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

Wednesday, October 31, 2007

what a rainy sleepy day.

met with one external trainer whom i last met at a training seminar in SIM, to discuss the possibility of having a couple of IG gals over for internship
somehow, over the years that i've led the IG, i always thank God that opportunities are there for the IG to shine
for the majority of the events we've been a part of, it's always through contacts of colleagues or somehow, others found us through somewhere and i'm so thankful for that because i don't have such a wide network when it comes to such stuff.

met my boss for a while to discuss some issues, then head straight to my director's office to clarify some service-learning issue
didn't feel very happy at the end of it although he sort of gave his approval
it came way too late - the recce trip's participants have been confirmed. argh.
will see how things go; might be able to go for trip even without recce if i've enough information about the place.

back in office now; good weather to head for a 5km run with my colleagues but i'm not really keen to run today
just gonna stay in to complete some grading and clearing outstanding backlogs while waiting for them to be back, and we'll head out for dinner.

there's no cell tonight; it's accountability dinner
think vincent left me out accidentally when he was mass-smsing but i found out through another person
the only disheartening thought is that.. must i always be the one who initiate an accountability dinner + sharing?
this is one of the rare times where because i'm not aware of the change in schedule, i didn't sms them to meet and they didn't bother as well.
sigh.
Lord, you teach me what to do, and you grant me patience..i pray.

//posted by ivy @ 16:36//

Monday, October 29, 2007

on saturday night at 11pm, while i was trying hard to fall asleep, i remembered scolding myself crazy for signing up for two 10km runs on two consecutive sundays
eventually woke up at yet another unearthly time of 4.45am to get ready becos my colleague decided to give me a lift down to changi exhibition centre and we had to reach early to avoid the road block

waking up so early to travel to the other end of the country isn't quite a joke
reached there, had some breakfast, warm-up and chatted while waiting for the race to begin
germin practically went his own way the moment he hit the starting line while victor and i ran together since the pace was just right, with elena and joyce right behind us
the first 5km was really good - comfortable pace and we were not breathless either
when victor and i hit the 5km mark, we saw germin on the way back at the 7.5km mark and then, victor and i went separate ways too
the sand was horrible - tiny space to run.. eeks!
and to think i wanted to concentrate on the last 2km since it was a straight route, what a mistake!
the runway was horribly hot and endless!
totally lost the motivation to run and i walked 90% of the last 2km. half of me felt a bit wasted because my timing at 7.5km was 00:53:44 (last week, at 7km mark, my timing was already 58 mins.)
final timing - 01:25:57
could have easily been a better timing than last week's! argh.

next 10km run (the last one of the year!) - 2 dec (standard chartered 2007)

it was a lazy afternoon after the run
headed to baby's place, watched a bit of tv and fell asleep.. the same routine as last week
today is an equally tired day.

can't wait for friday - flying off to krabi! =)

//posted by ivy @ 14:12//

Saturday, October 27, 2007

been such a tiring week; many many things going on at the same time and it's evident when my grading for both the classes hasn't been done yet
never the case since the start of the semester
i've always published the grades for my tues's class on wed
and grades for my thurs's class either on fri, sat or mon
but this time round, i haven started grading at all! =(

24 oct was a memorable day; baby came to pick me in a cab and off we went to HDB hub
having a morning appointment keeps the crowd away and there were only a few couples then
finally it was our turn and we had a nice customer officer who served us; he was definitely helpful in providing information and helping us get the entire procedure done
eventually left HDB at 10am, with an Option To Purchase in our hands. =)

back to office because the NLB team was holding a 4-hrs EEP session for the secondary school kids who were taking part in the 11 Nov pushcart competition
i had 20 jurong sec students and 4 zhenghua sec students in my class - quite an easy class to manage and everyone was rather hyper and didn't require much pushing from me to complete their work

had class on thurs, headed for a short jog and a short game of captain's ball with the IG students because YA was having some inter-IG competition
didn't want to do work so went out for dinner with the sui! people who was out for some celebration and of course, we ended up with plenty of jokes and laughter - very noisy bunch of people at siam kitchen for that night!

it was lele's birthday yesterday so after coming back from prayer meeting and supper, i decided to drop him a sms before it was 11.59pm
his reply was "thanks, soon to be sis-in-law."
cheeky boy.

//posted by ivy @ 13:43//

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

one week of being "stock-broker" is over!
ended officially at 9.45am this morning. =)

//posted by ivy @ 12:54//

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

angry.
was angry.. maybe still a little now.

sometimes i feel like telling you,
if you like to poke your nose into every single thing i do, the outcome is that i'll find it so hard to respect you even though i do love you and i yearn to respect you a lot more
24 years is quite a long time that you have done so and i've kept quiet about it simply because i don't want to make my concerns known since you would be angry if i do
but i wish you understand that there will come a time when i set up my own family with someone else, and you can't keep doing the same thing anymore
it's making me very, very frustrated
and it doesn't help that you start making ridiculous comments when i sincerely tell you my feelings

God, i ask for wisdom and patience as we deal with this issue
and most importantly, i really do love and respect her for what she has given me and done for me

//posted by ivy @ 00:08//

Monday, October 22, 2007

what an exciting weekend!

sat
i had such a good sleep till noon, woke up and enjoyed my lunch slowly before i took a even longer bath before i went recce-ing
one and a half hour of checking out every single detail before i went to the library to borrow some nice books and had a nice dinner at the cafe in the library
spending time alone is nice!
took my own sweet time to browse through the books/magazines while enjoying the steaming hot banana prata

sun
woke up at an unearthly time of 4am plus because of the rain splatter, went back to sleep for one more hour then washed up to prepare to head for the great eastern run at city hall area
it was a good run - first time running 10km for both elena and me but we survived though we struggled during upslopes..eeks!
not fantastic timing (01:24:56) but well, better than what we expected.

went for service and didn't really missed much; reached at 10.45am and the sermon hasn't started
aunty joyce's sharing was simple but to the point and had me looking back at the contents of how i always prayed
Lord, teach me to pray like Nehemiah!

went for lunch with celine, steven, carol and many others
after these few weeks of lunching/talking with them, i realised i missed the times i spent countless hours of time with the youths; be it a chat over coffee or a meal - it was so meaningful
i think the difference between spending time with working youths and youths is that, the mindset is really different and it's scary sometimes when i think of it.

headed to baby's place and had a good 3 hr rest!
spent the rest of the evening discussing about the flats and i'm really so glad that even though he was so busy, he took time out for this. *hugs!
how i love my baby! =)

//posted by ivy @ 14:59//

Saturday, October 20, 2007

class was incredibly tough on thurs; not just for the students but it snowballed to me as well since i end up explaining the concept to them in the simpliest possible way while they struggle to keep awake at the end of the day

was on stand-by duty on fri but no activation, thus my day was slow-moving with meetings, teaching my buddy on uploading the test questions for next week and the furious attempt to finish grading by 5pm so that i can rest and enjoy the evening out with my colleagues cum girlfriends - jacq and jane

raymond gave us a lift to bishan where we had a simple dinner at sakae and spent the rest of the evening chatting and laughing our hearts out at silly things that have happened
it was a simple evening but nice companions!

and since i've proudly finished my grading for the week, there's no official work to be done over the weekend! (well, there is still a bit here and there but not that urgent..haha)
im going to sleep in a little later, have a nice lunch at home and go hang around the neighbourhood to check out the required

looking forward to sun..
- great eastern 10km run (!)
- discussion with baby

and ooh, definitely i look forward to wed even more! =)
the excitement is overwhelming!

//posted by ivy @ 00:29//

Thursday, October 18, 2007

BBQ pictures with the poly forum kids last sat are out!
--> link on the right. =)

these few days, i feel like a stock-broker, except that i can only monitor the transaction and i can't do anything until next week.
it's actually pretty exciting!
once in a lifetime experience. =)

//posted by ivy @ 22:18//

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

i spent nearly 2 hours talking to my parents just now and seeking their approval regarding an issue concerning my future
it's one of the rarest moment because ever since young, my parents trust me to make decisions by myself and all i need to know is to inform them and of course, being responsible for my own decision-making - from choosing the streams in P4 to choosing the potential secondary school to choosing my 'O' levels subjects to JC to uni and my course and my job etc etc.
you get the idea!

but i know this is one decision which i'll definitely want their blessings and support
p/s: my dad just came into my room for another hour!
probably the longest and serious conversation i've held with my dad for the longest time because he always trust me in the things that i do, and he's a man of few words

it was a long night, but through the many hours of talk, i've come to realise that i really thank God for my dad - for his patience in never raising his voice at me ever since i was born, for respecting my privacy and personal wants/demands and most importantly, for never imposing his demands on me but always try to persuade me and leaving the final decision to me.

i dunno why it took so long but i'm glad to know my dad more in-depth
good night! =)

//posted by ivy @ 23:27//

Monday, October 15, 2007

time passes rather fast this first half of the sem; i've been with my new classes for 4 weeks already and also indicating that, poly forum ended exactly a month back

the second half of fri was fruitful; valuable insights were gained as we spoke to raymond and the time spent talking after that

sat was a simple day of enjoying myself with the poly forum kids and one of those times that i don't have to do anything at the bbq, but to enjoy the endless supply of food
timmy makes a good cook - the perfect chicken wings were proof. the very first batch of wings came out to be crispy-brown on the outside and totally cooked at the inside; very very rare! yummy was the only thing on our mind as we tried the first 5 wings that appeared.

went jogging on sun before service, had a nice breakfast and the fastest shower ever - 10 mins!
simply because the water was freezing cold and no one was taking care of my bag outside the shower room
enjoyed the worship, the play and finally, the sermon

lunch was with a bunch of them at jack's place then i headed over to baby's place
had a nap, went out for dinner to celebrate his mum's birthday and back to his place while we talked quite a bit
still haven't decided yet; so many things to look through and considerations to think about!
and while he told his family about it, i almost couldn't swallow my food down! =)

today is a rainy day; done my grading but have not finalised the games instructions for the camp yet
have got class tmr; another tough and calculative problem!

i thank God for the gentle reminder yet again as i was talking to huiwen on msn this afternoon
a person in need deserves my time and effort.

//posted by ivy @ 20:46//

Thursday, October 11, 2007

i took 1 hr and 40 mins to finish grading for my day 2 class!
they are really a class whom i adore and for a couple of them, i'm so thankful for their presence in my class; it's really a joy to see their face each week and i know these are the few who will never skip school even if they are entitled to "2 days" leave per semester.

having a class tmr, not going to have time to grade them after lessons because there's portfolio meeting with director
not very looking forward to it; heard from the rest who have had their sessions that it wasn't exactly useful.
i'm going to bring my laptop there.. and the signal to the session being redundant would be my fingers starting to do grading

having a mini mahjong session at elena's place tmr after the meeting
what a way to relax.
i'm on half-day for fri, which also means i want to finish grading my tmr's class by fri noon so that over the weekend, there's no work to rush.

sat is meeting my poly forum kids again
mahjong in the morning, slacking in the afternoon, bbq in the evening
chill-out sat. =)

a reminder from what we shared during cell a few hours ago:
- the very reason for my existence on earth now..is to do the will of the Father whom i love
- morning devotion is a good habit to cultivate
- out of the abundance of our love and obedience to God, the very natural move we want to make is to give back to God in terms of our ministries, bearing of fruits etc.
- God didn't give me talents for nothing

God, may You gently remind me this everyday.

//posted by ivy @ 00:32//

Monday, October 08, 2007

i've always taught my students about the process of decision-making - the need to list down the considerations, the need to consider all aspects rationally and most importantly, the need to have a holistic approach etc but i'm finding it so hard right now

browsed through many of the entries in one forum today; they only served as a record of what others went through but in no way, they will help me make a decision
in the same way, i can talk to the most experienced people i know but ultimately, the decision has to come from me, and something that i can accept at the end of it

it's a difficult week
i'm just made very differently - there's no way i can concentrate on my work and have a peace of mind whenever i've something bothering me at the back of my mind or whenever i've an argument with someone dear to me.

203 // 24 oct, 8.45am.

//posted by ivy @ 21:12//

Friday, October 05, 2007

my stomach has been weird this entire week but it isn't stomach flu; makes it even more strange because i never had any problem with my strong stomach in the past
this past two episodes of feeling bloated and not eating much for 4-5 days scares me, and to think, they are less than a month apart!

had quite a bit of accountability dinners over the past few months with sharon and cindy but i think, it has become more meaningful these 2 months or so
sometimes, it feels strange sitting there not talking much and many things run through my mind; and i'm wondering should i get it started or just wait and see how things go
i only hope that as we go on, these dinners will be more meaningful and not any lesser

on my way back at JP, i saw this guy with his friends and he was waving at me
took a few seconds but i don't remember him from anywhere
took out my earpiece when we were nearer and he said "poly forum.. remb?"
ah! he must be one of the students there.. but who?
i can't recall whether he's from RP or not but i guess it doesn't really matter lah uh.

last day of the week tmr; i'm on stand-by but i don't seem very anxious because instead of resting early since i need to be in office by 8.30am, i'm still blogging here.

//posted by ivy @ 00:07//

Monday, October 01, 2007

friend: hey, the dress you wore on saturday for the wedding..bought in thailand issit?
me: yea..can tell ah?
friend: no la.. never see you wear before so i assume it's a new dress and since you said you bought 3 dresses in bangkok
me: oh...
friend: nice dress anyway!

it's amazing how this friend posed such a question; never crossed my mind that he's that observant, and knows how to pay a compliment! haha. (i hope he doesn't read my blog)

off to sleep.
tough problem this week.

//posted by ivy @ 22:16//