Catching up

Have been looking forward to this dinner where I could catch up with 2 of my ex-colleagues- one has left the service while the other has gone onto another school. Its not only the catching up, but I also looking forward to the food and the thought of just having a girls' night out thrills me!

This is probably one aspect what I like about being a woman..that we hang out together to talk, eat nice food and shop.

Anyway, we met up with Clarke Quay MRT station where we walked to Robertson Quay for dinner at "The Hannibals".

We all shared the food. Had pizza

Had Grissini Al Proscuitto which is basically hand rolled bread sticks wrapped in Parma ham.

Then a Spring Chicken, beef burger and finally Osaado, Chardonnay White wine from San Juan, Argentina

There's the 4 of us (clockwise direction from me: Wendy, Sham and Elene)

Coincidentally, during dinner, met my ex-NIE friend, Seow Cheong and CT's colleague, Anthony and Salynn. What a small world.

After dinner, we shared a cab home..had a wonderful time!

JB Shopping

Since June, we have not been back Malaysia. My sister-in-law, Linda suggested going together so we thought, "why not?". We went to AEON Tebrau City which is nearby the Causeway. I did some shopping while waiting for my in-laws to arrive.

After meeting up, we gathered for lunch at a Japanese steamboat restaurant. I loved it as its healthy and cheap!

Check out the Kid's Menu..

Each person probably costs about S$15 which is reasonable for steamboat. Check out the spread we had..

And there's the cousins who insisted on sitting together..

Then we broke off for 3 hours to do our own shopping before gathering back together for supermarketing and dinner. We had chicken rice for dinner and we ordered way too much as the price was so deceiving!

We had steam chicken, bean sprouts, bean curd, BBQ chicken, kueh pai tee, gado gado, fish ball soup for the price of about $60 ringgit. The children were having fun together!

We had a wonderful time together! Went back so tired..

Tree Top Walk @ MacRitchie

Given the long weekend because of Public Holiday, CT decided to bring the family to MacRitchie to climb the Tree Top Walk. Walking up to the Tree Top Walk was not tiring though it was almost 4km.

Even Caleb and Danielle were walking ahead of us and leading the walk.

It was manageable walking to the bridge..

The walk on top was fun! Caleb and Danielle were not scared despite the height and see through floor.

Even Danielle was running

The scenery was breathtaking...

After the Tree Top Walk, we detoured to the Jelutong Tower which was about 700m away. But to go there, we also had to walk back..so it was a 1.4km walk in total just for the detour.

It was this detour to the tower that made us tired...as the tower was 7 stories high!

So on the way back to the carpark, Danielle and I were exhausted. Danielle was complaining while I sucked it up to encourage her instead, though in my mind, I was dying under the scorching sun!

As for Caleb, he was still going strong and walking right in front of all of us!

Along the whole journey, there were a number of monkeys which kept the children entertained.

When I finally saw the carpark, I was so happy. The walk back was really long and endless. All in all, we walked about 8-9km! Almost died.

Had lunch at Thomson Plaza and after lunch, CT asked Caleb if he would like to go back to walk in the forest now and Caleb said YES!

Good grief!

Dance in the rain

Now that my students are sitting for their O levels, in a way, I can say my holidays has started though we still have to report back to school for 4 hours until the Primary School students and teachers have their holiday. With more time now in my hands, I have more time to think and reflect on what I have done and what I need to do...

I love to take quiet moments like this to just reflect and pray about my thoughts and plans..

Recently, I went to Popular Bookstore and picked up this book.

The reason why I got this book because I was so interested in the things these 2 girls did. They wrote their bucket list and went all over the world to fulfill them and the adventures they came across etc...

Basically, I have always been an adventurous girl with the thought that I only get to live my life once..why not do it? That sounds like a scary statement which I would wish my daughter would never say this but hey, I set myself boundaries and am clear of my responsibilities. So its not a statement which leads me to just let loose and forget everything, but one that means living my life to the fullest and enjoying it to the best of my abilities.

I mentioned briefly to my mum about this book and how I want to do something like that in travelling the world with my best friend and she responded by saying that these are all man's plans and that set me off thinking..

As a Christian, I know that God's plans are always the best...because He knows way ahead of us what is to happen and because He loves us, He will always have the best plans for our life if we follow Him and obey Him. But on the other hand, we, mortal beings, just want to lead our own lives sometimes and find our own happiness, which most of the time, deviates from God's plan because we are short sighted and we probably just want to be in the moment and enjoy it.

I have been thinking a lot recently with the amount of free time I have as I have friends who come up to me with their problems- financial, marital, family, health etc.. and many of such problems set me thinking again.

Life is so full of choices and with one choice you make, you set yourself on a different path, not knowing whether you did the right thing or not. So most of the time, people would rather stay in their comfort zone and bear whatever struggles or obstacles that come their way. They live in acceptance- accepting that their life will always be so terrible (they concluded that its their way of life) and to let things take its course, crossing their fingers that by staying, the problem will just disappear. On the other hand, there will be those that goes all out in finding happiness for themselves thinking that life out there must be better and there must be happiness outside of my life's situation now waiting for me.

I definitely do not have the answers for you as I do not think its a matter of who is right or who is wrong...or which choice is better.

But all I do know that happiness should not be found and depended on situations or people. For you know that they are not dependable. Situations change all the time..People have mood swings and they change too. How many times have we been disappointed with people, especially the ones we love? Do you really want to place your happiness on things that are not reliable? on things that always change? I find that rather tiring and my decision is to place my trust on something that never change.

If you are at a point where you are just so tired of life and the things that happen around you or the people that disappoint you, why don't you try just placing your hope and trust on someone dependable..who stays the same yesterday, today and forevermore...someone who has plans to prosper you and not to harm you.

Don't you need such love and security?

Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. (Isaiah 40:28-31)

So with all these in mind, I still have my dreams, my plans but at the end of it all, if God has a better plan and shows it to me, I will follow as He knows best! In Jeremiah 29:11 he said- "For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

Take heart, your life can be better!