The first...

Am blogging on a Sunday again...the only day in the week that really allows me to take a breather...nap a bit, improve upon the powerpoints...

I am thankful for this...and for the kids I teach...even for their nonsense sometimes...

Come to think of it...yesterday was a day of miracles...

It was the first time I joined in a praying over session for physical healing...and even though the pain in her leg didn't go away completely, she was still very touched by the Spirit, as it had been an emotional week for her - 2 suicidal friends suddenly calling her in the wee hours for help. Guess the physical healing turned into spiritual healing =) God does work in marvellous ways.

A divine appointment was made between my 2 close friends, enabling them to have a good heart-to-heart talk to clarify the misunderstandings and the unhappiness that had arose between them over the past couple of months. He also allowed one of them to have a space to do some much needed sharing with me, for me to play the role of a listener as she unloaded some of her worries.

And finally at night...this sounds quite trivial but anyway...I heard some strange, unnatural sounding noises travelling around my ceiling at 2 am...naturally some fear arose as it was the seventh month and stuff and anyway it was preventing me from falling asleep so I was asking the Lord to make it stop and immediately, it did...=>

Thank you, Father, for the gift of community, for the gift of your Spirit, for the gift of music.

***
Went to watch The Lakehouse with a few friends yest...the Hollywood version of a Korean hit (yes it is becoming evident that Hollywood scriptwriters are running dry on original plots)...was not too bad except for some technical loopholes that had to do with altered history. I mean, the time warp part pales in comparison with that of Frequency, one of my fave shows coz it deals with changing one's own history from 30 years back, and the plot there is so tightly paced and seamless. Even though it may seem confusing, but it is possible to have a logical flow of events after history has been altered - basically, the present times would have to keep changing. That was kinda missing in Lake. But, but, but...I need to say this...there came a point in the show where for the first time ever, I was actually moved by Keanu Reeves' acting. And I have watched a fair number of his shows (dunno why - i mean, he's real dashing and all but that ain't the point). Finally, after so long, he has proven me wrong...finally, he can join the club of the good-looking good actors...

***
Some pics of my two lovely babies in uniform...

the dimitri talk-show...

A few topics for discussion today...

First up...the little piggy...a new adult...
Find it a bit jaw-dropping that her 21st bday celebration is in actual fact a series of celebrations that is gonna last for 2 weeks (at least)...basically involves several groups of friends each giving her treats and prezzies and cakes...i mean...whoa...this must be attributed to her extremely sociable nature I suppose? I dunno...haven't really seen her in action actually...am actually more familiar with her inert and passive ways. I seriously dunno when she transformed into a social butterfly but the change is just startling. (P.S. she's a different person at home - the pic above represents her usual demeanour - complete indifference!! awful piggy...=P) Anyway that's also where the common gene pool diverges - I'm quite the opposite as am usually quite aloof and takes ages to warm up.

Catechism...
tha explains the strange titling of this post. Had this rather interesting activity in the catechism book today...a kind of talkshow in Palestine 1 A.D., with teenagers living in Jesus' time as the speakers. So there was Martha talking about her dreams of marriage (at 14) and Bartholomew (did i get the spelling right??) raving about the wonders of being a blacksmith. Whoa. Had the kids roaring with amusement anywayz.

Myself...
Some more revelations from students this week. a) I am lame. And crappy; b) My knowledge of current affairs sucks. Lameness I blame on adverse influences from prolonged contact with lame ppl, poor GK I blame...myself la. Time to flip open the Time.

Teletubby-tised...

"Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow...creeps in this petty pace from day to day, to the last syllable of recorded time..."

Been discussing about the state of conditioning of teachers with my neighbour at work. How we involuntarily pop up from our chairs the moment we hear the tune that represents the prelude to morning assembly. Every weekday morning. Five consecutive days. A short break of two days, and the cycle repeats itself. Just like how every morning I wake up exactly 2 seconds before the alarm rings. It can't be helped, life is a routine...like it or not. We are constantly being socialised into a state of robotism.

Anyway, on to less depressing stuff...

Haf been keeping up with the Sing Idol happenings...and I must say that in spite of my irritation with the non-toll-free numbers that audiences have to use to vote, there is some merit in such a contest format. The absence of a point system arbitrated by a panel of judges has somehow removed any traces of unfriendly competition between contestants. No one can really control their own popularity, and the uncertainty of it all means that everyone can just go there and aim for a good time, since you will never know anyway...
It's real interesting when you haf a show that showcases the contestants' parents almost as much as the contestants themselves.
Shall root for Jonathan and Jay!!

Everyday I struggle with the moral decision of whether I should cab to school/cab home from school. It's a moral thing becoz it concerns $$$. Becoz it seems somewhat wasteful to spend so much on cabfare when I should be saving up for the unknown future.

A little jaded....

Happppyyyy birthday...

The piggy's 21st bday has come and gone...hmm I'm now officially the elder sister of an adult being! whoa...(but she still acts and looks like a kid)

Things in school have finally reached a steady state (yes scientific terms again)...so there's some time for me to take stock and ponder the state of affairs on my heavily littered desk.

And I've reached...nothing...I must seriously try to strike a balance between extreme busyness and fits of idleness. It disorientates me.

What to do...

For the past two days, I've been rather listless in front of the lappie in school. No lessons mah. So have been staring at bright and colourful picture of male reproductive system. Think it becomes unhealthy after a while. Dun quite dare to research for pics of reproductive anatomy as run high risk of stumbling across icky porn sites and similarly icky images.

Been reasoning with my superior/inferior self a lot lately, so much so that I can almost picture the classic angel vs. devil images in my mind, each trying to swing me to her side. Most of the time I try to face the light, but a lot of times the dark one gets me and I succumb. Just gotta pray...

Realise that I like interacting with students. This might sound like a rather "duh" statement but believe me, it has never quite crossed my mind before. Guess adolescents can have a charming side to them too?? Besides the insecurities...

Just a testimony...

Just got back from my second charismatic retreat in three weeks.

It's not like if we go for a lot of such events, we become holier. What it does for me is that my faith gets enriched and strengthened, and I get this knowledge that God is right there within me and in my life, and it becomes easier for me to turn to him for help, for solace, for answers. The channel of communication with Him, which was previously clogged with all kinds of rubbish, clears up and a relationship is renewed.

"So faith, hope, love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love." 1 Corinthians 13:13.

I have not really slept very much, but am not that tired. At least not too tired to say that I ...

- am more assured of my abilities to serve in this area of ministry
- am very moved at the way the Spirit transforms people and touches them
- shared in the reconciliation of two very good friends of mine
- realised that I might have been healed of a previously very troubling ailment
- know that the influences of the evil one will always be present, but I will just acknowledge them and set them aside
- can be strong in my weakness

To all my dear friends, thank you...for just being who you are.
To God, your love is unfathomable, and you have given us an indomitable promise of faith.

"So whoever in Christ is a new creation; the old things have passed away, behold, new things have come." 2 Cor 5:17

Man it's hot...

Weather was at an all-time miserable rating of 8.5 (out of 10) today.

So entered class feeling like someone just hit me on the head with something heavy. Decided to clean the board as class streamed in...interesting Chinese words on board...took couple of sec to read them...most of the phrases were kinda hard to comprehend...but there was this line on the top of the board that caught moi attention. It goes like this - “我们不能够改变天气，但我们能够改变心情。”Immediately felt like there is still some hope in this (hot) world. Enthusiastically shared my insight with the class...best reaction was an expression amounting to faint amusement...majority were...staring...just staring...

Really la, these Upper Sec kids...I try my utmost to stir up some excitement and interest, I'm constantly beaming at them...hoping they can beam back...but what I perceive is merely a sudden passing of bemusement across their countenance, before it settles back into its basal state i.e. sullenness. Even my usual humor (ahem *ego* ahem) falls flat.

IDMI week rox!! whoo...

What would you do if you had a thorn in your flesh?

Remove it.

Usually in TV shows, people choose to remove their thorns by destroying them (i.e. in cold blood). In my case, the thorn is geographically a bit far away to murder, but yet it is not entirely unfeasible. Food poisoning mebbe? Or mebbe induce memory loss? That bit would be sufficient. Then the both of us will not need to feel so bugged anymore...

She's like a spider, takes us a while to free ourselves from her web.

***

The little piggy has several members of the male species hovering around her...hmm...v.interesting.

I suddenly haf a craving for...da mai. The dessert.

bleah

Today I tried to organise two different social gatherings. One din materialise, the other will probably not. It is that hard to get ppl together...and increasingly so when we get older and get more preoccupied with stuff - like work, gf/bf, family and so on...

Weird empty feeling...when there's suddenly no powerpoint to rush.

I leave it all in your hands, Lord.

Realise that I am one who badly needs humour in my life. Like when I'm feeling real sleepy and crappy in the morning and a friend comes up to me and says something funny that makes me laugh...man those endorphins can make all the difference. I guess that's why I'm always laughing at stuff while among friends and colleagues, not that I'm suffering from the Angelman syndrome, but just dun wan to treat things so seriously all the time. Sometimes i smile brightly at students and they ask me why I'm smiling at them. We are a dull lot man. ok mebbe jus the de ming ppl.

Oh and also...a special newsflash (i have not done this in a while)

Change of name for former co-ed school

Come Jan 2007, DXXXXX school will have a new name - DXXXXX Girls' High. This move was deemed necessary after the abrupt announcement of the restructuring of the school from co-ed to an all girls territory. The past five years has seen an unprecedented dip in the percentage of boys for each new Sec 1 cohort. The ratio of boys to girls currently stands at close to 1 is to 8, a startling change from the previous, healthier, 1 to 2 ratio. The school administration therefore decided to make the bold move to become a single sex school.

When interviewed, the principle has this to say: "We believe that having a school made up of solely female students will help to boost the grades of the entire school, as girls are better performers than boys at that age. We began to see a serious problem when the number of boys in the school dropped to only 80 last year. Parents appear to have lost interest in sending their sons to our school. We are still trying to find out the cause of this phenomenon."

Tan Kar Seng, 16, who would be one of the last batches of boys who would ever pass through the gates of DXXXXX, said sadly: "This is a real pity. Boys can help to balance the girls. If this school is only made up of female students, they would be so dead, no spirit one (sic)."

DXXXXX will be putting up the boys' uniforms for auction to raise funds for charity.

***
Disclaimer: The above is a work of fiction, and as such any resemblance between the characters herein and real persons living or otherwise is purely coincidental.