=)

The Ant and the Contact Lens:

a true story



Brenda was almost halfway to the top of the tremendous granite cliff. She was standing on a ledge where she was taking a breather during this, her first rock climb. As she rested there, the safety rope snapped against her eye and knocked out her contact lens . 'Great', she thought. 'Here I am on a rock ledge, hundreds of feet from the bottom and hundreds of feet to the top of this cliff, and now my sight is blurry.'
She looked and looked, hoping
that somehow it had landed on the ledge. But it just wasn't there.
She felt the panic
rising in her, so she began praying. She prayed for calm, and she prayed that she may find her contact lens.

When she got to the top, a friend examined her eye and her clothing for the lens, but it was not to be found. Although she was calm now that she was at the top, she was saddened because she could not clearly see across the range of mountains. She thought of the bible verse 'The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth.'

She thought, 'Lord, You can see all these mountains. You know every stone and leaf, and You know exactly where my contact lens is. Please help me.'

Later, when they had hiked down the trail to the bottom of the cliff they met another party of climbers just starting up the face of the cliff. One of them shouted out, 'Hey, you guys! Anybody lose a contact lens?'

Well, that would be startling enough, but you know why the climber saw it? An ant was moving slowly across a twig on the face of the rock, carrying it!

The story doesn't end there. Brenda's father is a cartoonist. When she told him the incredible story of the ant, the prayer, and the contact lens, he drew a cartoon of an ant lugging that contact lens with the caption, 'Lord, I don't know why You want me to carry this thing. I can't eat it, and it's awfully heavy. But if this is what You want me to do, I'll carry it for You.'

I think it would do all of us some good to say, 'God, I don't know why You want me to carry this load. I can see no good in it an d it's awfully heavy. But, if You
want me to
carry it, I will.'

God doesn't call the qualified, He qualifies the called.

Yes, I do love GOD. He is my source of existence and my Savior. He keeps me functioning each and every day Without Him, I am nothing, but with Him... I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me. (Phil. 4:13)

ONE MONTH.

gimme a min while i try to clear the cobwebs hanging around in my blog!haha.

ok.i admit, i have neglected my blog for quite a while.my longest yet!my apologies. i am always lazy to update, especially when i reach home so late everytime=(

hmm, for starters boulderactive 2009 IS OVER!"sighs in relief" and yet im kinda missing it. during the whole boulderactive weekend, it felt almost as if i had no more schooL!i did not touch a single set of notes nor checked my NUS email!for 3 whole days!and when it was back to school on Mon, i kinda lost the momentum to do my work!haha.bad bad bad. had a hand at being the emcee for this year's boulderactive event. learnt alot from kiat on how to emcee as well as how an event shd be run. im glad i am able to learn new stuff everyday=)

well, didnt do too well at the Open qualifiers, a lil disappointed, everyone told me to blame it on my injury, but seriously, i didnt feel as if my injury did hinder me from climbing.sigh.it did hurt, but then again, i guessed if it didnt, i might still be at the same climbing level.sigh sigh sigh. ok.enough of complaining. time to start training hard AFTER MY pulley injury is healed. (better say AFTER, else Jansen will kill me) guess i could start with eating a lil lesser since i will not be climbing alot these few weeks?heh heh.DIETING STARTS TOMORROW! once again.

WELL, this post is not just about clearing cobwebs or whining about boulderactive. but i would like to dedicate it to JANSEN=)having being together for 1 month since FEB 15 2009!short as it may seem, but we both agreed it felt like we've been together for like eternity?heh heh.dont know why, but i felt as if i had known him for ages, and yet, i still want to spend more time with him.

THANK YOU:
- for sacrificing your time you could spend on tutorials with me=)
- for going out of the way to send me home always=)
- for being my Loan Shark when i cannot find an ATM in time.=)
- for remembering what i like and dont like=)
- for finally being able to recite my handphone number without getting it wrong or using zhi jian's hp number to pass off as mine=)

well, heres to many more months and years to come Jansen=)thank you and my God continue to bless our relationship!

okies. im back to my bed and start another day with gratefulness to God for leading my life.

of cakes,chocolate and presents!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MUMMY dear!=0

shant reveal her age, coz i might be killed by her if i do anyway=)hhha.went looking for her present this afternoon. and got her a beautiful handbag and a pair of nice slippers=)hha.thank God i bought the right size!no need to go change.and she loved the handbag.double PHEW=)

bought myself a nice sweet pair of slippers at the same time=)yay!happy!

anways, after service, it was pretty happening, for once, most of us youths didnt have anything on and so the whole bunch of us middle-aged youths decided to go to PS!this is probably one of the first times we have gone out as a big group. and it was fun!making noise and having a great time. ate till we burst at Manhatten Fish market. Marcus and i had a bet on which one of us would see a friend we knew first. Loser treat ice cream.this was already the 2nd time we tried playing this game. the 1st time failed, we didnt get to meet any friends. and so today at PS ma. so central sure bound to bump into someone rite!?!?hhha.and so our search and radar was turned on the whole time, even during lunch!hhha.we were gettin desparate. no. marc was getting so desperate to find a friend he knew.

while ordering our dishes, marcus suddenly called out a waitress by her name IVY, and shouted at her "hey!remember me?im from your primary school!"for that moment, my heart sank. I HAD LOST=(siighh.but i didnt quite believe, so i prompted the girl, i asked if she really recognised marc, that poor girl looked soo scared and shy!and i realised she didnt know who marcus was!that liar, cheater,floP!hhha.he tricked everyone at the table. thank God it wasnt his friend. and so the day closed with both of us not finding someone we knew individually. mutual friends dont count.boooo

had dinner with my family and grandma at Central!ate billy bombers. my grandma managed to finish a roast chicken meal all on her own, while my sis,mum and i had to share one of that meal!can u beat that!hhha.and she kept saying, no rice no rice. thats why can finish.. thing is, there was potato salad as well, and she finished that!hhha.amazing.

had a good day with jansen yesterday after our sports massage. painful but shiok after that!went to Macritchie where it started to drizzle. sat under a tree to talk. it can really go on forever=)apart from lizards, bugs and flies and the rain. everything else was beautiful!

sigh. i wished they wouldnt behave this way. it hurts my heart when they do it. =(

i promise never to be like them when i am on my own in future.NO WAY.

SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER!

its saturday!no school means no homework!GOSH.i miss saying that.

anw, met jansen at cityhall to get his handphone repaired.that poor boy's hp died on him!!!so as of today, he is phone-less and uncontactable!he said he didnt mind, freedom from having to report to anyone. come to think of it, the handphone has become such a close and intimate part of us that our day might go haywire without it!jansen even had to wear a watch which he hardly wore because his handphone which used to tell him the time could not fulfill that role right now.hence his watch came in to take over the role!and yes, i would think that 1 day without my handphone, my world would probably be in a mess. like all my appointments how how how!hhha.esp with me always being late.ehh.wait.SOMETIMES LATE, so need the hp to be accountable rite=)anw, yea, i really wonder how our parents survived those times when the word handphone was unheard of. i remember i got my first hp when i was in pri 6!a motorala startex!it even had an antenna which had to be pulled out before making a call!how cool is that!and yet now the smaller the phone and a hidden antenna is the fad!siighh.i would never forget my first ZHAI phone.nokia 3310!in Sec 1, everyone had that phone in school and came the all challenging and exciting game.SNAKES!hhhha.whenever we had breaks, every student would be seen whipping out their 3310s or 3210s and competing with each other in the snake game. and as i grew older and bigger in size, the handphones grew lighter and smaller in size.sigh.i would so like that to happen to me.but i know it never will.so STOP DREAMING FEL.


back to hps, i really wouldnt mind givin up my hp for a month!and just go about my daily activities without it. but i guess it might be impossible because everyone else would still have a hp and be trying to contact me when i dont even have one!tough tough it is. maybe i could just go to an island and stay there, then the handphone-less me would probably be able to survive pretty well there!but yea. in time to come in time to come.

went down to support jansen and the rest of the NUS people for their catagories today at SMU!downpour but that didnt stop supporters from coming down!i am so waiting for the day everyone has tried climbing before and even fall in love with it like how i fell in love with it when i started it out in JC. i have never regretted since. and yes, all of them did very well!congrats to Larissa, Judith, Khairul, Daffodil, Shuhui, Siying , Adrian, Yi Xiong Doris, Sandra, Zhaoxiu ,Jensen, Edwin, Jansen for making it to the finals!allez!

and yes, i am tired and so i am off to bed early tonight. got a whole pile of work waiting for me to be finished before this week comes to an end!sigh.


Today's Prayer

..."Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit," says the Lord Almighty. ~ Zechariah 4:6. Lord, empower me by Your Spirit today. I do not want to do anything out of vanity or just trying to "climb every mountain" on my own. I long to be led by Your Spirit, not by human initiative and man-inspired positive thinking. Please help me to be a positive, joyful person, full of Your Spirit, inspired by Your Word, and busy about Your work as I go through daily life. I pray that all I do will glorify You and be evidence of Your power and Your might and Your Holy Spirit. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.

I AM THANKFUL.

I AM THANKFUL:

FOR THE WIFE
WHO SAYS IT'S HOT DOGS TONIGHT,
BECAUSE SHE IS HOME WITH ME,
AND NOT OUT WITH SOMEONE ELSE.


FOR THE HUSBAND
WHO IS ON THE SOFA
BEING A COUCH POTATO,
BECAUSE HE IS HOME WITH ME
AND NOT OUT AT THE BARS.


FOR THE TEENAGER
WHO IS COMPLAINING ABOUT DOING DISHES
BECAUSE IT MEANS SHE IS AT HOME,
NOT ON THE STREETS.


FOR THE TAXES I PAY
BECAUSE IT MEANS
I AM EMPLOYED.



FOR THE MESS TO CLEAN AFTER A PARTY
BECAUSE IT MEANS I HAVE
BEEN SURROUNDED BY FRIENDS.


FOR THE CLOTHES THAT FIT A LITTLE TOO SNUG
BECAUSE IT MEANS
I HAVE ENOUGH TO EAT.



FOR MY SHADOW THAT WATCHES ME WORK
BECAUSE IT MEANS
I AM OUT IN THE SUNSHINE



FOR A LAWN THAT NEEDS MOWING,
WINDOWS THAT NEED CLEANING,
AND GUTTERS THAT NEED FIXING
BECAUSE IT MEANS I HAVE A HOME.


FOR ALL THE COMPLAINING
I HEAR ABOUT THE GOVERNMENT
BECAUSE IT MEANS
WE HAVE FREEDOM OF SPEECH..


FOR THE PARKING SPOT
I FIND AT THE FAR END OF THE PARKING LOT
BECAUSE IT MEANS I AM CAPABLE OF WALKING
AND I HAVE BEEN BLESSED WITH TRANSPORTATION.


FOR MY HUGE HEATING BILL
BECAUSE IT MEANS
I AM WARM.


FOR THE PILE OF LAUNDRY AND IRONING
BECAUSE IT MEANS
I HAVE CLOTHES TO WEAR.



FOR WEARINESS AND ACHING MUSCLES
AT THE END OF THE DAY
BECAUSE IT MEANS I HAVE BEEN
CAPABLE OF WORKING HARD.



FOR THE ALARM THAT GOES OFF
IN THE EARLY MORNING HOURS
BECAUSE IT MEANS I AM ALIVE.


LIFE IS TOO SHORT TO COMPLAIN ABOUT=)

let us take some time reflecting and count our blessings from God=)

before you shout next time....

Why do we shout in anger?

A saint asked his disciples, 'Why do we shout in anger? Why do people shout at each other when they are upset?' Disciples thought for a while, one of them said, 'Because we lose our calm, we shout for that.' 'But, why to shout when the other person is just next to you?' asked the saint. 'Isn't it possible to speak to him or her with a soft voice? Why do you shout at a person when you're angry?' Disciples gave some other answers but none satisfied the saint.

Finally he explained, 'When two people are angry at each other, their hearts distance a lot. To cover that distance they must shout to be able to hear each other. The angrier they are, the stronger they will have to shout to hear each other through that great distance.'

Then the saint asked, 'What happens when two people fall in love? They don't shout at each other but talk softly, why? Because their hearts are very close. The distance between them is very small...' The saint continued, 'When they love each other even more, what happens? They do not speak, only whisper and they get even closer to each other in their love. Finally they even need not whisper, they only look at each other and that's all. That is how close two people are when they love each other.'

would like to add in my 2 cents worth for this story. we also shout because we think the other party may not want to listen to our explanation. WE ASSUME THEY WOULDNT want to, hence the raising of voice to get one simple point across to the other party. if we can just wait and assume less, we can actually hear the other party on what he/she wants to say first before letting the selfish self in us take the lead. LISTEN FIRST.

MORAL: When you argue do not let your hearts get distant, do not say words that distance each other more, else there will come a day when the distance is so great that you will not find the path to return.

kick punch box!!

yay!!my boxing gloves have arrived!hha.finally, wanted red, but had only 2 red ones left so i decided to go for black!!!


hha.try to imagine this as black!i was a bit lazy to take a picture of my own ones, so got them off the website!!they smelled weird when i first opened it. its made of cow hide!which is leather from cows la.grosss.did a bit of techical pad work today!and gosh, punchin the pads hurt my fingers so much la!probably coz my fingers are pretty much spoilt from climbing, so when i punch in a clenched fist position, even in a padded pair of gloves, my fingers and joints still hurt a lil.siighh

aft muay thai, went to climb for a while with jansen,bernard and kesheng. did a few crazy routes which i obviously didnt finish.hhha.did dinner at subway!i wanted to eat my chilli crab nissin cup noodles. but they were out!THE WORLD IS COMING TO AN END=(so had to settle for prawn flavour which jansen insisted on it being nice.hha.but ok only leh=(i still miss my chilli crab!!

hopped onto 151.which was crazily crowded!i had to stand infront of the door la!gosh. at 10pm, still got so many people in NUS. of course dont count the people who stay in halls la!hha.but i guess its the mid terms this week and many have papers that end at 8?gosh.pooor them. thank God i only have one.which is this fri. the rest are all projects=(

managed to get myself a nice nice comfy seat in the bus!cant believe i managed to squeeze in!this is probably the best position ive had in a bus. not only it stops me from rocking left and right when the bus moves, this allows me to sleep properly=)hhha.everyone was giving me wierd stares when they entered the bus.but who cares!i got myself a good comfy seat=)




oh yea. while we are on the topic on buses.hmmm.i shall add in a few thoughts of mine.

i cannot stand people who pretend to ignore an elderly obviously in need of a seat when they have just boarded the bus.grrr.i always stare at the young and obviously abled people when the an elderly person boards the bus with no seats left. makes me disgusted that they dont feel anything for the older people.and i was on 151 today and the bus drove past this man who saw the bus and started running. i promise he must have ran for at least a good 200m to try and catch the bus!!!that poor felle.some more he had to climb a slope to get to the bus stop.and guess what. he missed it. driver didnt see him, OR acted like he didnt see him. despite someone pressing the bell to indicate stop, the driver stopped for less than 2 sec before closing the door and driving off. i wanted to press but too late, the buss was alr out of the bus bay.

well, i;ve seen my fair share of good drivers as well as bad drivers. the ones that irritate me are those who are freaking anal about how much you put into the coin box if u run out of coins. like they make u change notes into coins though u are out of coins. some just let me pass, some insist i pay.and i cant stand those drivers who have obviously seen the people flagging down for the buss but yet still drive past them and pretend they didnt see!sick man. evil to the max!

okies. time to sleep!out!

MARCH TIME

just realised i havent blogged for 2 weeks alr!and its march!!

time does fly.hmmm.was kinda lazy to write anything in my blog for the past few weeks. im online, but just uber lazy to type. so much has happened. lets see, hmm.did surf and sweat on Sunday, came in 13!my first time taking part in the open women's catagory.hha.i was hesitant bt taking part in this cat the previous years because i was worried abt the transiting from the swimming to the running. i always thought it kinda gross to be running when ur whole body is wet!and sticky with sea water!bleach...

but yea. i did it.hhha.and surprisingly, it wasnt abt the wet and sticky shirt and shorts and water dripping down my legs as i ran, i felt pretty good. it was the run that sucked!i took part in this cat, thinkin it was a 4km run.OLY 4KM!so of course i started off my pace according to how i would run 4km la. but as i ran ran ran ran ran ran, the mid way point seemed to be much much further than i thought would be. like how far is 2km rite. i took abt 15 mins to run the halfway mark la!!grrr.i slowed down so much towards the end. out of energy alr.plus the blistering sun!!=(

took abt 30 min to finish the run. and only to realise that the distance was 5.8km!i wanted to kil myself and prob the NTU people for claimin the run was only 4km!darn. i could have paced myself better.hhha.but oh wells, im pretty happy with my run. considerin i busted my knee during the 42km 2 years ago, havent been able to run for more than 4km without feeling pain in my knee usually. so running 5.8km is quite an achievement!=)but of course, my knee felt the same irritating sharp pain after the whole race.

jud and i slacked ard sentosa aft our race, meeting random ex school mates.hhha.swam abit until jud heard she got 9th!congrats.hhha.we quickly swam back to collect her prize. paid $4 to play on some mega trampoline volleyball.hhhha.it was tiring jumping up and down.but something new.

had carls junior for the very first time in my life!!!i am a religious anti beef person!!hhha.so wld nvr thought of trying carls junior. but yea, decided to give it a try. and i love the chilli beef fries!coz the beef amount quite insignificant!!ate super full and andy gave me and jud lift back!so nice of him!!!he and his friend ate at delifrance in sentosa aft surf and sweat.boringgg.hhha

back to serious and intellectual thought.HAHA.hmm.this things been troubling me for months. eversince i stopped serving, i felt kinda "left out".its like all my good friends whom i grew up with are serving happily in jg and im like a slacker. the feeling sucks. for once, im as free as a bird, with almost no committments. yet i dont like this feeling. could it be i started serving too early?and i felt burnt out in the prime years of my life?this feeling is irritating. i keep asking God. why why why. why let me feel this way when im at my peak?i mean im like 21 this year, good to do so many stuff for u, yet i dont even know how to start. i got my climbing, school and of course church. buuuut, people around me dont quite understand my position. cept for my few good friends. and im thankful for u guys, u know who u are=)if u ask me if i regret joinin climbing, i seriously dont. i know my weekends will be taken up by climbing competitions periodically, but im happy when i climb. free from judgement.FROM WHO?i dont know.

God help me.