Yay!

I'll be going off to AYC (Australian Youth Convention) tomorrow!!! Anddddddd I have to wake up at 3am!! (boo) Plane's gonna be leaving at 6:30am, arriving at Adelaide at 7:10am. Whoo. I pray that I won't get sick during camp so I'll be healthy when I go back to Msia. K, gotta go pack up. byes.

I Cannot Survive Without...

TELFAST!

I need my daily dose of hay fever drug relief. Otherwise I'd be clawing my eyes and sneezing my nose off every. single. DAY. during Spring...

You know I love you Spring, but sorry, it's just too hard...

I will now *gasp* post pictures of flowers (from our manic oversized flower breeding ground garden) - yes. The very ones that try as they like to make Spring miserable for me.

Most photos are taken by Esther - she takes all the credit (why do I fail at taking photos?) Oh wait, I take some credit too because she used my camera! Hahahaha. K.

Photos taken during Winter and Spring of this year.

I actually like this picture...
I wonder why...That's it! IT HAS NO FLOWERS ;B Just the leaves.
I think I took this one...during one cold cold Winter morning. Hah.


Nice blue and red contrast.
The blue bit is part of our front porch.


Aw, triplets!
This pic is, dare I say, pretty nice.


They look dangerous.
Careful, they bite. Rawr!

Seriously, we have way too many flowers. I had to go through a couple hundred photos of our their garden. By 'their' I meant the rest of my family.


Last pic. Rather symbolic I think.

Conclusion...I think I may have a love-hate relationship with these buggers lubly flowers.
:D


I need a change of pace -
Presenting, CityLife! 2nd (or is it the largest?) largest church in Melbourne.

I was happily taking photos here until I saw the sign that said "no photography".
Just testing out the panoramic options in my camera. Too bad I wasn't sitting exactly in the middle, otherwise this pic would have been better.

And finally...

Taken on 'free dress day' in the one of the Art rooms of our last couple of days left at school before the exams.
Will miss these guys :(
I just realized that everyone's wearing glassed 'cept for me and Steph. Hmmm.

Of Birthdays & SMG

This post is a little overdue - internet too slow. Used up most of our bandwidth allowance this month watching (whisper it) Super Junior videos and (whisper it) re-watching Winter Sonata. Hah. But I cbs waiting for it to reset this Saturday so here we go!

Last Saturday (the 15th) was dad's birthday. We wanted to make his birthday really special to encourage him as he had and still is having a really really tough year this year. There were countless physically, mentally and emotionally challenging situations that he had to face and us as his family could not do a lot to help alleviate his metaphoric pain. So we wanted to do something extra special to cheer him up; reminding him that we will always be there as a family to support him through all the tough times.

~The Plan~

First off - the present - what does dad want/need? Methinks cologne- gives him that professional-ness. lol. Tie??? No way, he has enough already and it's so generic as well, I want something that he has never had before. So cologne it was. Second, the cake. Cheesecake? No, not again. Getting sick of cheesecake. Why not an ice-cream cake? Homemade- extra special - cos of the effort put into it. Good idea. Goes and buys ice-cream, well, technically its yogurt ice-cream.

~Friday night~
(Ice-cream Yogurt ice-cream shopping)

hum dee dum deee dum. *walks into Safeway, Foresthill; heads straight for dessert section* Hmmm, Bulla's - no...Cornettos - yum - but not what I want...BULLA'S YOGURT ICE-CREAM - SCORE! Now what flavour? Mango. Perfect *continues browsing frozen dessert section* OoooH! Hazelnut gelato! Never tried that before, 99.5% fat free also! Bonus! (lol) Two different flavours enough? Yeah, why not. *hurries to biscuit section* Biscuit base? Uhm. oatmeal biscuits and Oreos *yummy*

Arrives home, attempts to hide ice-cream in fridge. Success. Nighty-night.

~Saturday Morning~

Still haven't bought dad's present yet. Planning to get him cologne. Difficult objective. Do not know what smell dad likes. O: Wished dad a happy birthday during breakfast. I went to the doctors with bro and dad (Mark had to get his big-ol'-ugly-gash-on-his-left-brow-checked). Had a ball making fun of his single eyebrow (the other eyebrow was covered in band-aid) and the fact that he'll get a permanent scar similar to Kovu's scar from Lion King 2 but it doesn't extend till his eye) Next up, to the market for groceries and what-not. Grabbed two 1L carton of soymilk (my favourite) at this cheap supermarket thingo. I also managed to persuade Mark discreetly to come with me to Knox to get dad's present. My 'excuse' to dad to let me off at Knox Shopping mall was that I wanted to go to the library. Which was true.

~Saturday Afternoon~

Went straight to business; actually, I stopped by at Game to get my longed Wii games (Okami and Super Mario Galaxy) and thankfully there was a sale on; but I couldn't find Okami *cry* but the latter was easily located; anyway, managed to purchase SMG for $20 less off it's original price! Score! Was originally $99.99. Then I saw De Blob for $49.99 - original price $79.99. Definite buy. And guess what? Mark paid for it!! Hahahaha, didn't need to spend my money. What? He has like more than $2000+ in his account! But I did have to shout him a Fruit Flo from New Zealand Natural (too overpriced!)

Back to business. Found the right cologne for dad. I was glad I bought Mark with me cos my nose wasn't functioning properly yet and we chose a really subtle Pal Zileri. Had a hard time choosing between the 50mL bottle or the 100mL bottle as I was worried that dad might not like it and I'll just be wasting money buying the 100mL bottle if he never uses it so we opted for the 50mL bottle. Paid the 44 something odd dollars for it and went hunting for a birthday card (I would have preferred to make it myself but I didn't have time to buy card and make it in time for dinner. I could have gone out and bought the card earlier during the week you might ask. Well, problem was, I still had my exams. Also bought a nice, little, snug bag -for the present mind you, not for me, though one would be fine too :D. Walked 20mins home from the mall. I had to sneak the present in. Then I quickly wrapped the gift, made the ice-cream cake, got everyone to write in the card.

~Saturday Evening~

Ate a measly dinner of instant noodles; didn't have time to cook an extravagant meal as mum was working and dad was not allowed to cook anyway since it was his birthday. Besides, time wasn't in our favour that week. I urged them to hurry and eat and clean the tables and dishes before we bring out the cake. I made two separate ones. Of course I did not mix the mango yogurt ice-cream with le hazelnut gelato - they just don't go well together. The hazelnut ice-cream cake was mixed with a packet of Oreos (crushed) with an oatmeal biscuit base; the mango yogurt ice-cream was just that, nothing added atop same oatmeal biscuit base.

The result?

(Dad's getting really old D:)

We sang 'Happy Birthday'. Took some photos. Dad got uncooperative and did not blow out the candles, instead he did the frantic wave of the hand thing...sigh...then we dug into the cake, everyone liked it. I loved it, haha, 'specially the Oreos one (I love Oreos) Then I made everyone go to the living room for sharing and stuff. We had 'fellowship' together saying encouraging stuff to dad and I (whisper it) cried. Dad too shed a few tears. I told him that (I'm paraphrasing cos I can't remember exactly what I said) "We just want you (dad) to know that we know every little thing that you do for us; cooking for us even though you come home from work exhausted and drained; looking after me during my exams, 'massaging' my feet (it's an Chinese thing - like acupuncture but without needles. Apparently your big toe is your head and if you have a head ache or smtg massage it. Haha) when I was sick; praying for me; encouraging me; going to the market every Saturday to buy food for the family; all those that you do for the family even though you have a lot on your plate and we don't thank you enough. So I, we, just wanted to thank you and let you know that we appreciate you and continue to tell you that we are here to journey with you through your hard times etc etc." All that was said through many pauses because I kept wanting to burst into tears...IT'S SO HARD CONVEYING WHAT YOU WANNA SAY WHEN YOU FEEL LIKE CRYING. GAH. But I managed. Yay. Then dad was allowed to open his present. And I immeadiately went and smelt it cos I wanted to triple check that the perfume was the right one. Thank God dad liked it, (I high-fived Mark) it had a really nice, not-too-strong smell that suits him. Thank God we chose correct.

I guess that was it for the day, we finished off with a thanksgiving prayer. Just giving thanks for God's numerous blessings then dad went off to take a shower. As for me, I Super Mario Galaxy-ed all night (finally) LoL. Mark went off again, to his beloved Albatross18 game...Esther le...I think she watched me SMG-ing...Mum went back to reading this Chinese romance novel. hah.

All in all, we had a very meaningful day; I think it was a much needed day after everything we'd gone through this year.

Happy 47th Dad! Love you!!!

Pre, During & Post - Exam Feelings

Last week has been pretty miserable for me. First, I got sick- AGAIN - (ate too much salted cashews and not drank enough water). So the sore throat came. What's more, I had a cold as well...that time I was thinking God must have hated me/wanted to punish me/test me/other let that happen to me when I had 3 more exams to go. So I was pretty down after I did my Vis Comm exam on Tuesday and had no motivation at all to study for my Art exam coming up on Friday.

Thoughts like: I'd do badly no matter how much effort I put into my revision so why bother in the first place? I might not even get the score I need to enter into Health Science and Deakin. So why bother at all?? were constantly cycling around in my mind. I could not bring myself to trust in God and His guidance during my exams and of my future; I felt that God does not want me to do well in my VCE because of some other 'greater' plan that He has for me. A plan that I will not be happy with.

But then this reminded me of the Israelites and how they complained and opposed God and His plans for them to enter into the promised land. They were faithless and ungrateful- they were proud, they did not trust God to lead them - just like me. And what did God do? He punished them again and again, still they argued and complained - too stubborn and forgetful.

That's right, forgetful of all the great things that God had done for them during the journey through the dessert - He gave them manna and quail when there was no food; water from a rock; pillar of fire by night and a pillar of cloud by day to guide and find suitable camping grounds for them; devine protection and strength against enemies and sooo much more.

Anyway, I've finally finished my 12 years of school on Friday the 14th. Amazingly, given the limited time I had to revise due to my being sick, I was able to write well for it. I guess, like Dad said, God wanted to test my faith in Him. Even though it's all over, I don't feel 'happy'. I guess I'm still a bit uncertain about my future. I don't know if I did well enough. I'm convinced I stuffed my exams...and consequently...my future. *crai* BUT in reading Exodus through to Deuteronomy; it taught me to fear God more and to humble myself to Him, letting Him drive the car that is my life. And also to not forget the countless blessings He has given me during hard times and to be patient in waiting to see the 'big picture' God has already painted, just not unveiled fully. I will continue to trust in Him, knowing that whatever He plans is in the end so much better than my own.

Polymer Clay

Since it's my very last year at school, I wanted to give my teachers a gift but I didn't know what to give that's meaningful and long-lasting (of course I want them to remember me!) So I decided to hand make cute keychains/charms out of polymer clay (some sort of clay-like material that you can mold into different shapes based on PVC).

I went to Riot to get some after my study session at the library. Discovered that they were on sale for $2.99; if not they'd cost about $4.75 per 56g (picture 6 blocks of Cadbury Old Gold - yah, very exp for so LITTLE) I went and bought six different colours at once *piggybank cries* without even trying it out first because I did not wanna pay the full price (sale ends tomorrow, see)

Haven't experimented with them yet but I'll get around to doing that either sometime during this week or the next depending on how much revision I've done. I've never used polymer clay before so I don't know whether my gifts will be successful. I don't even know what I want to make...

Look at some of the sculptures. How can they look so real???? It's clay wadddd...

AND LOOK AT THAT!

(professional clay modeller - Garie Sim from Sg.)

I wanna get good like them....someday....someday....