Heyo Philippi!

been limping away, blessed are those who can walk normally.

Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
James 1:2-4

thank God for many pressures and difficult times, when the testing of my faith reveals the true me. How shameful can i be! But endurance reaps a mature self.
May i learn to trust in God and not rely on my own self, taking the ministry in my own hands. i'm doing God's ministry, yup. So God allows for things to happen.

My 2 cents.
Zack, Zack, reminds me of the Housewives. So addictive they are.
Wimbledon, SW19 i reckon none can outclass Federer on the green pasture :)

vin

i fell down in dramatic fashion today in school when playing soccer.

i tore my pants- thank God my long pants protected my knee from being flesh-ed
i sprained my right toe- i dunno whether its sprained or what, i'm hoping it isn't fractured, coz its now a swollen blob, and still painful.

sufficient to induce a fear in me w regards to playing soccer on concrete ground. I lunged at the ball, but apparently forgotten that the ground is rough and limits sliding, so i tripped over myself and almost executed a somersault. silly as it sounds isnt it.

and the Aussies are gone, bounced by the menacing Italians, how cruel
vin

Pray for Zi Jun, Shao Ning and Zheng Wei coz they're having their common tests this week!
May you all experience clarity and peace of mind when doing the papers

Joscelin Yeo, Spore's golden girl, when receiving a special award on Saturday said in an interview, 'this honour is not mine, it belongs to God for He gave me this talent'. She's a Christian by the way, she said it in another interview for Strait Times weeks ago.

vin

HEy ALL! =P haha! time to start blogging. This blog seems to only have alvin and ning blogging. haha!

The CAmp WAs FUN! we learnt many lesson there. especially on loving! we'll love u guys more! haha!! JOin us next time k! PIglet NING, alvin chiaz, zi li and rinus!! =D

See you all SOon on sat! =))

Good day to all! =D

Yay!! my common tests are over!!! yay.. in just about a while, i'm going to plonk onto bed and get some well deserved rest! today must have been the most trying day, so tellingly i say my brains are fried. i'm not expressing more delight coz of tiredness. 2 consecutive days i slept at 5am, coz of studies :P

yay! thank God for guiding me through the exams!

vin

An ultimate shocking revelation today. Econs & Maths tests is TOMORROW!
upon meeting renjie at the bus stop, i asked her casually if she's having any papers tomorrow, and she said maths. With my eyes opened wide she showed me the timetable.

How can i be so blur & absent-minded?
Had i not met Ren Jie & had i not popped that question, i won't be in school tomorrow.
Now for the consequences when my studying plans are totally wrecked.

vin

awaiting the next match -Spain v Tunisia. Ukrainians r good, just that their defence aren't that solid. I'm studying & watching tv simultaneously. i've done quite a good job at shuffling between both surprisingly :-0

Flipped to BBC aft the match and this world cup correspondant said something quite interesting. The Spanish attackers must know how to attack, midfielders must know how to attach, defenders must know how to attack. we'll see how later..

back to chemistry :/ i'm heading towards disaster, have barely touched econs (thursday). maths on thursday too by the way.

vin

Ghana scored e 1st real upset of the tournament. defeating Czechs- the team i tipped to win the World Cup. The scoreline could have been 5-0, if it was not for the formidable Cech who had quite a workout. Ghana really tore through the Czechs, leaving them in bewilderment. i'm v v impressed.

vin

happy weekends!
was the keyboardist for this week's service.

it went so wrong that i had wished the 2 pillars that partially conceal the presence of me would converge, or i could just fall into a pit.
started off completely pressing the wrong notes, i had moved 3 black keys lower, get it? i played a F instead of C. Disastrous start. after 2 lines, i came to a halt. the 2 fast songs went off tune. I had sensed so earlier on, but it appeared more prominent in the service. Distracted & horrified by the mismatched sounds coming off the keyboard, i glanced nervously over to Suying & Shao Ning (back-up singers), i got horror stares from them, but Su Ying did give me a sympathetic smile at the end. It was so disconcerting, i thought at an instance people actually stopped singing & were put off by the distorted sounds. argh.
Next 2 songs went slightly better, probably coz a more breathy sound was chosen, rather than the sharp one used earlier, so the off tune parts were rather veiled and less obvious.

quite bizarre, my keyboard sounds were not harmonious with the piano's. Mag spotted after service the keyboard roller -whats that called? was pushed to e end. Dunno whether is it becoz of that. *shrugs*

Anyway, it was a major fault of mine. i arrived 45 mins late. V v V sorry. lack of preparation time & got v panicky. argh, so frustrated with myself for being so late. :( poor time management & rushed some last minute errands.

Joseph, Su Ying, Zili, Me, we were walking to the bus stop when WE SAW A SNAKE!!! AHHHH!!!
Su Ying shrieked, i exclaimed when this amphibian(or reptile?) which should rightfully be caged up, periliously swirling among the grass! AHH!! Joseph took a photo of it, and even touched it with his foot! Crazy! He insists that the snake is not poisonous, i'm not convinced. evil serpent. CAN U BELIEVE IT? A SNAKE!! BE WARE PEOPLE! location: grass patches beside the pavement, a step to the left after turning out to main road.

Be back sooon people
vin

to all who are going church camp:

have a great time fellowship-in' & a fruitful time learning the Word of God.

have a safe trip and may you all be refreshed upon arrival back and raring to grow, glow & go!

:)
vin

God's Word is so refreshing, pray that i'll consistently take delight in God's Word.

Gonna dedicate the whole of today to studying :)

surprisingly, i don't really feel jaded despite sleeping less. i can't really sleep at 9am already despite going to bed at 5am. France & Swiss match tested my patience, including my mum's. Furious over French performance. Brazil's & Croatia's was quite meaty. Even Korea & Togo's 1 was value for money.

thanks everyone for your reminders, i have received at least 7 reminders not to watch too much soccer.

studies!
vin

discouraged, demoralized, disheartening.

juz came back from another failed attempt to meet an ebs student. again. you know, it has happened a few times consecutively already- since the last week of school. Today's student: called his home, he was sleeping (i've just reminded him last night). Last friday's student: called him just now to ask why he didnt turn up, coz i've called him a zillion times but his phone had been always mysteriously engaged. got through to him, asked him why he didnt turn up last friday, and he hung up on me. this is a person who i had met for EBS once before, came for our event before, a person whom i thought will never play me out.
You know how much it breaks my heart?

its so painful, my heart is crying so hard now. i made a lengthy prayer to God on my way back. I feel so discouraged. there's worse to come, coz i've been setting aside a lot of time to meet these people who have expressed interest to know more about God, therefore to an extent neglecting my own Christian std. i'm very upset right now. coz i'm just not going to get any more encouragement from my supervisor. many times i hope i can be given step-by-step guidance- 'this is the way you should do it the next time, i think you should do this next, let me tell you how, i suggest you do this next', coz i'll be at a loss on what to do. i'm frustrated coz some students arent growing and i don't know whats the next step.

you know, i'm really considering quitting this christian organisation i'm in, this structural service i see myself doing. But, what about the students? i've been telling God, is this the work You want me to do? i havent seen the salvation fruits coming out of all the meagre amount of work i've did, even now when i've put in so much more effort. i don't see my purpose being aligned to God. everytime when i meet students i pray they'll turn up because i need to report their growth. i want to be genuinely concerned for them. i'm afraid of getting scolded thats why i do it. maybe i need to detach myself from this system, which results are so important, to align my purpose back to God, still doing the work of evangelism. a hiatus may be best.

i'm motivated to stay on because i desire to bring up my students just like the way i was brought up by very genuine teachers who has shown much genuine interest in me, guiding along me spiritually, making me see the value of God's work and His people who are different from the rest.

there's just so much to juggle with, coupled with internal personal struggle with discipline, i'm screwed.
God, forgive me.

tearing vin

juz took a short break in between world cup soccer matches to head down to 7-11 to replenish the stocks at home. Coz i found out the tidbits had gone, and i'm my mouth is itching. so i'm well contented and ready for tonight! haha.. i'll get quite chubby i think at the end of these weeks.

anyway, studies is ultimately the most important thing thats lingering in my mind now. so many distractions huh.

vin

MUG!MUG!MUG!

hello pples!
hahaha. jiayou for block test 2!

i 've been v v slow in my studying...
was getting v distracted by people around me
so ya, im praying for a more focused mind, and im sure i can do it with God's grace! :)
ive covered 2 of 7 topics for econs... read thru briefly.
oh alvin, im really starting to love econs :D
hmmm. started a lil on organic chem, and electrochem.
im really really weak at everything equilibria related :X
and well, did attempt differentiation with eunice tt time, but ya. v slow.
and probability too, so far.

along way to go!!! go everyone! :D
but pls remember, to drink lotsa water and sleep earlier! hahaah
ive been sleeping at very early hours of 1-2 am :P
pls dont learn from this negative example! sleep early, drink water and eat your greens!
hahahaha. love ya all~


ningningning:)

Hey! my well wishes didnt come up here when i tried posting last night, anyway, to all A-levellers, jia you and work hard for the upcoming tests!!! & to JC 1s too, do work hard as well, its very very difficult and tight 2 years..

today was productive, although very taxing on my brain (hey i do have brains ok, too bad theres no male equivalent of a bimbo, nanaNa). My tally after 2 days in school after involuntary lessons: 9.5 hrs of Maths, 4.5 hrs of Econs yup, big big achievement!! :)

Theres this young chap i was watching on TV juz now, by the name of V for Vaidisova. watch out for her, better than that S for Sharapova. but Vaidisova did cause me a sleepless night a few days ago when she knocked out my fav player in the 4th round at Roland Garros this week. How can she, ha.. you know, watching these players at my age really makes me feel quite jealous, how nice if i can stand there % play. oh no, is that a sin? sorry. Vaidisova's 17, S's 18, Nadal's 19, Gasquet's 19

tomorrow's a long day, at least a get to wake up later!
tomorrow's a big day, World Cup's starting
vin

hey A levellers, continue to work hard for the upcoming tests k!!!

vin

In school today, i attended 2 lectures, um, addresses, by STB-Tourism Board, Singapore & SQ- Singapore Airlines. Although it is made compulsory for all JC2 Econs students to attend, the LT wasnt even 1/2 occupied (considering some JC1 students were also required to attend). It was pretty interesting i felt, although they are Econs lectures, but many other areas related or unrelated were covered, to a broader scale like career opportunities.

It started off with the lady from STB-Catherine McNacc-she claimed she's the only ang moh in STB. haha. She asked a question seeking for an answer, my Christian mate (Barnabas) bravely rose to the microphone. By doing so, he won himself 4 tickets to Night Safari! how cool is that! we were like so so surprised. & she was saying 'always negotiate, don't take things at face value, if you're unhappy with the tix, you can always exchange for another 1', then she left her name card behind for Barny to contact her so she can mail him the tix. ha. after her talk i dashed up to Barny and asked him to get more tix from her, but he said he gotta put his family 1st :), so see how the negotitation goes.. hahaha, see, these big guns can just rifle out anything as prizes.

Interesting points: last year, 8.9 million visitors into Spore, a record high- our population 3-4 million. Their vision is for Tourism industry to be the main engine of the economy, diminishing the manufacturing sector by 2015. You know, the Singapore government is very smart, using the MICE structure to generate tourism. I really enjoyed the talk, but cant remember most of it already.

SQ talk after lunch was also as good. He's really a high-ranked staff in SQ, coz i've seen him on TV a number of times. btw, he's Stephen Forshaw-VP of public affairs. One thing that is brought across in both of these talks is how diligent & smart & foresighted these people are, they are opportunistic & resourceful, very brilliant people. SQ talk was quite corporate style, can sense his sarcasm & discontent when he brought out the hot issue with the Aussie govt over open skies agreement. ha. then, he mentioned that a couple of years down the road, SQ is gonna recruit 180-200 cabin crew each month, so to the metrosexuals & bimbos, look out for that. haha. then he revealed that SQ is increasing flights to Shanghai coming October coz a PRC student was asking during Q &A whether SQ can increase its frequency of Shanghai flights coz its always fully booked, then he said 'yes, we'll do it specially for you' hahahaha, so funny. He covered how SIA is able to maintain & uphold their premier reputation & competitiveness despite the rise of low-cost carriers & prices dipping etc.

you know SIA is the launch customer of A380 coming Nov? it just further enhances SIA's image & credibility. A380 will be used to service dense routes like to London, Sydney & Tokyo, where every flight out now is packed to capacity, where demand exceeds supply :)

i'm so proud of Singapore
vin

my legs are numb, due to long hours (7am-11pm) rooted into a shoe that is intelligently designed for gentlemanly usage, a struggle to walk with it on, so restrictive.

the presentation exhibition was disappointing, i think the organisation was a disaster, not something you will expect to come from NTU, and other Junior Colleges as the organisers. thank God our teacher ensured that our welfare is taken care of. She was so nice, bought us Ya Kun breakfast (each 4 pieces of toast + 1 cup of ice milo), 4 bottles of mineral water & a pack of nougats from NTUC, then i was joking with her about having Swensens ice cream -coz she said she felt like having ice cream, then later on she came back with a very delectable triple chocolate ice cream cone from NTUC!! goodness, i'm sooo grateful to her, i found out at the end when waiting for a cab that she is a Christian too!

another 1st today: tried Red Bull drink. this young lady went around booths giving away free cans of red bull, and she needed to do her 2 minutes informative speech 1st. it tasted so horrible, i'm not gonna drink it ever again, these energy drinks are so artificial, i think people who drinks that are just being superficial. i think kids will favour the industrially sweetened drink more than i do. (kids below 15 arent allowed to consume it)

i'm tired
vin

i'm still doing my 'first's. tomorrow- 1st time i'm gonna be in a long-sleeve formal shirt, 1st time i'm gonna wear black leather shoes. doing a project presentation at Toa Payoh tomorrow you see. so i'll be late for church.

Hsiao Ling told me that encouragements will come from the Word of God, i'll need to constantly align myself back to God's Word. thank you Lord for being strength.

count my blessings
vin