(News taken from their blog): On 20 May 2009, a historic feat for Singapore was achieved when the NATAS Singapore Women's Everest Team reached the summit of Mt. Everest, the highest peak on earth which stands at 8850m. Lee Li Hui age 27, Esther Tan age 26 and Jane Lee age 25 of the NATAS Singapore Women's Everest Team stepped on the top of the world at 3.45am, 3.54am and 4.43am respectively - Nepal time, making the team the first Singaporean women to reach the world's tallest mountain. The second summit team are currently on the way from camp 2 to camp 3 and they plan to go for the summit on 22 May.
The second team consist Joanne Soo and Lee Peh Gee. The third member Sim Yihui experienced chest pain while on the way up the Khumbu Ice Fall and had to turn around. She is well and currently back at basecamp
This was my fave songs, during the time of 1999, something like 10 yrs ago.. hwahah.. this is the time when i had my first experience of God during the YISS camp. Back then, my music tastes were also different (as I have blogged on this topic a few times already before).
Today, I just remembered some of the songs I liked during the 'transition' phase of my real crossover to christian music over 1999-2001. It was DC Talk. I remember buying this CD at the Heeren's HMV... haha.. I was still really crazy then, collecting CDs and feeling really cool when i bought one....
Hearing it today, i'm like... haha.. cool... how far i've come along... (though when i hear these songs again, it still feels exciting!)
This is damn emo (angry!) man... but i'm kinda glad that my taste today of course, is no longer like this. In fact, I'm glad that I like things like classical music now. Call me a prude, a bore. But it's like a whole new level.
Today, I feel a new passion for sharing my faith. Joined the RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults) for the first time as a sponsor (the person who journeys with the enquirer - aka the person who is interested to learn about the catholic faith).
So then, somewhere thru the night, I got asked this question... Does God talk to you? I said yes, sometimes.... and the whole point was that God must have spoken to us sometime or other, via a thought, an inspiration, or so forth.
And that reminded me about how I decided to join RCIA. It's definitely not my own strength but God who put me here. Coz why would I join yet another thing (that will last from now till next year!!) if it is going to take up even more time? As of now, i am busy till the brim as it already is! So why?
Here's why. A month plus ago.... during one of our sat night suppers, Marlene was joking when she said, "Sam, you go sponsor peter lah,.. blah blah blah" and i was just laughing along, but something inside clicked... I thought, "hey, actually.. yeah, why not?" Coz all along, I've been telling people that my passion for ministry, is because I want people to know about Christ. So when Marlene joked that, something inside just went... yeahhhhh... that sounds like it.
So I believe that is God's way of speaking in my heart. Cos, somehow, I just knew it. In the following weeks, as I pondered over that thought, gradually, I was more and more excited about it. So then, I asked Peter if he was looking for a sponsor and he said yes, and i said i can sponsor him and we said, ok let's go for it.
So here marks my first session at one of the homes in Siglap tonight. Wonderful. Friendly. So much community, food and it's lovely to make friends with so many people. I felt the pace is a bit slow, but maybe that's coz i know it already! Hhaha...
It's really nice to Give. Somehow, when you give, you know that the joy that you receive is worth more than anything else a hundred times. So tonight, I am rich indeed!
Today i participated in a little discussion on communication and the point on how people have masks. To this.... my reply was that it's just like the layers of the onion.... the outside is easy to show to others, but the inner areas are difficult.
Some people find it hard to show their true colours so they mask it... because they do not like their inner selves, which comprise not just weakness but negative parts, our hidden selves, sins, past hurts, buried stuff that we hide.
For me, it took God's healing touch and lots of prayer and spiritual growth to eventually be healed from within and be at peace with my SELF. Even so, I am still discovering more and more of my 'ideal' god-created being, each day. As i grow out of my earlier years where I had a lower (than present) self-esteem, confidence and joy,.... I can say that it is only God's healing touch.
People can say it is age that helps, that we "grow out" of things. But there are some things that you don't "grow out" of for years, unless there is some catalyst or something that interferes with your direction of life. It works for people's inner state of being as well!
To these, I have 2 songs to share! :)
And coincidently, this morning before waking up, I just remembered the tip of the end of my dream. It was about a floating house... with 2 boys in it... (future sons??) and as it was floating, it was supposedly a 'magical' house lah and I was trying to protect it from the outside. I assume I was the mother coz in my dream i was looking over it... (like over a map of the whole region with the flying house's position)... so funny! I could see the rooms, the boys walking around in it... etc... like a dollhouse..
Then i checked out dreammoods.com for what it meant... is it just a funny anime-like scenario with no meaning? Well, it seems that various symbols together made some sense!
SON - To see your son in your dream, signifies your ideal, hopes, potential, and the youthful part of yourself.
Save a CHILD - To save a child, signifies your attempts to save a part of yourself from being destroyed. If you dream that you are separated from your children, then it symbolizes failure in some personal endeavor or a setback in some ideal you had.
Protection - To dream that you are protecting someone, suggests that you are putting up an emotional wall or barrier between you and others around you. Consider who or what you are protecting for clues as to what aspect of your own self you are afraid of letting out and letting others know.
Dollhouse - To see or play with a dollhouse in your dream, symbolizes your idealistic notions about family life. Alternatively, the dollhouse in your dream may serve as an indirect way to solve and work out waking problems with family members.
aHHHH remember i was talking about ueno juri in my last post. What's up since then is that I managed to catch another drama she acted in, called "Last Friends". Man... this is fabulous... got me rooted for all my time at home,... man, this is addictive... don't ever go to my.soju. Wahha..
Anyway, this drama is about issues. Yes,... issues. It's not easy to watch through the whole thing and you've gotta be able to withstand some parts like how michiru keeps going back to the person she loves though he is violent and abuses her... u know... we tend to think, how stupid... but this is precisely what the show tries to portray... issues like these are not easy to solve.
So there are 5 main people in this drama, and each person represents one issue - love, contradiction, liberation, agony and loneliness. If you want to know more, just watch the show.
For me, this is cathartic. It's like, sometimes life is coated with sugar and sweet, and life is all so straightforward and peaceful. Somehow, it's funny how we need a balance of everything... when things are nice and smooth, we go looking for danger, or challenge, and vice versa. Although.. this statement is really ironic, coz i'm still "in a peaceful place" right infront of my computer! .... that's why it is 'cathartic'.
Anyway, the truth is... I am watching cos of Ueno Juri. She acted in Nodame Cantabile, one of my most liked j-dramas before, and she's here too, acting as a girl facing gender-identity-condition. Mind me if i rant abit... but she is really cool and i am a new fan!!!! Wahahahah!
Ok i am not gender-confused... but i'd like to wonder, to understand, to find healing.
I think this drama portrays the issues faced by the 5 people, ever so poignantly... it's so typical of japanese shows. So polite, so rich in meaning. They almost never come to the point at times... but you somehow, get the point (well, if it's lousy show, you probably won't get the point) haah.
Well, i like it. I see bits of myself in the show. I say this abstractly. For example, i'll be thinking, if i were living in the 'sharehouse'... what would I be like? Would i be like eri? ruka? michiru? or takeru? or what if i knew a person like michiru? or so forth.
The show is filled with drama, not like my usual everyday boring life.... and so the angst, sadness, and pain that I am watching... kinda balances life... oh dear, what is this!?!
I guess, deep inside of us, there are all issues. We all have our own issues don't we? It just reminds me that I am human. I am blessed that I don't have big issues, but not that I have none. No one has nothing to hide, no one is transparent, no one is totally open to everyone they meet. We all have our darkest secrets, our darkest hurts,... so forth... and so as i call it -- our issues! ;) (Sorry... just finished the last ep... still in the 'mood' of the show.. wahahaaa)
New generation book? Saw someone reading a book on the bus yesterday.. and it looked like this:
Wow. Reminds me of an old short story that I read long time ago during literature classes - about a future where paper-books were no longer being used and kids did all their homework via computerised robots. Well... it's not impossible!
Recently, I started watching the korean version of hana yori dango - "Boys over flowers" which friends have been ranting about... And somehow, the female lead keeps ringing a bell of someone from another show I've seen. Finally, I link it up... it's Nodame from Nodame Cantabile (j-drama)
... see? doesn't Geum Jan Di (acted by korean actress Gu Hye-sun):
.. Look so much like.... Megumi Nodame (acted by japanese actress - Juri Ueno)? hwhahaa.. the only difference is that Jan Di is always pulling an angry look in the show (but i'm only on episode 4 so far!)... whereas Nodame is mostly blur-dreamy-smiles.
You can probably guess who I like more....
Talking about Nodame cantabile, yippee there's going to be a movie out next year!! It's a fantastic story! Woohooo Can't wait!!!!
Life is an opportunity,
benefit from it.
Life is beauty, admire it.
Life is a dream, realize it.
Life is a challenge, meet it.
Life is a duty, complete it.
Life is a game, play it.
Life is a promise, fulfill it.
Life is sorrow, overcome it.
Life is a song, sing it.
Life is a struggle, accept it.
Life is a tragedy, confront it.
Life is an adventure, dare it.
Life is luck, make it.
Life is too precious, do not destroy it.
Life is life, fight for it.
"Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires
of your heart." Psalm 37:4
