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Jolly Christmas
Friday, December 27, 2013 | 12:14 AM

Christmas this year was pretty quiet. Even our tree was (literally) scaled down:


Nonetheless, it's been a festive season with family and friends. One of the things I remember more: Grace's Christmas party on Sunday :). It was pulled off quite well, with games, carolling and a gift exchange. Haha my favourite part was the carolling because our lead musicians kept it lively. Here they are:


Libo (left) and Marcus (right). Photo taken from Grace's fb. 

The former publicity head of CAPT also put her designing skills to good use, with unique carol booklets for everyone. They were so pretty! 



Not to mention, her family prepared a spread for us and a friend brought Christmas cookies. Pity I don't have pictures, but all the food looked lovely and tasted good. People are what makes a party right? So I was mostly thankful for the good company and it wasn't awkward even though we weren't all familiar with each other :). 

Christmas day itself was spent with my family. Mostly my siblings. After breakfast we had gift exchange, and lunch out. Here's us at lunch, the cute decorations from the log cake, and our miniature tree again: 

After lunch we headed home and once back, my siblings decided to pull out the monopoly board (dust and all). I haven't played monopoly in ages and I found it nostalgic! It was quite funny and probably the most ironic monopoly game I've played. Half the time my sis and I would end up in jail and the other half of the time we were paying rent to my brother who got lucky that day. He had 2 get-out-of-jail cards and didn't use a single one -.-. At first because he didn't have our poor luck, then because he had enough property and didn't want to pay rent to other people. By this time he already owned most of the property anyway. Maybe it was the dice or something, but it was actually really easy to roll doubles and we would be like "oh no" every time we managed to get out of jail. My sis was a frequent visitor to my brother's property, houses and all. She even had the frequent visitor's free gift: a get-out-of-jail card. Not that she wanted to use it lol. It was less expensive to stay in jail. I had slightly better luck, managing to somehow miss his properties by one square many, many times. Each time I did, my brother would roll over and go "Nooooo" in frustration (we were playing on the beds in my room). 

After that, we played cards for a while. And then tried watching the Nightmare Before Christmas. I say tried, because within a few minutes into the show, I was feeling sleepy and dozed off. When I woke up, I found my sis sleeping on the bed next to mine and my brother was not around. Turns out they didn't make it through the movie because they both dozed off too! Just that my brother went to his room to sleep. I think this was one of the more family-centric Christmases I've had. Usually we're doing our own thing in-between the meals together. And that was Christmas for me :) how did you spend yours? 

Happy Holidays! 

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The People Around You
Tuesday, September 24, 2013 | 1:11 AM

I've wanted to post this for a while, and it was inspired by Tzu Hsiang.

Plenty of times we don't look around to realise how incredible the people around us are, and what they signify to us in our own lives. 

So this is a post for the people around me - thank you for being who you are, and I'm blessed to know you. This list is far from exhaustive, but it'll do for now :)

My mum taught me many things. To be strong, to be kind, to be diligent, and to find many ways of getting to one place. Essentially also, to never give up on something you really want, even though that's a lesson I'm still reluctant to learn (there are times when it is unimaginably difficult). Cliche as it is, I felt this was the best starting point because my mum has shaped much of who I am.

The leaders around me (Ling Hong, Daryl, Sean) All of you together have taught me so much about leadership, and, collectively, this one big lesson: to invest in the growth of the people you lead. I am really very lucky to meet leaders who care so much about the people under them, and who have shown me what innovation, conviction and commitment mean.

Tzu Hsiang always surprises me. In good ways. I'm going to write a little more for this one, just so she knows what a gem she is.

Passion Reading about her own mad obsession with starting a magazine, many of the emotions resonated with me, and it's cool to see her chasing her dream. I'm impressed by the seriousness with which she went into it, and the quality of the work produced. Hope it works out well!

If you're curious, here it is: http://heartmagazine.sg/

Energy & Spontaneity despite always looking half-asleep and hugging everything from trees to sofas like a koala (TH aren't you glad I put a real koala instead :P), she's often game for new and spontaneous experiences. I love her for that because it's refreshing to meet people with so much energy and spontaneity, and it's hard not to catch on to her spirit and want to do things too.


 Friendliness Something I always admire in TH is how she makes friends so easily. And she's so real that it's hard to fault people for liking her. If there's one thing I would want to learn from her, it's to be more friendly and genuine, and to take a real interest in the lives of people I don't know.

Her voice She has the most angelic voice when she sings, and so different from her usual, that it still surprises me when she sings. Again, if you're curious, here's her channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/speciallyi?feature=watch. Good things are worth sharing :).

Her authenticity (and sanity) I think what makes it hard to believe is how sane and authentic she is while being all that. She's very down-to-earth and authentic as a person, and cool precisely because she doesn't try to be. That's the part I love most about her <3 keep your head up!

Yup, that's all from me. Who are the people in your own life who mean something to you?

Inspired,

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NDP Special: National Day with Family
Thursday, August 8, 2013 | 8:14 PM

I love family traditions, and one of them was having a BBQ every national day. We've since stopped it, although now and then we'll do it when we're in the mood for it. I remember the funny thing about family BBQs was that every time, usually on a Sunday, we got out the grill and started igniting the charcoal, it would start raining. Thankfully, we could still have it under the sheltered porch. There would be chicken wings, hot dog buns, potato salad (one of the rare occasions my family has salad), mash, and steak that would never cook completely. My favourite part was helping with the mash because of the heavenly smell that fills the kitchen the moment hot potato meets butter. And tasting it to get the taste just right.

Around 5 or 6pm, the television would already be on even though it was mostly the hosts getting the crowd hyped up at the stadium and the television hosts discussing some new feature or other to the annual parade. Half the excitement is in the anticipation, so it was always nice to sit down to this and get hyped up along with the crowds in the stadium. And hyped up for dinner too!

When I was young, I read a lot of books by Enid Blyton (Famous Five and all), and I always assumed I would one day live the kind of life I read about. I never knew that the things in those books - 4 seasons, living in gardens with toadstools and fairies - either didn't exist, or happened only in places like the UK. So when I found out, I set my heart on moving there when I grew up. Singapore always seemed like a rather dull and commonplace country to live in.Over the years though, I've come to love this sunny island and with each overseas trip, I look forward more and more to returning home. Learning about the histories and problems of other countries in school helped I suppose, as did building my own memories and relationships that make Singapore worth coming back to.

Praying for Singapore
I went for my church's prayer meeting for the first time in a long while on Tuesday, and during the meeting we prayed for Singapore. It was quite cool because as we prayed, I thought about a few things:

(1) the wonder of Singapore's birth
As we thanked God for seeing Singapore through the years, it reminded me to think about the wonder of Singapore's birth. After all, that's what National Day is about right? Celebrating Singapore's independence, and the miraculous change from a problem-plagued country to the Singapore it is today (not without its problems definitely, but we've come a long way). Or even further back, how this island first came to life with villagers and lions roaming (according to myths), and then a bustling sea port. Just imagining how Singapore began from nothing.

(2) Diversity 
I can't remember the exact prayer pointer for this, but it made me see our multi-racial and multi-religious culture with new eyes. Seeing with fresh joy what a privilege it is to be part of this culture, and how remarkable it is to have people of so many different races and cultures (including the increasing number of foreigners) live together. Consider how elsewhere, sometimes by no choice or fault of their own, people live with their countrymen waging wars against others from the same country, same religion. Even as problems surface, I think we can take a moment to see what a remarkable nation Singapore is by virtue of its existence and its current culture. 

As national day draws near, I'm kind of glad to be spending the day with my family. Minus the BBQ. I think the atmosphere will still be around.

Happy National Day!

With love,


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