Australia! - Great Ocean Road

I had a great time in Australia with my parents, sister and family friend. We visited many places... Here are some wonderful photos:
PS: This post is still under construction.

- Changi Airport: Mum, Aunty Doris, Me

Transfer Bus to Perth Domestic Airport: It's very cold in Perth!

In Spore, we take free Skytrain from one terminal to another. In Australia, you take transfer bus which requires you to pay. We didn't have to pay because we are Qantas passengers. Hmmx...no wonder some airports are world class and others are far from it. Hees, I very mean!

Don't my parents look so good together?! =D

Best friends!

From Changi airport, we took a flight to Perth then to Melbourne. Melbourne is the first place we went. It's beautiful! The most memorable of all is the first day when we drove down Great Ocean Road. Melbourne is in the south of Australia. It has a stretch of road a long the South Ocean (if I'm not wrong). I don't particularly like to do sight seeing during tours cause I find it boring. But GOR blew me away with it's magnificient sights and breath-taking views. As it's winter, it's very cooling...freezing in the morning and when night falls..but just cooling in the afternoon. So you can imagine...nice wind blowing at you while you're so captivated by these wonderful sights.

Breakfast

Grace made tea using this metal pail. She puts the tea powder and hot water in the pail and mixes them by swinging it. She says the gravity will cause the tea to be pushed to the bottom of the pail and it won't fall off =P Cool! Haven't tried at home yet. Haha.

1st stop after breakfast

Toilet Break

Cape Patton: just a nice place to enjoy the scenery

Look at the back! That's my house...in the future. Haha. There are many vacation houses that overlook the South Ocean. *WAH!* I don't mind owning one of those. Solution: either I become so wealthy and buy a house there, or marry someone rich and make him buy it for me as a wedding gift...haha. Wake up Gloria!!!!

We saw a few Koalas. This was the nearest and largest. The rest were high up and hiding behind the leaves. Koalas are very fragile, they either have lesser ribs or weak ribs (can't rmb which is it). But it's not good to hug or cuddle koalas. They always cling onto the branches because the type of leaves that they eat do not give them energy for activities more than clinging. Haha.

Maits Rest Rainforest

We took a walk in the rainforest and saw trees hundreds of years old.

Apostles

Big Bang

three...four....five.....SIXOLOGY!

These guys really blew everyone off their feet at Arena last friday!
*So glad that they won*
The team that got 2nd - Class Act - was awesome. They were in their 17/18 and yet they did a great job too. The rest of the bands...hmmx... =D


Kim: my guitar teacher. Fantastic guitarist and vocalist!

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More pictures with bernice, who's on holiday now : so gotta wait 2 more weeks..

Beijing 101

I did hair extension last tuesday at city plaza, paya lebar! There are a few shops at level 2 that does this. I paid $72, Yanx paid $120..I've got too little hair. Guess that's the 1st benefit I found for having lesser hair. Hair extension is the most dramatic change I have done to my hair. I like to dye and cut my hair but very often my hair always end up looking the same after a week or two no matter how I try to cut or dye differently. This time it's a drastic change =D Good to hear compliments *phew* But it's really a chore to maintain it...especially when it's not your own hair. Washing takes 20mins, it's difficult to dry, my head can get itchy, it's distracting at times and hinders my sleeping position. Well, beauty comes with a price!

Thanks for the pics, Yanx..


This is my last hair-do (when I first emerge out of the hair salon) about 4 months ago.


hmm... why am i smiling like that? Guess I feel weird taking pictures alone.


I wouldn't have done it without Yanx. Haha.


Think I might add colourful and bright extents the next time.


*tar-da*




Isn't Yanx gorgeous?


Hehe. The back of my hair...this is really long...but this is the actual extents minus one inch!

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Relationship status

[This is a long post! Hope you've the tenacity to finish if you're reading it =D]

Finally exams are over... and I've started my 3 months holiday! I reallt wanna make this holiday a fruitful and exciting one.

I have been wanting to put up this post for quite some time but have been suffering from the P-syndrome (P for procrastinating, haha). Well, facebook is the in thing now. When you look at people's profile, some people display their relationship status. You can choose your relationship status as either single, in a relationship, engaged, married, it's complicated or in an open relationship.

I was just thinking, what's the difference between a dating and a married relationship. These days the lines are so blur because so many married couples divorce and non-married couple cohabit. I don't think I wanna discuss whether divorce or cohabition is right or wrong. But there definitely are differences between dating and a marriage.

I don't think dating and marriage are on the same spectrum. You don't get married just because you've dated the person very long though dating for some time will help to make the decision to get married. Marriage is a relationship where two people have pledged themselves to each other in a manner of a husband and a wife. It requires a come-what-may commitment, through high waters and deep valleys, thick & thin kind of love and lives that are inseparably intertwined. Dating relationship has no pledge to each other. Each couple still live their separate lives and comes together on every date and parts when differences are too much to bear. I think one very important element that is missing in dating is the come-what-may commitment.

Part of a poem "I need you" said this about marriage:

...
There is no longer the choice as to what we will share.
We will either share all of life or be fractured persons.
I didn't marry you out of need or to be needed
We were not driven by instincts or emptiness;
We made a choice of love

- Jerry and Barbara Cook

I really love this poem. It really depicts marriage. It's quite interesting to hear how young dating couples telling each other they wanna marry each other. I've heard the girl calling her boyfriend "lao gong" and guy calling the girl "lao po". How many of them really understand what it means to be married?

Relationship with Jesus is like a marriage. I started out by "dating" him, because I chose to let him love me and be pampered by his love. Commitment? Well, let me think about it...Didn't have to take long to make that decision cause after awhile, I realize if I "date" him (=go to church and enjoy cgm) every week, it means that sometimes during the weekends when my family has activities and my friends have gatherings, I have to make some arrangements or may occassionally forgo them. And this can sometimes be inconvenient. But I'll did it cause I decided to date him, instead of playing an open relationship or just networking (like what facebook relationship status has or like what some people do).

Then there come times when I prayed, I worked hard, I was not too bad but I didn't do so well in my studies, relationships, faced many disappointments and failure which are sometimes due to my own mistakes and because sometimes bad things just happen to anyone. So the question becomes, should I continue to "date" Jesus who is invisible to my natural eyes and who some people say if I hang out with him, everything is going to be a bed of roses? Well, I told myself...I'm in the relationship already. I'll just stick around him and see what he's got for me.

Now, I'm older. I am been greatly blessed, given many opportunites, more successful, have so many responsibilities... then I think, I have many important things to do and I like doing them. Do I still want to "date" him? Cause if I date him, means, I may have less time for things which I am now excelling in. By this time, when I look back and see how he helped me through the times when I am most down and most rejected by others. I remembered when I ignored and hurt him, he still tells me he loves me. He has been supporting, inspiring, strengthening, believing and loving me. And he just never fails to be there when I called him. How can I forsake him even though the opportunities I have in life seem so golden and hard to come by? Well, I will stay on with him. Because I don't want to go on "dating" Jesus. I prefer to give him all my commitment and love, much like a "married" relationship. Because I'm not better off without him.

We all either watched on tv or saw in real life how a spouse got tempted by an attractive individual and forsook the marriage. Or how either one person in the marriage got caught up with work as a result of pursuing ccess in career and loss the marriage. This doesn't mean we don't get married. Because marriage is more beautiful than a dating relationship. When we see an old couple walking hand in hand and strolling in the park, even a person who never wants to get married, will melt at this scene and somehow hoped that will happen to him/her. A successful marriage has the greatest joy and produces the greatest satisfaction in life. And successful marriage comes only with unconditional commitment. Commitment sounds like a huge thing and it means choices must be made. But it's worth every bit of it. And even more so when you have a perfect partner.

Thank you Jesus for your faithfulness in this "marriage" relationship that I will always want to be in.

World Peace

It's been a long time since I've blogged. Now it's the exam period and I've been buried under books, lecture notes and lotsa information. Finally, I can resurface and take a breath before I submerge into economics and cognitive psy again. Haha. So glad to see people tagging my blog =)

Anyway, this period of time is challenging for me. More than just studying 12hours everyday...there are many areas of my life that I had to deal with and needed a breakthrough. With multiplying pressures and stress just piling up, I begin to experience panic attacks. Panic attacks are basically feeling anxious without a cause and this anxiety disrupts one's ability to do anything for a period of time. For a few nights, I will be suddenly gripped with fear and anxiety in my heart...not because I was thinking or worrying about something. But this anxiousness steals the peace in my heart without warning and can last for hours. After which I will not be able to do anything.

After battling with this for a week, I became frustrated enough to finally decide to put a stop to it. I started crying out to God in prayer and asked for peace to fill my heart. Whenever I prayed, peace and calmness enters my heart. But when I stopped praying, fear came back again. So I had to pray a few times before this anxiety stopped.

This is the 3rd week since my first panic attack started. And thank God it has left me. I realized the importance of having peace in your heart. Without peace, it's like living in a war zone. Now I truly understood why Jesus is the prince of peace and have come to gave us peace. People are trying to go on vacations to some secluded island, do meditations and listen to calming music to get serenityd tranquility. Yea, it does work and has benefits but only temporary or superficially. Thank God I've a better way to get peace that will remain and that is always available just by praying.

Ok, that's all for tonight. Needa catch some rest! Exams are going to end on 7th May. Can't wait for the 3.5months holiday. Gonna do relief teaching, learn guitar & driving, go for a holiday and have honeymoons with God =)

The Man Must Get It!

I'm feeling real tired walking from the Central Library back to my hostel with 5 heavy books. On my way, I met at least 4 guys. But none offered to help. Once, I even dropped by book upon reaching the entrance of my hostel and all the guy did was to help me pick it up. I was obviously struggling with those books and as a gentleman, he could have asked if I needed help with the books.

As a girl, I help my girl friends to carry their things when I see they have much to carry. If guys don't rise up to the occassion, no wonder girls have to take over roles like opening doors, carrying things etc. I'm not sexist but you're only a male by birth and a MAN BY CHOICE!

Take responsibility guys! Serve the ladies and treat them well...then you'll be assured that your girl will adore you and submit to you willingly and wholeheartedly!