*the love and grace of God in my life..*

Thursday, December 29, 2005

today, i took my own time in reaching office,
went down with jasmine for breakfast,
came back just in time for open-house meeting,
a two hour lunch after that with my director, alongside with all others who joined after me,
came back, opened up my gifts, decorated my workstation
and it was then time to leave

another day of such luxury before school re-opens and the kids back in action
i was feeling a little upset on tues when i knew that i had to drop my day 3 class
but again, it's high time i learn to let go of classes after every semester

i regret allowing some students to know my msn becos they are seriously irritating me to no end
not that i bother so much nowsdays, because i simply ignore them whenever they send messages

i went shopping for sports shoes after work, and ended up buying a lot more things.
hehe.

i can't wait for school to start becos i miss the noise in school
becos in feb, my uni frens and i wanna go JB for a day
becos in mar, tracy, celine and i wanna go KL (yes, again!)... =)
the only thing i dread is.. the move to woodlands. sigh.

i'm too sleepy to write properly the entry for today
going off to bed.
nights.

//posted by ivy @ 21:59//

Friday, December 23, 2005

PANG HUIMIN!
i'm so going to slaughter you when i next see you around in campus...

[Rules Of The Game]
1) post 5 weird/random stuffs about yourself.
2) at the end of the post, list 5 people that you want to do the quiz.
3) next ,leave a comment ,'you're tagged' in their blog and ask them to read your blog for the rules.

1) the 5 weird/random stuffs about me
- I'm a neat and clean freak; if things on my table are out of place, i'll rearrange them the first thing i reach office, even if it means i'll be a few mins late for class... --> ask my colleagues about it
- I love eating all kinds of food and in huge quantity as well but i dont seem to be growing very fat (which i'm very proud of)... --> ask my boyfriend about it
- I never like to exercise alone but have since decided to embark on kickboxing and jogging because there are people going with me... --> ask tracy about it
- I eat tremendously slow... --> ask tracy about it.
- I'm scared of water but i dare to do things like jetskiing etc, and my boyfriend happens to be a diver... --> ask anybody about it.

2) 5 people that have to do the quizzie
- i shall spare them from the agony..

3) leave a comment on their blog.
- i'm nice, not as evil as the person who 'tagged' me

//posted by ivy @ 16:50//

it's been a slow-moving week
i didn't come into office for the first three days and did my work from home
had performance review yesterday and things went alright
i'm so glad it's over, comments from my reporting officer were fine as well
she mentioned that my colleagues have positive feedback regarding my performance and as for herself, she thinks that i've potential and very promising
phew~

today was such a slack slack day
when the office has less than 10 people, the mood to do things just isn't there
so we're all waiting for time to pass.. so that we're off for the holiday break!
i won't be in office next tues and wed since we're attending external course
and when im back, it's time to clear table, backlogs and prepare for the challenging term ahead.
my last two months in tanglin campus, us being in the same office on the same building and same floor
we're all going to treasure the remaining time together

met tracy, cindy, celine and wendy for dinner at bugis last night
it was a fun night of gift-exchange and many funny moments shared
before that, tracy and i made our way to Amore to sign up for the long-awaited power package for jan - mar 2006
in the meanwhile, my dept has decided to adopt a healthy lifestyle too becos we're going to unofficially end work at 5pm every wed and head for an evening jog together
this is so exciting.. i can't wait for 2006 to arrive!

//posted by ivy @ 16:35//

Wednesday, December 21, 2005

i remember waiting so long for the arrival of dec hols
but now, it's already over by 2/3, and the remaining 10 days are packed with activities
i've dinner appointment also every night from tmr onwards
and it just doesn't register that christmas is in 4 days' time

i had a great time at KL/genting over the weekends
the only regret is we shld have stayed longer or go over during the weekdays
the queue at genting theme park was so ridiculously long!
spent the most at mid-valley mall and of cos, on food
i ate so much at the chicken buffet restaurant which merely costs S$8
A&W meal which costs S$5 and i had root beer float with double scoop ice-cream and waffle with double scoop ice-cream too
on one of the days, we ate at roadside stalls
ordered all the "zu cao" stuffs, stingray, sotong, prawns, satay, ba gua etc.. only S$8!!
ahhh!! i love eating! wahaha. =)

christmas pressie for my colleagues are not finished yet
i dun even know what to buy for some people
the only reason why i got myself into such headache is because i've started receiving pressies from them even before i went KL
someone placed a surprise gift on my table and refused to own up, so i had also given up asking around
a moment ago, my colleague told me it was from her
and she was so sweet because she said that it was an appreciation from her, that i had been a support and friend to her all these while
she has also hand-made a pair of pink earrings and ring for me
and we were sitting together all these months
the only thing i'll miss is her company and presence when we move to the new campus because she'll be in a different building from me
in fact, we're all split up into only 5-6 people per building
the new school happens to have 11 buildings i think.
i took a look at the arrangement just now, seems okie to me so far
im seated with the entire HR cluster, and two guys from mktg, one of whom is a huge joker in the dept and has always been the one who brings about all the laughters

tracy and i are going to sign up for amore tmr
so exciting!

//posted by ivy @ 16:19//

Monday, December 12, 2005

met up with the group of marketing proj people on thurs night for dinner at 'changing appetite'
food was quite nice though, but the company was the best!
after 3 years, we still manage to keep in contact and someone will always take the initiative to plan for a dinner together
the next gathering will be 23rd dec for christmas gift exchange and dinner at oosters!
towards the end of the night, danwen had the crazy plan to meet next year for christmas dinner too! and i got arrowed to do the coordination for next year.. =X

career coaching course ended officially on friday
that leaves me with half a year to attempt my certification
so yr 3 students who have not been to the career centre in the lib before, you can always be my..hmmm, guinea pigs? =)
oh yeah, marilyn has taken up the offer.. right gal? wahaha!

the weekend was at christ church sec sch for the annual youth camp
i'm simply so glad i made my way there eventually, after so much contemplation to withdraw from the camp
firstly, i was physically exhausted after the week of training. secondly, i had tonnes of grading to be done asap. thirdly, i was afraid i'll feel out of place.
to cut the long story short, i went and enjoyed myself thoroughly in all the activities!
it's my 5th youth camp and for the first time, i'm a camper!
being able to play the games was such a luxury...and my games group was power-packed!
i enjoyed the company of jethro, edward, lefa, marie, tracy, shushang, huiwen, tina, candice and jun hoong. (although the later 4 were not with us during games)
flying fox was really exciting for the first 2 seconds when i made the plunge!
rock-climbing was easy for me because i did higher ones before
abseiling was the one which nearly drove me to tears but i guess i plucked up the courage to go when i saw becca going down. the instructor happened to be someone i knew so it made things easier.

the morning devotion on sun was very very real and although i probably didn't share much during the discussion, i could identify with every word in the passage
following it was a simple but great worship session, every single song was close to how i felt
and through the short sharing by raymond, God spoke to me a great deal.
i knew at that very moment that it was useless to run away and pretend that everything is fine
it was painful to look back at the past few months and the extent to which things have changed
i've made silly and dumb decisions but it's really heart-warming to know that there are still people out there who love me despite what i've done
the "stars" really touched my heart through the little cards they wrote and their gestures these few months and during the camp as well
my cell leader and my boyfriend too.
and of cos, God tried in so many ways which i probably ignored some of them
during ministry time, i made a personal promise to God, or rather a renewal because i remember doing so a year ago.. or somewhere there.

Renew my life, Lord Jesus
I never want to be the same
Renew my life, Lord Jesus
Place Your heart inside of me
In my life and thoughts
There are so many things
That need the change that only Your love can bring
And I need to be transformed into Your likeness, O Lord
Change this heart inside of me

//posted by ivy @ 14:50//

Thursday, December 08, 2005

3rd day of career coaching certification course now
the past two days have been really tiring, learnt a great deal of important things but at the end of the day, im so tired that i don't do my marking anymore
next week would be three days of frontpage and assess, one day of PBL retreat and off we go to KL!! whee~

this holiday is passing very fast
1/3 of the hols is almost gone, and looking at my calendar, i realised 1/2 of the month, im away at training.
this morning, i was just thinking to myself what did i get myself into by attending this career coaching course?
after finishing the course tmr, i need to have 2 students for my career coaching certification in 6 months' time
additional workload but i know i'll enjoy it cos it's my line of interests
in summary, im such a HR person!!

tracy has been my temp dinner khaki this week becos i've no dinner at home
i'm getting bored of having dinner out as well.. and it's expensive too! =(
meeting my marketing group for dinner tonight, another bout of spending money.. bleahz.

im so excited about the kickboxing at amore! hehe.
no idea how my schedule will be like in jan-mar but im determined to go kickboxing once a week.. and i know if i don't, tracy will drag me there too. haha.
im getting worried over where exactly do all my food go to. for those who know, i eat and eat and eat.. but i don't exercise.. but i still can fit into a size 2* levis jean! wahaha. (im not going to say the size out of course!)
just a moment ago, my trainer for today's course was commenting that "wah, you can eat so much but still so slim. amazing!"
my boyfriend said the exact same thing last night as well.

//posted by ivy @ 09:30//

Monday, December 05, 2005

what an unproductive day!
i stepped into office at around 11.30am and was chatting with sau yee aka mummy (because she claims that im the youngest, and thus has start calling me baby, and so.. her title as mummy) for half an hour or so before the group of us headed for lunch
marcus aka the gym freak drove to plaza sing and we had our lunch at the antique place
the soup is really nice, pasta was so-so only.
walked around to get christmas exchange gifts for those who have not bought it yet and by the time we're back in office, it was 3 plus
from then till now, i was settling IG matters and basically, doing nothing productive
i'm simply unable to settle down to start my UT marking or daily grade, which is really bad becos im attending career coaching from tmr till fri and there's absolutely no time to mark
eeks!!!

had a nice weekend
fri night was at oosters belgium place, celebrating carrie, my buddy's ROM
i had a mini bottle of fruit beer, which is actually really mild and taste like gassy fruit soda, had beef and duck too... yum!
sat was music prac, and settled some stuff for my mum before her cataract operation this morning
and from today onwards, i've actually no dinner at home till near christmas because she won't be cooking

sun was tiring
after church, i went down to bugis to meet mich and jeff for a time of catching-up
tracy and cindy went along with me too but they went shopping
we met for a birthday dinner after that
it was fun watching the star awards together and we're either complaining or cheering away.
couldn't really recognise the junior SFC guys.. hehe. =X

i have so much things to do! how???
- marking of UT papers
- marking of 4 classes of daily grades
- workplan discussion
- QEHS document
.... and i can't be bothered to recall. sighz.

//posted by ivy @ 17:31//

Thursday, December 01, 2005

it's been a long long while since i last blogged eh.
the first half of the semester is officially over for me because i've no more classes till jan 2006
looking back, it's amazing to see how the past 9 weeks of lessons have just passed.. just like that. *snap*
the 2nd half of the semester is event-filled with open-house and of course, preparing for the mega-move
i'll probably be feeling upset as well since i know my students will be graduating and i won't see them anymore

i remembered how i was feeling nervous the day before school started this semester
i didn't know how should i handle a bunch of yr 3 students who probably are so used to the system already; some of them are older than me or same age
but now, i know im going to be missing them

i really tried to put in effort to know each and everyone of them to a certain extent
i took every week's grading as the chance to let them know where they can improve
and honestly, i look forward to classes everytime!
having to drop a class out of the three is so upsetting, but that is part and parcel of being an academic staff, isn't it?

we had a dept retreat last weekend and it was really good
it's clearer what are my goals for next year, as a member in the portfolio and TDC as well
the simple game of "electric fence" definitely taught us more about trust and teamwork
the inspiring session with Dr. Prasad impacted me to have a vision for myself
i enjoyed the chilling-out session after the retreat as well

some of us went to get christmas exchange gift for the dept last night and ended up at food republic for dinner
i ended up reaching home at 11+, when im having lessons today. oppsie.
we were chit-chatting at the foodcourt till really late.

dec is here.
the office is going to be hush hush this month because we are all taking turns to be away from the office, eiher by taking leave or attending external courses
i'm going to be hardworking this holiday
i want to start the new year afresh, and not with lots and lots of backlogs.

the bunch of us are all looking forward to tomorrow night's chill-out session at ooster's
celebration of a colleague's ROM as well
after that, it would be the highly-anticipated KL trip
i'm glad i have a bunch of colleagues whom im close to, even in the short course of 4 months plus

the major takeaway from working for the past 4 months plus would be to have a vision of myself in the dept as a facilitator, and it would be...
"to make an impact in the life of every republican who passes through my path"

enough of school/work,
in the midst of everything, i've had a great time with baby on his bday as well
i finally had the chance to eat dinner at the big big ship anchored at sentosa's ferry terminal
halfway through the dinner, i had a nausea feeling
then i realised the ship was swaying gently and the bunch of gals in the restaurant started arguing whether the ship could move.

before that, dear held a mini-celebration at home two weekends back
so many of his aunts/uncles and little kids were around
i've never really seen them and talked to them before but his cousin was really, really nice
and jabez is sooooooooo cutie!!
he's so sweet.. he actually gave zhong a hug and cut cake together with him
a sweet little boy!

on a personal note
i need sleep.. badly.
i'm so, so tired.

//posted by ivy @ 17:03//