of that someone I thought was the one..

The most embarrasing moment so far
LOL! It is really too embarrassing to blog out to the world!

The most beautiful place on earth (that I've seen so far)
South Island, New Zealand - Everywhere you go is picturesque! Serenity is definitely the word to describe it!

The most painful experience (physical pain that is)
Well since I haven't gone through childbirth (thank God!), I must say it's definitely when I had 2 of my wisdom teeth removed on the chair. The anaesthetic wasn't strong enough, so I could literally feel the scapel cut through my gum. I could feel the electric knife saw through my tooth. The worse was when I got home and the anaesthetic had totally worn off, it was soooo painful that tears just flowed automatically out from my eyes..

The scariest feeling experienced at a young age
was nearly losing my mother to a freak car-motorbike accident

The most traumatic event experienced
was the massacre shooting at Monash University 4yrs ago. I was just 2 storey above where it happened. I remember just after finishing my tutorial class and being totally oblivious to what had happened, I took the elevator down. As soon as the doors flung open, there were the paramedics with their trolley beds. Cops were everywhere telling us to get out of the building and run to safety at the main cafe building. Since I was by myself at the time, I ran as fast as I could. As soon as I got out, there were helicopters everywhere. Every eyes were looking at my direction from across the building. It felt like a scene from the movie only that this was for real.
I remember thinking to myself 'I could be shot dead any time today' as rumours of 'the gunman is on the loose' became more apparent. So I decided to ring home to say my last goodbye (just in case). But since everyone were doing the same thing, the lines were so busy that you couldn't even dial out. It was a hopeless case. I remember thinking to myself, let's run to the car park and drive out of here. But I stopped at the thought of the possibility that the gunman could be in the car park. Then there were screams in the cafeteria saying 'lock the doors! Quick!' But someone would say 'what if the gunman is inside the cafeteria and we're all locked in to die?'. You get the drift. It was the most horrific and traumatic experience of my life. The thought of 'I may die today' and not being able to say my final goodbye was frightening enough.

News Flash: Coles Group Ltd

For all you Aussies out there who have temporarily moved off shores, here's a piece of news for you in case you don't know already.

Yes, we all know Myer has been sold off. Sadly, it is no longer part of the Coles Myer Group. It has been bought by a private equity group TPG Newbridge.

Now what happens to the rest of Coles Myer Group you ask?

Three weeks ago, the late Coles Myer Group announced its new corporate identity:

'Coles Group Ltd'.
Under the new name, three major strategies have been formed that will enable some MAJOR restructuring to occur.

This will truly change the face of retail in Australia...

Three Strategies:

1) Say BYE BYE TO BILO!!
(I can't imagine Wed not being a market day for the pensioners! Nor can I imagine a world without Iain Hewitson on the Bilo Ads!)
All Bilo stores will convert into Coles supermarket.
In Shopping centres where there are both Bilo & Coles (eg. Chadstone), Bilo will convert to First Choice Liquor which will compete directly with Dan Murphys (owned by Woolworths).

2) Say BYE BYE TO KMART!!
In about 2yrs or so, all Kmart stores will convert into the COLES banner. The intention of this is to make Coles into a Hypermarket like the big retail giants around the world (eg. Tesco, Carrefour, Sainsbury to name a few). I can't wait to see this change happens!
Under the new Coles Group Ltd banner, this means Coles will predominantly focus on its food, liquor, fuel & general merchandise goods under one umbrella.

3) Target & Officework will remain stand alone retail groups
Coles Group Ltd will continue to invest behind these two retail chains to improve its core competencies in its niche market.

- There will be $850 Million invested into more and better stores
- There will be $60 Million invested into NEW trolleys & improved customer service
- You will see more 'You'll love Coles' Generic house brands coming into play (which means suppliers like us are under threat of shelf space in the supermarket as their own Coles brand or the Woolworths Fresh house brand takes over).

So if this news is not huge enough, just last Friday, Coles surprised us with another announcement that made my senior mgr call for an immediate team meeting.

Coles Myer Shares jumped 14% to a record high on the talk of an imminent takeover of the A$15.6billion company by a private equity investor. (man I was spewing for not buying CML shares!! Arghh! it jumped from approx $9 to $13 overnight!)

Many foreign investors have been eyeing on Coles for a long time now and a deal will be signed in a matter of days. Time will only tell what the fate of Coles will be.

In the mean time, not only does the employees at Coles feel nervous about their future employment with Coles but as well, it affects the suppliers (like P&G!) big time as this also mean a major restructuring for our team too! Especially since Bilo will be disappearing followed by Kmart...(phew thank God I'm not the Account Mgr for Kmart anymore!)

So Woolworths--> WATCH OUT!
Coles is Out to get you!!!

It's time to grow up...

I came home today after running some errands. When I came back to my room, I nearly had a heart attack to see my bed so empty! Half of my teddies were missing!!

OMG!! MY MOTHER HAD PACKED THEM ALL INTO A BAG!!

You see after years of collecting them (mind you a majority were given to me), I had placed all my babies on my queen sized bed. There are so many of them that my 'real bed' (the one that I actually sleep on) had turned into a single sized bed. My parents, for a long time had wanted to throw them all out and give it to charity as they kept on saying 'I think you're too old for these now.. ' Then I would go into a hysterical fit and finally explaining to them how sentimental they are to me.

Every one of them. From Monkey, Bugs, to Pooh, Smiley, Tiga, Baboo, Sheeba, Pink-gy to Christopher & Elizabeth (collected from my primary school days)!

Now, half of them are missing (predominantly the old ones).

I was horrified to see Cheeky (my forever friend bear that I got for Valentine's one year) suffocating in the bag! NOOOO!! I nearly cried.. well.. ok not really. I was more half laughing at my mother for doing such a thing! She finally had the guts to do it after 6yrs!

I then sat down with mum for a chit chat. I reminded to her how next year, things will truly change. Her little princess will no longer be staying in the 'Vicks' room anymore.. I re-iterated to her just how important it was for me to see all my babies everytime I come home to visit. She promised me she won't throw them away ;)

Man, I think I will cry when that day for me to leave home for good finally happens...

Melb CBD: Oh What A Night!

You're invited to a jam packed night in Melbourne's CBD!
Attached it the copy of the schedule:

7pm - Dinner at Moskitto, Victoria St

9pm - P&G social club Launch at Canary Club, Melbourne Pl

10pm - Crepes @ Breizoz, Brunswick St, Fitzroy

11pm-1:30am -Golden Monkey , Hardware Lane

Eating our huge arse meal @Moskitto with TGIF cell


Canary Club

P&G Social Club Launch
organised by Scotty & me

(felt bad that I had to leave early!)

Breizoz (the best French Crepe in town)
(yes I left early for these..HA!)

It's cocktail time at Golden Monkey
(btw, we saw a whole table of 12 Asian guys who were all gay,

but really didn't look it at all. So the whole night,

Gina & I were perving on them and saying

'What a waste!' cos seriously, these guys were soooooo HOT!!!)

The Entrance & Bar

This Passionfruit honey & mint cocktail was sooo good!

Gina, me, Kelv, Poh Lee & Jimmy #2

Hongy, Sweet, Pete

Simon, Mike, Jimmy #1, Justin & Nina

Song: Gabriel

I first heard this song in Sydney when my colleague Andy lend me her iPoD back in July. It's a song called 'Gabriel' which is basically about an independent girl who has it all, know it all and does it all by her own strength but still, she doesn't want that. Instead, she craves for her angel Gabriel (her man). It's pretty much like how my favourite passage of the book Captivating goes. That women loves to be in the presence of a strong man as this enables her to flourish like a woman (and vice versa for the man).
The music and lyrics is just beautiful...

Everytime I hear this song, I imagine myself dancing on a high rise apartment with dim lights, a glass of white in my hand, ignorant to the fact that the whole city is watching me...

i can fly.... but I want his wings
i can shine even in the darkness,
but I crave the light that he brings
revel in the songs that he sings
my angel gabriel

i can love, but I need his heart
i am strong even on my own,
but from him I never want to part
he's been there since the very start,
my angel gabriel, my angel gabriel...

bless the day he came to be
angel's wings carried him to me
heavenly i can fly, but I want his wings
i can shine even in the darkness
but I crave the light that he brings
revel in the songs that he sings
my angel gabriel, my angel gabriel....

Movie: The Sentinel

Since I've been working non-stop for the past two weeks and have just finished writing up my major recommendation today, we decided to finally go out and celebrate this taste of 'freedom'. So we went to the new Chinese Dumpling place in Glenny. Boy the place was packed. Cheap food but not as good as Bob's Kitchen!

Then it was off to get my fav drink for the movie! Yep u guessed it! Pina Colada Smoothie (they've just changed the name to Tropical Coconut.. what the?!). Anyway, after we placed our order, the waiter asked for my name, my friend quickly replied 'John', I was like what? that ain't your name?! However, apparently you should just use a fake name that's easy to pronounce and hear by the ear. I thought it was hilarious stuff esp when John was called out! But I liked that concept. I shall adopt John as my new GJs name from here on ;)

Anyway, The Sentinel! OMG! At first I thought, Man I'm sooo going to fall asleep through it all and was even considering bringing my own pillow since we watched the 9:20pm session. But Was I wrong or what?! It's one of the most suspense action packed movie I've seen so far! I nearly forgot to breathe every minute of the film! Such a good story line I must admit! The funny thing was my friend's a finatic fan of Kiefer Sutherland.. I was like What? Are you blind or what? Kiefer? ew! and the funny thing is, after the movie finished, I'm now all sucked into him too!! I want a man just like Kiefer. Intelligent, a man with great strength & don't forget, style too!! .... mmmmmm Kiefer.

Book: Captivating

You belong among the wild flowers,

You belong in a boat out at sea,

You belong with your love in your arm,

You belong somewhere you feel free... Tom Petty

Besides working 10hrs per day times it by every weekend for the past two weeks AND attending cell group on Fridays, church - twice on Sundays, teaching at YGII on Weds AND organising LW's wedding on the other spare days PLUS organising P&G social club events during my spare time AND the upcoming Father's Day event at Church and last but not least, squeezing my social life in there some where.. I am also very very determined to complete one of my New Year's Resolution and that is to read at least 3 Christian Books.

I've done one already and now Sweet's lend me her book called 'Captivating - Unveiling the Mystery of a Woman's Soul' by the wife of the best selling author 'Wild at Heart' (which is all about the masculine heart of a man- dangerous, alive, passionate and free; the way God designed men to be. My NEXT book to read after this one!).

Anyway, I really love the passage from Captivating which I find is soooo true about a Man & Woman when they're together.

(p.18) Can you see how the desires of a man's heart and the desires of a woman's heart were meant to fit beautifully together? A woman in the presence of a good man, a real man, loves being a woman. His strength allows her feminine heart to flourish. His pursuit draws out her beauty. And a man in the presence of a woman loves being a man. Her beauty arouses him to play the man, it draws out his strength. She inspires him to be a hero...

Goodbye & Good Luck...

Today was all about Edric...

He's finally found a job at RBA, which is basically the hub located in in Sydney that controls Australia's economy and interest rates.

So proud of him as RBA only takes smart ppl (eg. you must have a min. of an Honours degree to be even considered in the application process!). He will be leaving for Sydney on Thursday to start his career in managing the AUSTRALIAN CURRENCY! Get this, he will be managing the coins and notes dpt as well as the printing dpt! golly gosh I would love that job! 1 pink note for you, 50 green ones for me =) kekekekee...

We met up at Justina's apartment in CBD and off we went for lunch at The Quays in Docklands over looking the reflective water surroundings.

It was a fun day but also a sad occasion as Ed's departure means another dismantling of another group of friends! (first one was with my high school chix! now my uni gang! =(

Highlights of the Day:

1) Edric rocking up 1hr late while the 3 of us watched Jus long awaited wedding DVD. Can't believe that was 5mths ago!
2) Edric opening the presents us 3 chix gave him. A nice cube turning photo frame with pics from some of our outings for the past 3yrs & of course a tie to make him look extra smart as he begins his career.
3) Waiting 45mins for our food! To top it off, when our food arrived, Justina's dish had burnt mushrooms. It was black as! So I had to complain to the mgr and of course in the end, managed to get her meal FOC! ;)
4) Taking silly pics around Docklands. The place is basically a strip of eateries with very stylish artefacts and buildings! so being miss photographer herself, I had to act like a tourist ok?!

The Spectacular View of, The Quay, @Docklands


Models Inc 2006



* Happy birthday to my very talented designer friend in Syd, Eric *

Praising God for the BAD times

We've decided to name our cell group:
TGI Friday (thank God it's Friday)

Tonight was my turn to lead the cell. I was really happy to see Evan rocking up as I had been praying for him to visit our cell especially since he's backslid over the years and now is starting to hunger for God again.. (praise God!).

So all up 9 of us. (Mike, Me, Ev, Sweet, Jimmy, Simon, Poh Lee, Pst Ken Li & Pstr's wife Yuli)
I shared my lesson below & also made them all a bookmark as a summary of all the scriptures. I hope they will use the bookmark to find the scriptures relevant to them whenever they go through a BAD time. I also shared about two very traumatic events of my life (and how God was there to pull me out of it) to the cell and all of them had never heard it before. Boy that really got their attention alright! No doubt their faith in God increased after all Faith comes by hearing the word of God..

Here's the lesson I wrote up from scratch below. I pray that you will take some time to get out the bible and read it for even just once in your life. I guarantee it'll lift your spirit especially when you're world is falling apart...
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The Greatest Man in the Old Testament who showed true perseverance in life and walked blamelessly despite his world falling apart before him is found in - Job 1:1-22

3 Key fundamentals for Praising God during the BAD Times:

1) B – Believe in the Word & Promises of God
The best time to test our faith is during the bad times.
What is Faith? Hebrew 11:1&v6, James 1:6
a) Let God be God – Ecc 11:5
b) My Ever-Present help – Psalm 46:1
c) Turning my mourning into dancing – Psalm 30:11-12
d) His power is made perfect in my weakness – 2Cor 12:9

2) A – Attitude – Is your heart right with God esp during the bad times?
What is Attitude? Proverbs 4:23
a) Rejoice ALWAYS – Phil 4:4
b) Magnify the fruit of the spirit – Romans 12:12

3) D – Determined to come out of your strife
How do I perservere? James 1:5-6, Hebrews 12:7
a) God will not tempt me beyond what I can bear – 1Cor 10:13
b) He is my deliverer – Psalm 32:7
c) Letting go, moving forward with Christ – Phil 3:13-14

Summary:
Whenever God shows up during your bad times, remember those moments, for they will form the foundation of your faith in Him for the rest of your life.
(eg. Every time an unexpected wave crashes in your life, you will never fall below the level of faith you had in God that had been previously set).

“Though the fig tree does not bud
And there are no grapes on the vines,
Though the olive crop fails
And the fields produce no food,
Though there are no sheep in the pen
And no cattle in the stalls,
Yet I will rejoice in the Lord,
I will be joyful in God my Saviour.
The Sovereign Lord is my strength,
He makes my feet like the feet of a deer”
Habakkuk 3:17-19

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Deaf as an unanswered telephone!

Imagine waking up to the sound of a constant ringing in your ear. To the point it is deafening and it starts to hurt your ear drum. Then as soon as you get up, you feel quite unbalanced because your ear is also half blocked.

How I wish this was only a dream. But the doctor says it will be like this for at least 3 days.

This experience has really taught me to appreciate the minute things in life such as one's sensory capabilities. The ability to see, the ability to smell, the ability to hear, the ability to taste, the ability to feel....

Will You Marry Me?

What would you do if you have searched all your life and finally, you've found the one right before your eyes?

Your partner for life. Your best friend. Your inseparable half. Your Soulmate.
When it is just the two of you, everything is just perfect, just so beautiful.

Then enters the other ppl in your life who also mean the world to you. They, however despises your 'partner' and does everything in their power to stop the two of you from being together because they say He's not from a wealthy family. He doesn't have a high status job. He is simply not good enough for you.

So the two of you finally break up because you're torn between your family and your loved one. For that long period of time, you try everything to get him off your mind. Rather than forgetting about him, everything confirms to you instead that, you simply can not live without him. All you do is find your heart and mind locked into him. You find yourself constantly dreaming about the good times together. Our first touch. Our first kiss. Our first time holding hands. What if...? Your heart yearns to re-live those moments again. Finally, you can not withhold those feelings any longer. You call him. He picks up. The wall immediately breaks down the moment you feel his embrace again.

The days after that, the both of you finally decides to do a 'secret relationship' for the sake of short-term happiness. For the sake of not hurting anyone...

Finally, he proposes. Your heart melts. The day you dreamt about all this while as a little girl has finally come to past. You jump with joy at the sight of what they call 'a girl's best friend' that shines with all the colours of a rainbow at every angle. Nothing in the world can break the two of us now. It has been sealed with the ring. Well, so you've thought.

Months after that comes the wedding preparation. The dress, the photographers, the cake, the invites, the registry, the venue. Everything is perfect except one thing. Your family is missing. You're about to walk down the aisle with no one giving you away and you imagine yourself walking to him and him alone. The other ppl who have spent most of your life with you and also know you inside out are sadly, absent. They have disowned you.

What will you do?

Will you still walk down the aisle and marry the man of your dreams? or will you leave him walking this journey on earth alone with his heart scarred forever just so you can finally make peace with your family?

Bossy Boot: Tis' Pay back time!

My brother Kev is back from Perth just for the weekend to take more of his belongings for his 'permanent' move to the West.

However, 'coincindentally' his girlfriend happened to fly back to Melb from QLD also the same time. Surprise, surprise. Not!

So as soon as Kev came back on Sat morning at 1am, we never saw the guy until tonight's dinner (that means the entire SAT he was kidnapped by his g/f).

So being the annoying sister, I had to intervene and act as the 'big annoying sister'. You see, this is my bro's first serious girlfriend and since I was in the dating scene earlier than him, he would always be so overtly protective of me so much so that he was worse than my own father! I remember it was sweet at first to have a protective older bro. Then it became a joke. He even looked at what I was wearing before I was allowed to go out with a boy! Plus, he would ring me at night if I went out too long for me to come home immediately. (But I must say, he's not as bad as Niao!My other bro is ten times worse than Kev!).

Anyways, now that he's got a girl in his life and have totally neglected his family, I thought 'ha! It's payback time!'. So yesterday arvo, I rang Kev to pester him asking where he was and then made him promise me he'll come home by 10pm. He said 'yep sure' (just so I could get off his case). I also had a go at him for 'spending so much time with his girl' and zilch with his own parents! We finally hung up with him promising me that he'll be there at the family dinner on Sun (tonight).

Anyway, as I was just about to hit the sack at 11:30pm last night, I realised, Kev's broken his promise. He's still not home! Immediately I did my evil laugh and wrote the most sweetest sms to him. It read 'What time is it?It's going 2b midnight soon. Past ur curfew!make sure u come home @once young man & ur NOT zzz at ur g/f's house either!' LOL! He must've had a good laugh too. Finally he came home at 12:30am and switched on the light, waking me up to say 'Mei, I'm home'! I tell ya, I so was NOT a happy Jan. (but I guess I got what I deserved.)

We had a good family dinner (minus Al, though we rang him while having dinner). We talked mostly about Kev's new job at Capricorn (A very good business concept in deed!). Good to see he was really passionate about his newly found company. Anyway, after we finished the main meal, Kev had to run (back to his ger ger of course!). Didn't even have time to stick around for dessert.

After my bro left, I thought this was the best time to give my parents a headache (of course I was only stirring just so I could negotiate for a better future =). Here was our conversation:

"Mah, Bah, you know you guys don't treat your children fairly"
"Oh really, what makes you say that?" , asked mum.
"Well, for example, last night your son wasn't home until 12:30am! Normally if it was me, You guys would hit the roof and ring me immediately!".
"Well, I didn't know Kev's mob number", my dad answered pathetically (more like just trying to make up an excuse!).
"What?! Kev's # is posted on our whiteboard!!"
"Oh really?", my dad said innocently and I could see his nose getting longer as well.
"Mei, you know it's cos we have to give Kevin a chance to get to know his g/f. After all, he is going to be 30y.o soon", mum explained carefully. Bingo! just the answer I was waiting for to start my point of negotiation.
"But mah ah, I'm going to be 25y.o soon! And women needs to get married earlier than men. So I hope you guys don't ring me when it's 1am and I'm still at my boyfriend's house! How embarrassing would that be!"
"What?! No way, I'm still going to ring you. You will still have a curfew and ok lor, it's 1am", my dad explained half smiling and half serious.
"What?! but I thought you said when I finished uni and start working full time, you won't intervene in my social life anymore!" (which was exactly what my dad said 3yrs ago!)
"Nope, sorry I'll only stop caring once you get married", my dad said turning his head away from me as if to say 'it's not negotiable'.
"WHAT?! Even if I did get married, you will probably still change the rule yet again to say, I will only stop caring once you have babies", I helplessly tried to argue my way back. It didn't work.
"YES BABIES! You know your father's hand is really itching for you guys to have babies for him to play with real soon", my mum intervened to change the subject.
"OMG! What did you say?!!!". I completely lost my appetite after that.

Baby Shower

You know you're kinda getting old when not only are you invited to all of your friends' weddings but also to their baby shower as well!!
All of a sudden, you don't just go shopping for wedding presents now, you're actually shopping in the baby's department! (which mind you is a lot of fun!)

Janelle's baby shower was held 4wks before she was due. The party started from 2pm organised by Janelle's sister Roslyn (who came down from Sydney with her mum and sister-in-law Lauren just for the baby shower!). It was organised very well! I managed to bump into my friend Alissa who used to go to my Sunday school back in the 90's ;) and is now married and attends Citylife with her husband Rob (she's in the same cell as Janelle & Nigel - what a small world again!).

To start off the party, we had a whole selection of afternoon tea!

Then it was time for the silly baby games!
First up Parcel Parcel with Ros playing & stopping the music.
(brought me back to my primary school days!)
Every layer you open either have lollies in them or a funny pregnancy game!

So lucky Yvonne opened the layer that had a ribbon.
She had to estimate the size of Janelle's tummy and then cutting the ribbon for Janelle to measure the correct answer! And boy or boy, she did well. It was only approx 2cm short! I think she's going to change her career to being a dress-maker now!


Next, the smelling of the Nappy Game! Basically, there were 6 nappies with diff types of food inside (which was designed to look like poo). We had to write down what we thought the food was by either smelling it or tasting it (hmm yummy!). It was sooo funny seeing everyone smelling nappies!! LOL!



Then Marrilyn (Janelle's mum) took over to play 3rd game fo the day titled 'who can dress the baby the fastest?'. You should've seen just how rough the contestants were with their babies just so they could dress them the fastest! Turning them upside down and then bending their hands like there's no tomorrow. Thank God they weren't real babies! Anyway, the winner of the game was funny enough the organiser of her own game!
(Marrilyn's had much experience with changing diapers for 6 of her kids!).

Last game for the day: Ros (who's also pregnant!!) who is an English teacher got us all to take the letters of Nigel & Janelle to form a boy/girl's name. Some were hilarious created by the 'two future grandmothers' (eg. Leg? Nag? Legal or maybe illegal?). I came up with Lianel for girl & Jae for boy. But the winner (chosen by Janelle) was Yvonne with Nina & Neil.

Finally it was time to open the presents! I was very proud of my wrapping. Basically since the sex of the child is yet to be determined, I bought why not get two wrapping papers ( pink for baby girl & blue for baby Boy) and wrap it together! What's more, since most of us think it's a boy, I basically wrapped it with more blue paper than pink. Smart leh? ;) I got the baby a very soft and warm baby blue bassinet blanket.

It was a great day in deed & I can't wait to finally meet Baby Toh!