The Steadfast Love of the LORD never ceases

Sunset view from my kitchen window

Each day comes and goes. It has its challenges, its fun, joy, woe. But the steadfast love of the LORD never ceases. This week has been quite hectic but an enriching and interesting one with fun-filled and content-filled new modules. There's a lot to absorb. I've also been attending QT fellowship in the morning before classes start. I love spending time with HIM everyday and it definitely is an important start to my day! Thank you LORD for today.

Young Change Maker Conference! :)

The Young Change Maker Conference just ended today after two days. It was an enriching and interesting experience where we got to be involved in project-planning for the organisation we were attached to. Our group was attached to the Silver Ribbon, which seeks to stamp out the stigma of mental illnesses and also help in treating patients suffering from mental illnesses. It was cool to hear from a man who is a recovered patient of Schizophrenia first-hand. Currently, he has written poems which have been published, is an ambassador of IMH and also a tuition teacher. I think that stigma against people suffering from mental illnesses is very real and can be a great hindrance to the person's recovery and ability to function in society. So, it is important to stamp out the stigma. :)

What I like about the conference is initiating a community project. Although, we didn't get to really do one in the short span of 2 days, we brainstormed for different ideas and made plans for the project. Before, I didn't know that planning a community project required a lot of effort, checks, different kinds of people to contribute to the planning and make it work, budgeting etc. The money part is what I haven't thought of before and I learned that it is important to stretch the dollar (if possible) to make adequate use of the grant and also to check for any ethical issues, licences, etc. Most importantly, the beneficiary must be foremost in the planning and I learned that it is good to have an objective. We were asked by Silver Ribbon to think of ways to raise awareness and our group brainstormed on the idea of using slogans such as the MSN lingos to form catchy short-forms relating to mental health. One such lingo we thought of is, ASAP "As Sane as Possible". The slogans can be used for a variety of things such as, being printed on t-shirts etc. It was fun thinking of meaningful slogans from well-known short-forms. :)

The other groups from different schools who were also in silver ribbon were a nice group to be with. There were lots of funny brain teasers we played like, "Fuzzy Wuzzy likes this... and not that...", "Going to Afghanistan", "Black magic", "Mrt stations", " 'Bang,bang,bang...who died?' " ( I don't get this still...haha). On the whole, we were quite bonded and everyone was enthusiastic in contributing to the ideas and giving feedback etc.  

School starts tomorrow... the beginning of semester 2. It looks set to be quite hectic.

In Christ alone, I place my trust,

 He is my Light, my Strength, my Song.



 

Little children

The innocence of their little faces,

staring wide-eyed at you.

That little beam

or gleam of mischievous fun

shining from their eyes.

They bounce and jump,

and walk about,

not afraid to speak their minds.

"Concentrate!" they remind themselves,

if they drift off in a daze.

"Four more and then I'm done!"

One yawns sleepily and requests to wash

his face,

while another in all adult seriousness

is absorbed in her own work.

Active little ones, bursting with fun.

Full of energy...

Amusement abounds, coupled with 

several exasperated chidings.

Little children are just

themselves.

Wednesday

I haven't been posting recently because too many things have happened... yes, I know, I'm lazy. :) Yesterday, I went to a wholesale shop selling flowers with S.M to choose complimenting side flowers for the main flowers she has chosen to decorate the wedding aisle. It was super cold there and I was glad that I heeded her advice to bring a jacket. It felt like walking in a gigantic fridge! Actually, it wasn't really that big, maybe just around 3 rooms wide. hahaha. Well, anyway, when I first stepped into the room, the cold hit me and soaked me through my skin because I didn't wear my jacket prior to going in, so it took some time for me to acclimatise. My teeth were almost chattering and my jacket didn't seem to be warm enough, so for the first few minutes, I wasn't helpful to S.M. I think because I was suppose to help her go around and search for suitable side flowers. I was feeling too cold to move. :D The flowers in that mini winterland are really pretty though. In the end, we decided on some yellow side flowers (I forgot what they were called). We also purchased some other things like florist wire and paper. When S.M. requested for some of the flowers she had ordered and the yellow ones we had chosen to do a sample, the boss was so kind to give her a generous few stalks of each for free! She was really happy because she had been worried the night before about how she was going to do a sample for us to see and help in the decorating. Thank God! It was my first time being in a wholesaler place that sells flowers. I like the place and apparently they sell the cheapest flowers among the row of wholesalers along Thomson road. Currently, my favourite of what I saw there would be the baby's breath. :) It's really nice to see God's creation, even in such a sterile environment. I'm looking forward to be involved in helping out with the decorations this Friday, it'll be my first time being part of the process of a wedding! Usually, when I'm invited to a wedding, I'm only there at the end, after all the decorations have been completed. I think it'll be an interesting and fun experience. :)

The hols so far has been full of events and lessons learnt. School will be reopening in 2 weeks :( It'll be a whole new set of modules and 'foreign' subjects. A math related subject will be included called "Intro to Statistics & Research". Not a big fan of numbers, I hope my lessons will be enjoyable and that I won't have war with this module.

The zoo

I've been quite lazy to post lately. Many things have happened during the holidays so far. I'm kind of suffering from fatigue from the onslaught of activities which have nevertheless been fun. One of the recent places I went to was, the zoo! My aunt had her company's corporate pass to the zoo so she invited my mum, younger bro and I to go along with her. We had free admission and didn't have to queue for tickets so it was quick entry. :) My last visit to the zoo was 2 years ago, also, with my aunt. haha, anyway, the zoo hasn't changed much. We visited almost every animal and show stated on the zoo map. I think the monkeys were the funniest and most in variety of species there, well, maybe, aside from the variety of snakes.(not that snakes are funny, they're scary) There's a new show featuring domestic animals such as dogs and cats performing, its target audience is children, I think the show just started a year ago. It's not too bad for a new show, just that I think there was more entertainment than the animals performance. The trainers of the animals even performed break dance moves. Here are some pictures I took at the zoo:

  {An elephant placing a hat on the trainer by using suction to grip the hat by its trunk}

                      

{I love the beauty of this butterfly, it's a pity that I couldn't capture it clearly}

                            

                                                    

{a bat eating from a bunch of fruits}

                                                     

           {A monkey we saw sitting randomly on a sign ( I forgot what the sign was, I think it was something to do with reptiles. haha) I wonder how it got there. It looks bored.}

{Giraffes! My favourite animals}

                                                     

{I think this is an ostrich? I had some trouble capturing its picture because it kept moving its neck up and down.}

{Two cuties we saw near the entrance of the zoo}

{Mutualism in action}

{Rhino}

{Close-up of a dragonfly I saw}

{A monkey we saw hanging there... it was facing us initially just staring into space, then after some time, it swung its arms and faced backwards and stayed like that for quite a long while... it was quite funny... :) }

{I think this is an iguana but I forgot, it looks really comfortable on its perch}

Ok, that's all. :)

19th International Coastal cleanup

I went for the coastal cleanup last saturday. It was quite an eye-opening experience for me. :) We were assigned to Chek Jawa to do the coastal cleanup. Woke up at 5.45am and took a train to Eunos station, then a bus to the jetty and then took a ride in a boat pulau ubin and then a van directly to the area where our school was assigned to do the coastal cleanup. Armed with gloves, trashbags and cutters, we cleaned up the length of beach. There was seriously a lot of rubbish and the variety of rubbish found was quite shocking. There were plastic bags, fishing nets, ropes, those big plastic drums, tyres etc. and things like an intact wooden folding chair! There was a list we had to mark against, using the statistical method where you put 4 horizontal lines and the 5th vertical line across for each item we picked and threw into the trash bag. Picking rubbish may seem easy but there were some things like having to bend low to untangle ropes entangled on the mangrove branches and picking up sacks filled with sand that required a lot of strength and effort. We only cleaned up for an hour or so because of the incoming tide but we collected quite a lot of things... filling 23 trash bags! I still find it quite unbelievable that people can throw things like a chair into the sea! Why do these people treat the sea like a rubbish bin. We cleared rubbish on only a 50m stretch of beach on Chek Jawa and already found so much rubbish... imagine the amount of rubbish dumped around the entire island! Through this coastal cleanup, I've seen the extent of human damage done to the environment of non-biodegradable waste. You should have seen the "decorations" of rubbish and ropes etc. on the mangrove branches... Yup, so I realised that it is very important to dispose of waste appropriately and how important it is to look after the environment. 

Here are the statistics of our cleanup.

Teachers' Day

I went back to St Marg's today. It was fun meeting Joanne, Marion, and Marisa as well as others like Ji Yin, Xin Xuan and Xuan Rong, even though I do see 4 of them in school occasionally. :D We met Mrs. Seet, Mr Ang, Ms Lee, Ms Lum and Mdm Wang Li. Teachers' day seems to be quite a quiet day. After the chaotic 'rush hour' in the staff room, students clad in their colourful house shirts thronged home. Anyway, it was still great talking with the teachers and Ms Lee treated us all to ice-cream at the Student hub! We repeatedly refused but she insisted in the end... aiyo, I didn't give her anything for teachers' day. The ice-cream tasted good. :) Oh, and something interesting (or scary) happened, somehow, the principal approached us when we were waiting for Ms Lee who was having a consultation with a student and found out that we were all from poly. She asked us about our courses and whether we enjoyed it and suddenly she asked us if we could talk to the sec 5s about our courses. I don't know about the others, but I was stunned and my body froze for a second. Her statement caught me completely by surprise... followed by a slight dread and the 'oh no' groan. (I have stage fright...) In the end, she took down our names and phone numbers. I'm really scared if she calls. But I do wonder though, not to be judgemental, if she knew that we were express students (not to be 'high and mighty' either, we're all students).

Anyway, 4 of us went for lunch at an interesting place in Bras Basah complex. I didn't know that there was a block of flats above the complex. haha... nice windy place though. We ate our packed lunch from the food court there.

 I didn't see many other ex-students today. There's the new sports complex... but I miss the green field in that spot.