I finally started packing. I guess, seeing the girls off on 28th Dec made me stop procrastinating and actually do my packing. So, as of now, I'm 60% done packing. Now, just a lot of nitty gritty stuff to do.

2 more days to 1st jan...

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

well... maybe it'S

HAPPY BOXING DAY!!!

Wow... The last week has been a mad rush to get my Christmas shopping done, trying to decide what to get for people. And, I managed to catch Eileen (my JC classmate) before she left for Indo. I haven't seen her for so long!!! Close to 2 over years. The last time I saw her was probably before she left for her studies in Perdue. It's really great to catch up with her. haha... We even talked that if I do go and tour Chicago, she'll drive down to meet me. =) And with Tiffy around, how could we not go to the topic of Rayner? Ahh... But, yes, he is cute but rather aloof. I prefer Steven's friendliness.

That aside, have you guys seen the Christmas decoration in ROL? It's so pretty, right? Pity that I forgot to bring my camera. That's the hard work of Petrina, the creative director and designer; Adriel, the snowflake expert (the more he cuts, the more his snowflakes look like snowflakes); Jake, the hanging, pasting and spray paint guru; Guoliang, Mr Stringman; and me. Haha... I just love the decoration!!! Thank you for all the wonderful ideas. Yes, originality is best, no balloons, they're too unoriginal. =)

Presents... Did you know my friends can read my mind? Some of the presents have been items that I need to buy (I love the base coat and cuticle oil guys!!! More pedicures!!! Wheee...) or have been looking to buy for a long time (Pet: I really love the cap. I'm going to wear it on tuesday!!!), but just never got to doing it.

And yes, I've confirmed my flight for my exchange programme to Texas Austin. For those of you who aren't already in the know, I'll be leaving on 1st Jan 2006 (6am flight) for Texas Austin for 5 months. I'll be doing 1 semester there and will probably be back in late May. This blog, I hope, will be up and alive with fresh updates from cowboy town!! Yee haaa!!!!

Ahhh... Enough of my random thoughts on an early boxing day entry.

I got the Chronicles of Narnia from my oh-so-sweet Touche girls!!! OMG!!! I'm so touched!!! Thank you so much girls. I really love it. Going to miss you girls so much when I leave for Texas. I know my uncle is getting me the same book too, so I'll have 2 Chronicles of Narnia! =)

Haha... So, if you haven't bought my christmas present, can always get me Lord of the Rings, a crumpler bag (Western Lawn in Black or Brown)... hee... =)

Yippee!! My dad's going to get me an Ipod Nano (I think...). I actually wanted the 4Gb one, but apparently, it has sold out island wide, and if I wanted it, I could go to some certain place and but it for $700 plus. No, I don't need it so badly, I can live with a 2GB one. Anyway, I got my portable HDD already, so wad more can I ask for. ( Haha.. My dad was so cute, he actually wanted to get me the Ipod Video with 30GB memory space so that he need not buy me the portable HDD. But, well, my mum was there shopping with us, so obviously she told him to go to Sim Lim and check out the price of the portable HDD first, cos it might be cheaper to buy it seperately. Well, definitely, buying it seperately was a much better idea. Ah... but, that is a totally different story)

So anyway, SYC's over. Woohooo!!! This year's camp committee is very different from those that I've been in before. For one, I haven't worked with most of them and also it's been the smallest camp committee that I've sat on over all these years. But nonetheless, it being small has its merits. It's much easier to get to know everyone. And, even personal relationships are much easier to handle. So, some little thoughts from the camp...

1) GOD is so amazing and wonderful. He gave us a small camp enough for a small camp committee to handle, and the people who came came with expectant hearts. I was very amazed at the enthusiasm of the campers, both in games and worship and during the speaker sessions. They were so enthusiastic that on the first day they were already running from station to station! So ON!!! And during worship, it's even more amazing, with people just lifting their hands freely, kneeling without worrying what other people are doing. It's so not like Frontliners or normal YAM time.

2) GOD gave us wonderful weather. Yup, games comm had no backup plan in case of wet weather. We just went in faith. On the 2 days of outdoor games that we had, God allowed us to have the most wonderful weather ever. On the 1st day of amazing race, it was pouring before camp was supposed to start. But, by God's grace when camp was about to start and people started strolling in the register, the rain lessened and eventually stopped such that we were able to start on time. And by the afternoon the weather was so good, no rain, not even a trace of the rain from the morning. The sun was out and all our games could be carried out with ease. We had beach games on the 3rd day. And, as again, it rained heavily that night, but by the morning, the rain subsided, and when it was time for the campers to play the games, the weather was just nice. Not sunny and hot, but cool and breezy, without the threatening of rain clouds. God's grace was really upon us for all the days as he watched over us and made sure that no one got hurt. (Well, if any hurt, they were only minor injuries... Pet's toe, Rosie's out of breath.)

3) GOD deserves all glory, honour and praise. God really showed his presence during worship. I believe the band can testify to that. In fact, for all 3 days, we didn't have enough practice for comfort. 1st day when Mae Shaan led, although we had practiced the day before, but we were still unsure about a few songs. The day before was the 1st time we played the camp theme song. So, imagine how jittery we felt, plus we didn't have sufficient practice. But, I guess that made us lean on God more knowing that we couldn't do it on our own strength. And by leaning on God fully to gel the band together, HE made all things well. Same for Ben's session. We practiced less than 2 hours before the actual worship and personally, I was feeling a little uneasy, cos some songs we were still not too good at it. Short of a minor musical glitch at the beginning, but once the band started worshipping as a whole, we were really swept into God's presence.
Paul led worship on the last day, due to the hectice schedule we had no time for practice. For Paul's session, it was the biggest band (3 guitars, 4 backups, 1 KB, 1 bass, 1 drum) and we had never played together as a band before. Yes, probably played individually with them before, but never played together as a whole band, and we had NO practice. The time you heard us play during worship is the 1st time that day that we had played the song together. We only did a sound check to make sure that every part could be heard, and we went into prayer. A long time of prayer, in which we just came before the LORD, offered our gifts at the altar and asked HIM to cleanse us, to give us clean hands and a pure heart. It was a time of sanctification, like the Levites coming before the Lord and cleansing themselves before leading the people of God into worship. I thoroughly enjoyed myself during that prayer session and I could sense God moving in our midst. I felt a refreshing of my spirit (before that I was so sleepy and tired and stoned because I was really tired from the beach games. I was dozing in and out of lala zone during the workshop session) and immediately after the prayer, I could feel the tiredness being weened away, and I was just so ready to worship the Lord. Even without practice, I had a sense of peace and I didn't even worry about anything. I knew everything would fall in place, cos God was incharge. God was our band leader, our overall incharge, we just needed to be there and worship Him and not bother about the music. And, I did just that. It was the most amazing time of worship. So many times, I felt like lifting my hands to the Lord, lifting up from the kb (which I did a couple of times - something I've never done before unless it's a silent part of the kb). I could feel the Holy spirit fall upon ROL and my singing alone wasn't enough to express my praise and adoration for the Lord. I could just sense it, I know I was singing my heart out. And, during the whole time, music was secondary, God was primary. So many times as a worship team member, music has become primary and God secondary, how we want to make sure the music sounds right. It always takes me a couple of songs to get into the "God primary and music secondary" thing. But for this worship, it was immediate. And, later during the altar call, even though I didn't go up for prayer, I felt ministered while playing the kb.

4) The theme of the camp and my life for the next couple of years. The theme for the camp was being the Non-conformist, leading the Jesus kinda life. I felt that it was especially important, since I am going to US in a couple of weeks time, and am going to spend 5 months there away from my friends and family. So, it came as a good reminder that whatever temptations came, whatever distractions came I still needed to focus on God.

5) The new friendships formed and the old ones being further strengthened.
a) Although I didn't get to spend time with my group (Isaiah - Gavin, Joanne Thong, Gen Ong, Colleen , Daryl, Ryn, SQ, Daniel, Anthony...), but they were great, giving me their support all the way, even when I tekan them.
b) Yups, I also found a new personal secretary who's always been helping me to look after my stuff!! Woo hoo!! Pet!!! Thanks babe for being my personal secretary *hugs*. Hee.. =)
c) Becca and KY - Bedtime talking buddies who kept me company while I was preparing games stuff at night ensuring that I don't fall asleep. Sorry ah, need to switch on the light even though u were already sleep talking, so that I can prepare the games stuff. haha..
d) JJ, andrew - Games comm. For bearing with my nonsense during this period of time. Haha.. Now you know Joanne isn't as harmless as she looks, rite?
e) The whole comm. Even though shoulders were being rubbed, but I'm glad we got to know each other through this camp. Thanks for all the great memories.
f) All the games helpers (Adriel, Jake, Josh, John, Rachael, Tiffany, Shermaine, Jane, Huiting, Jansen, Guo Nian, Stefan) who came down all 3 days to help us out for games. Yupyup, though I don't know all of you, but your willingness to come to help has really touched me. Your wonderful improvisation and interesting ideas are just so amazing. Dog and bone bomb, crawlie torture, changi airport station... and so many more. Thank you Adriel for helping me to co-ordinate. =)

Yupyup.. that's about all. Hopefully the photos come it quick before I leave for the States. *hint hint*

My Christmas wish list....
(it isn't fully done up yet, but nonetheless, here's wad's of it now. So, for those of you who are wondering wad to buy me... Look no further...)

1) Apple iPod Nano (4GB) - I wouldn't ask for much, but if it's loaded with all the hillsongs albums, a collection of jazz, lounge and blues music, other great sounding and inspiring Christian bands (eg. Planet shakers, parachute band etc) , the songs from Sun Yanzi, Jay Chou and some great sounding acapella (I love acapella music!!), Mambo night music, and basically anything else that's nice and to the ear (RnB, hip hop) and meaningful would be great!






2) A New Digital camera . Yes, I know, I already have one. But, my one's slowing down a lot. It takes a while after taking the previous photo for me to take the next photo. And also, the video function is without sound. And, if I do get a new digital camera, I can leave me old one with my parents (they won't have reason to complain that they have no camera) and use the new one in the states.



3) New Watch - My old one died. Yes, my trusty blue Swatch watch has stopped working. I'm currently using my other red one. But, well, since it's red it doesn't go with everything I wear. Plus, the face is very HUGE, some outfits just don't fit a HUGE RED watch. (Don't get me wrong, I still love that watch.) Ah... I need a watch which is highly versatile, which can go with all my outfits, be it a sporty look, classy look etc etc. Haha.. I think I demand too much. But, I almost found the watch of my dreams when I was browsing this certain brochure, but well, I dunno where I threw it to. It's a Guess watch with a beige leather stripe. Costs about $240, I think. It's just so versatile and convertible.



4) The Chronicles of Narnia (the whole collection of the 7 of them). Yes, I have been wanting to read the whole series for a VERY long time. Just that I never got to getting my hand on the books. Well, with the push from the movie, I'm determined the read up all the 7 books. Hoping to bring them on my trip so that I can read it when I'm bored on the plane or whenever I have spare time.












5) Yes, another book that I've always wanted to read: Lord of the Rings - The trilogy. All 3 of them. Rudi was telling me that the movie missed out lots of details. I wanna read the details. Haha...

6) Crumpler Bag - I'm still deciding should it just be the normal sling or the laptop bag. I need to go see the bags and crumpler. But, I think I'll probably go with the sling bag (Western Lawn in either brown (to match my zara jacket keke..), blue or black. Black is highly versatile, but very normal. The blue's a very nice blue, but it'll clash with my brown Zara jacket and my pink U2 jacket. Hmmm...

7) A New pair of jogging shoes. My old one has been with me since my JC days. It really needs to be changed. Just that every time I set out to buy a new pair of shoes, I end up buying something else. Haha....



8) Joanne's US travel Fund (Please donate in USD). Yes, I need lots of the greenback. Can't every go wrong with this. Need $$ to travel during spring break, $$ for my living expenses there, $$ for shopping at the factory outlet store. And who can ever forget, ebay? The more the merrier!! $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$










9) New Laptop like maybe a new Apple Powerbook?

Haha... ok, I don't need it now, my faithful Toshiba has been serving me well. But, well, can always KIV. hee... =) For now, I'll go with enhancements to my Toshiba. I need extra ram!! I was working on Photoshop, and my whole computer literally slowed down (ok.. maybe cos our files were like 5MB big). I hope my facts are right, but is it true that more ram means my computer will work better? If that's the case, I would like extra ram for my Toshiba Portege M100.