i'm overjoyed!

our 5th sculling lesson today. again, we were assigned on the double scull. we reached at 830, earlier than the usual 9am coz we wanted to make up for loss h2o time last wk. today's weather was perfect! thank God ;] aft checkin our equipment, we carried the boat out to launch at the pontoon.

as a result of the carrying of the HEAVY scull boat, i'm left wif a blue black on e edge of my shoulder. the scull boat is made of 2 kinds of material. either wood or carbon fibre. walau we kena the tradionally made wooden double scull boat, and its damnnnn super heavy as compared to those made frm carbon fibre. e instructor had taught us how to carry the scull boat, ie to let it rest on the hollow of our shoulder, but i dunno y there's diz protrude on my shoulder tt prevents the boat frm resting snugly on e hollow. wt says its my huge delts..mayb it is ;[

b4 we launched out, we had to fix our oars n lock it. aft tt, we got onto the boat. normally for beginners, we'd go onto it 1 by 1. eg i'd stabilise while wt goes on, or vice versa. today we were under the watchful eye of nicholas, e president of SARA. he instructed us to go onto the boat simultaneously. we looked at him with the 'errr' look. as if it wasn't ald a challenge, he wanted us to kick off e pontoon, position our feet tgt, n sit down at the same time. he really got v high expectation for us la! tts wad professional scullers do. in e end we managed to get onto the boat at the same time tgt, but werent brave enuf to kick off e pontoon, for fear of capsizing. its quite unstable when u get onto it, really.

so we began rowing, practisin our technique. whilst wt tried, i balanced. den we change over. aft tt we started tryin out rowing tgt. we got bored aft a while, coz we had to stay within the boundary, which meant rowing in an imaginary circle marked by mini buoys ard the pontoon. diz meant aft like 10 strokes, we'd have to stop n turn else end up hittin the rocks. then we decided to ask the razemin if we cld try out the race course. mayb coz he trusted us to b on our own, hence he agreed. he allowed us to row a 500m race course. needless to say, we were thrilled!

it was a seemingly impossible task having to keep a straight course. there's no coxwain, so we had to DIY, juz as kayakers do. if its outta course, we gotta counter left or right dependin on situation. Yup n if u dun ald noe, normal row in sculling= gg backwards. managed to finish the 500m race course, but cut into 1 lane. quite a gd feat i felt. heh. we did like 4 sets of tt. initially we row damn fast, but for the last 2 sets we agreed on slowin down to get the strokes right. btw its damn shagged.

when we headed back shore, the only dread was to carry the boat back. yup another rd of shoulder hurting coz of tiz protrudin edge of my shoulder. ahhhh! pain sia. at the end of the lesson, razemin debriefed us n mentioned tt we were doing gd. entry n recovery e same time, but pulling time tend to b different. he said we had split sec diff in recovery, tt i tend to b abit faster than wt. hahah i cldnt help but grin. coz when we were pacers last time we had the same prob. he also cautioned tt our recovery shd be deliberated, much slower so as to prepare for e next perfect stroke. pull fast..recover VERY slow.

as we were abt to head off, nicholas stopped us. he asked wt n i if we were still studyin n i said i was ald workin. he mentioned abt diz ASEAN University Sculling Competition held in KL in nov. he said tt he emailed s*rc to inform them but no response. he wld like to to train (crash course) a team of 8 gals and 8 guys to take part in tiz. he said tt accomodation is free, juz gotta pay for the bus ride. when he finished telling us n we turned our heads n left, both of us looked at each other n said unanimously, 'so exciting!!'

but as we talked abt it, we sighed. 'chances r quite low leh. considering u all gotta train for regatta, plus diz is additional trg on top of u existing trg' anw i think its damn cool if anyone gets trained under nicholas, coz his expectations r insanely high, it makes me wanna go for it. the sight of an 8-men scull will b super beautiful if it can be coordinated like clockwork. i wished i cld go. it'll be so cool! not for the medals but really for the experience. till now i still keep aside tt bronze medal for quads scull. paiseh to mentioned abt it.

sigh..how to find 8 pple? anyone interested?

went to watch 2 movies with twin. she chose 1 while i chose the other. she wanted to watch 'savage grace', some r21 show. erm, its quite disturbing but at the end of the show i juz looked at her n said, 'can u tell me wad e hell juz happened?' its too profound for my understandin. ok there was incest, let's see, e son is a by product of a dysfunctional family. his sexual orientation is..undefined. hah i mean, he's gay, n den he has an incest r/s with his mum. so at the end of e show i'm like, 'seriously wad e hell juz happened?' too chim for my understanding.

my turn to choose a movie. i juz love to watch comedy, or romance comedy. aka no brainer. those r my fav genre of movies to watch. i made her watch 'i now pronouce u chuck n larry' it's a show abt 2 guys who r as straight as can b, but are forced to improvise n hide their identity. its damn hilarious. there was diz part where adam sandler had to assume the identity of the effiminate one, n be 姐妹 wif diz hot lawyer tt he's actually in love with. the way she made her feelings known to him is so, aww heartbreaking. 'all the gd men r either gay, or married. well, u r both.'

gd plot. recommended to watch if u nd a gd luff, n even sob (a little). i noe both of us teared a little.

truly had fun today.

i dunno y i'm so exhausted. mayb my body's still adapting to work life. ytd was fri nite. i chose not to go out. instead, i decided to go home straight aft work. had dinner, wanted to take a nap, but it turned out to be a 12hr full sleep. yup, i slept frm 8pm to 8am the next morning.

had dinner wif my colleagues at a japanese restaurant aft work on wed. it was quite a simple affair. i like my colleages coz they r extremely funny. there's 2 guys, thomas n willy, who r always conversing in hokkien. frm them i actually learn to understand hokkien better. there was once, thomas was saying how in his previous job, there were so many ginna working with him, all those born in 86 87..muz be all the BTC kind. (he said it in hokkien)

being curious, i asked him, 'wads BTC?'

he answered, 'BTC u dunno ah? Bo Tak Chek (cannot study) la..' we gals burst out luffing when we heard it.

today's a sat. wanted to swim in e morning, but laziness got the better of me. even aft the full 12 hrs sleep, i continued to nap another 2hrs aft clearin the newspapers. b4 i knew it, it was ald 1pm. decided to change into my swimmin/gymming attire n headed to the sports complex.

walau! to my extreme horror, i found out i didnt bring money. hence it meant i cld neither gym nor swim, coz both required entrance fee. since it was a 15min walk to the sports complex, i decided tt i shouldnt waste my time. dragged myself to the track n did..fartlek. it was 2pm n the sun was scorching.

ahhhh.

went for 1 rd of warm up, den subsequently did 4 sets of 400m sprints. by the 4th rd i was panting my heart out. was totally breathless. initially i set <1:50min, subsequently i revised my target to <1:55min. wasnt in my form today. performance fluctuated quite abit for the 4 rds. normally its pretty consistent wif varying 1-2sec diff, today it was like 5-6sec apart. anw i was talkin to myself as usual, during n aft the run. 'cindy, like tt how to complete a marathon?'

tsk. not gd. n bcoz i didnt bring $ n hence denied of entering the gym, im not able to complete my weekly exercise plan.

juz came back an hr ago frm IMM. aft work, i went IMM to meet up e ex-doubles for dinner n den shop.

had dinner at diz HK cafe. walau those 2 ah, damn cheeky. keep makin fun of me. hrmf. even till diz day, aft i dress up in workin clothes n exlude femininity, i still nv manage to break away frm associating wif tt 'man' word. they said i look metrosexual. ahhhh..tts like, diaoz -_-^

aft tt we went shopping. ok, they went. as usual, i cant find stuff i fancy. im hard to please. or mayb i dun venture n try on new stuff. i do NOT look for stuff tt dun cover my arms coz im still self conscious. besides, they havent shrank n i still look muscular.


my legs wanna break..

my weekend

my weekend was spent giving tuition. well u may b wondering y i'm still giving tuition although i'm working ald. do i really nd the money tt badly?

yes! ha actually not really. i dun earn much frm tuition, n in fact my mum scolds me for undercharging my kids.

anw i still give tuition coz i believe 做什么事都应该有头有尾，half way no way, no way..all e way. hahah yup so juz finish it up till e end of the yr n then see if time permits me to carry on.

tutoring jc econs is challenging. i juz do wad i can to help her improve her essay writing n her case studies. im prayin tt she'd make some improvments in her promos. aft tt went to my p3 kid's place. helped her to do e skeleton. u rmb the one we did in p3 science? yup they still do it nowadays. help brush up her english n maths also. all in a day's work.

watched Underdog wif rang n twin in e evening. its a lighthearted show tts funny but not overly hillarious. it was quite cute coz rang called me in e morning, asking me whether there's a cap to the amt tt can b withdrawn frm an ocbc acc. well well, testing me even b4 im on e floor receiving live calls. thankfully i rmb my stuff, n i told her there isnt. anw i still gave a call to the customer service hotline to double comfirm, n den got back to her.

4th lesson of sculling today. instructor said we may have to have more lesson b4 we pass. coz weather hasnt permitted us to go down, n he said we needed more water time. i was kinda sad coz it means more sun mornings spent away frm my family. coz i usually go church wif them on sun mornings but now i attend in e evenings.

anw tts e only thing wt n i were sad abt. apart frm tt(n maybe e fact tt we have to carry the heavy boat out), since its free session anw, we were more than happy to go down heh. today we row on a double scull.

quite exhilarating. initially she rowed while i balance e boat, den we switched over. btw it was quite funny how she exclaimed, 'omg diz feels so gd!' when she started getting e 1st few strokes right, n e boat started gliding beautifully in e reservoir water.

aft we did tt, we tried to row tgt. woah damn shiok! although we didnt sychronise until like how e professionals do it, we were somewhere there. heh.

but happiness is short-lived. soon there was lightning n we all had to head back to e pontoon n back to shelter. tt was e end of our, 20min water session.

my week

had a test on tues. the total marks was 75 and in order to pass, we were supposed to score 85% or better. n who ever thought being a CSE was easy? next wk i'd have 2 more tests.

went back campus to run on wed. 6km route is manageable la. i realised i havent been eating fruits regularly, which is kinda contributing to my discomfort during runs. keep wanting to shit badly..n when we finally come back, id make a dash to the toilet n bomb.

n its like, ouuch. all the lack of fruits means lack of lubrication. which means, its damn painful. ok, spare the details. hah

no plans on thurs nite, apart frm reaching home n aft having dinner, i juz miraculously took a nap at 8pm and found myself awake 6am the next morning. received a call at 10pm, n den in a groggy state, i realised how tired/pathetic i am aft work. my body juz havent gotten used to work, still adapting.

went out wif wt n bc on fri nite. it was an impromptu/last min meet up. ate at the village at heerens, den shopped. went to chill aft tt n told wt i felt tired when it was 10pm. hahah yah tts me these days. cant stay past 11pm. i'm so sad. i was wearing exactly e same as wad i wore last last sem, diz U2 yellow top, n my jeans (coz its dress down day on fri), but wt said i look more n more like e matric card pic ;[ matric card pic= 30yr old cindy. arghh

kinda like the company culture. we had RnR on fri, its some monthly event. RnR=Rewards and Recognition. its an event whereby the whole department gathers n den the boss will evaluate the performance for the mth, welcome the newbies, see how we can do better, upcoming events, etc.

it was a light hearted thing la. not those boardroom meeting, but at a common area. den we newbies were made to intro ourselves. Ann (e big boss) asked us to intro ourselves, say if we r single or married lol..etc. the usual intro kind. n so the 9 of us took turns to intro. the standard kind la, like for me i said, 'Hi everyone, i'm cindy. juz graduated frm nus..yada yada'

aft all of us finished our intro, ann said, 'u notice smtg? u all failed the 1st crteria of a gd customer service executive. n tt is to listen. none of u told if u were single or married'

hahahaha walau kena tricked! so tts our big boss for u. An extremely capable woman who spearheads both s'pore n malaysia call centre. anw the RnR was quite fun la, even got skit n had pple telling lame stuff. let me share it wif u all:

single-yoke mooncake lady n plain whitebread lady were best friends. one day both of them went to watch titanic at the movies. during the touching scene, whereby Jack died as a result of sacrificing his life for Rose, single-yoke mooncake lady cried so badly. Yet plain whitebread lady was emotionless. Why?
.
.
.
Coz single-yoke mooncake lady got filling! (feeling)

hehe

here's a sneak peek at my work place. ok diz is not exactly my workplace, tiz is where i'm sheltered for 2 mths. subsequently i'd be outside, at the floor, handling 'live' calls frm customers frm all walks of life. nasty, mean, nice, aggresive ones.



tiz is the training room, our table is messy coz there's our files (yah, thick folder with all the stuff we'd nd to noe) as u can see, there's a B-E-A-Utiful view outside. as mentioned, at diz bank it overlooks the regatta site, n back at hsbc its overlooks june race site.
sculling was fun! but quite sad coz quite lonely. i was the only participant who turned up on sun. wt didnt go coz of race, n the other guy wasnt ard. so i kena all the attn, which was quite..intimidating. got e usual 2 instructors, n e president of SARA (Singapore Amateur Rowing Asso.) correcting my strokes, when i did simulation on land coz it was raining heavily n hence no boats cld launch out.

How can there be simulation on land? Well they moved a wooden scull boat n placed it on top of a v thick styrofoam board. den i got onto the scull boat and started rowing on land. er..quite paiseh. coz e president was giving me pointers n given my forgetfulness, i tend to get it right for a while n aft tt forget wad was emphasized. my back was really v 酸 frm ytd's shadow rowing, yet he asked me to get a gd catch. a gd catch position is achieved when i stretch all the way forward, extent my arms out so my back feels the stetchhhh (ouch), n den legs drive first- body- arms last. n i've got some prob squaring the blade b4 it reaches e end of stroke. hmm

the sky cleared. rain stopped. so they gave an all-clear sign n we carried the single scull boat out to launch. the rest of today's session was me on the single scull, having many Near Capsize Experience (NCE) -_-^

seriously, the precision of diz sport is simply..amazing. razemin who was on e speedboat, came to me occasionally n corrected my stroke. "u noe y u always tilt to the right n like wanna capsize like tt? coz ur right hand punches down every time at e beginning. rmb when ur hands r apart, boat becomes unstable-u will capsize"

i'm in love wif diz whole process of starting frm scratch. n like angeline, i practise my 'strokes' at home.

"u spend too much time looking at ur stroke. correcting urself. tts why when u look left, ur boat tilts left, n vice versa. juz look forward and Feel! "

I wanted to tell him, "but..i havent developed my senses yet. i nd time to feel. in the meantime, i have to rely on my eyes " eh, but i didnt say it of course.

went RCIA. Diz wk's emphasis was on Matthew Chaps 5-7. Theme is on forgiveness. Eh, i think..i nd to forgive more. "Once u forgive, it's easier to love."

No wonder i find it so hard to love.

On an unrelated note, i hope edward becomes a gd catholic. i mean, like seriously. at least to get a strong foundation of the faith. now i'm gg back to basics.

sava 07..here we go

ytd was the sava sprints day 1. 1st time gg down a race as supporter. woke up tt early so as to reach in time to catch their race. cabbed down n reach at 9, in time to watch the 1st event.

was in my running attire coz wenya jio me to run, n i agreed. we initially wanted to meet at 8am to run, but in the end pushed backwards to 12pm coz she wanted to sleep in.

the race was alright. some moments were quite nerve wrecking. (for the lack of vocabulary) thankfully there was no serious mishaps. the gals did alright n came in 4th in grand finals.

my back felt very 酸 when i woke up tiz morning. its the same kinda feeling tt i'd wake up wif aft a shiong row the day b4. eg endurance tyre set. i felt extremely perturbed, coz ytd i merely went down to support them n didnt do anything strenuous such as rowing, other than shadow row in place for theresa, juz to fill the gap. hahaha coz i was raine's partner during e last race n since theresa was down for mixed, she wasnt ard for tt.

tiz empty 'seat' was replaced with me during simulation--shadow row.

bet u r laughing huh? me too. i was laughin at the state of lousiness i have become. juz 1 pre-race shadow rowing set, n my back felt so sore ald. its not as if i rowed, mind u. pathetic sia.

no doubt it was an excellent opportunity to talk to some of them, mayb even help them put on lifejackets. as simple as tt. or piggyback n den fall down. (jo, hor?) well tt was super unglam n i laughed at myself also.

strangely, i dun feel sad tt i've graduated n am no longer in the team. perhaps, im in a state of contentment. contented tt during my time in db, it's sealed as the best days of my life n no1 can take tt away frm me. thankful tt my memories r unadulterated, untarnished, untainted ones filled wif love. smtg tt seems lacking now..

hmm cant really give a fair opinion on tt, but juz as 当局者迷，旁观者清.. as an outsider, i dun feel/see/sense it.

anw tt aside, wt n i had our fun exchanging looks at each other when someone said smtg during debrief. it was 不约而同 somemore! but tts her, n we like her the way she is ;] some things juz dun change wif time heh

dinner was spent trying to explain to some pple how the macdonalds toy work. tsk haiz. haha

womens boat b shadow rowing b4 gg down for heats
the juniors
on their way back

aft the womens grand finals
mixed crew 2nd
e yr 2s..opps i mean yr 3s now. ha can u see there's no longer tt youthfulness? heh
ex-doubles

i nd to paste koyok on my back. its v suan!

n btw, i dunno y everyone keeps coming up to me and ask, 'so how's teaching?' i'm not a teacher! im working in a bank. I noe i look like one, but i'm not. to date, at least abt 6 person have asked me if i'm a teacher, n how's teaching so far.

went back campus to run ytd. angela jio me, so i said ok. we did the 6km route. since i didnt have my reliable timex, we ran w/o taking the time..although i did take a glance at my casio sheen watch b4 setting off. whilst running, i thanked e big guy up there for gd weather, gd pace..stamina to chat n nt run outta breath.

aft tt we went clementi for dinner. i think..we energy in more than energy out. hahaha ate quite abit. i mean, alot.

u noe mooncake festival is ard the corner eh? guess wad..i think the 'auntie' in me nv change its spots. at raffles place, there was diz whole stretch of stalls promoting their mooncakes. Well, lets juz say..i had my fill aft lunch, savoring on the different varieties. haha

well since its training period, our lunch break is extended as it is more slack. dun think i'd get tt privelege when we work on the floor in 6wks time. aft 6wks of trg, we'd be in diz transition phase called 'graduation bay' n once we r ready, we'd be on the floor receiving 'live' calls frm customers.

anw as i was saying, we had an extended lunch break, hence we (trainees) nua alot during our break time. there's a lounge at B1..e guys intro-ed the gals to go there, hence we dabao-ed our food to hang out at the lounge ytd.(when i can, id post some pix up). the lounge is damn cool, got plasma tv, massage chairs, table tennis room, 2 big pool tables, 2 ktv rooms..eh u get the drift huh?

if only we had all the time to nua inside. hahah. well we did! my colleague n i went to try our hands at the xbox. i played bowling wif her n i won. anw its quite cheap thrill, really. we decided we'd play tennis tmr, baseball the next, n so forth.

quite shiok..for now. shall cherish whilst i can.

every day at the trg room, i get a magnificant view of the regatta race site. it's B-E-A-Utiful.

生活有起有落。。我第一年进国大龙舟队，我们拿第三名。第二年，我们是最后，没人把我们放在眼里。那年，有一位先生看到我们哭成那样的那一幕， 而下定决心，要我们一年后是满脸开心泪水。他就是我们现在的教练。

在哪里跌倒，就从哪里爬起来。

一年后，我们做到了

e beginning

i like my job. the learning process, the fact tt i'm a newbie n am going thru 4-6wks of OJT (on-the-job-training). its no honeymoon period. there's 3 test n to pass, we gotta score 85% or better.

ytd we met each other for the 1st time. there's 9 of us: 4 guys 5 gals. We self intro each other for like, countless times! we were introduced to the who's who in the office. Like the big shots, the team managers, etc. i felt quite small. hahaha

went for RCIA class wif theresa n edward last night. have been tagging along for 3 wks ald. although RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults) is targeted for non-catholics who r seeking to be baptised catholics, theresa asked me to go along coz she knows i nd to noe God better. those cathechism class when i was younger taught me little..n often i felt ostracised by e original gals, though pretty aloof abt it. anw she'd ask me every mon if i'm gg, n i'd give my usual, 'see how' reply. it really takes me quite alot to overcome inertia. her persistence in asking wk aft wk pays off, i guess.

ytd's topic was abt the importance of prayer. i was a lil tired frm work, n needless to say those 2 were tired frm trg n sch. at some parts, we were passin the paper ard, writing irrelevant stuff on it. edward was damn fascinated over our supposed secret talent of being able to write in a dylexic fashion, so he tried to do the same. felt tt it was quite funny coz it reminded me of lecture days where zw n i will time to time decorate each other's lecture notes, n hands also.

Prayer.

I was actually touched by diz particular story told by the speaker. It's a true story, abt an old, uneducated man who'd go to church daily, but he juz sat at the pew n stared at the cross. day in day out he'd do tt, although he was uneducated. One day e priest got curious n asked him wad he was doing, and the old man said:

I look at Him, He looks at me.
I love Him, He loves me too.

How beautiful. How simple. How poignant. More than words can describe.

lijun's 21st bdae..here we go

tampines pple, n an imposter. ha
zw, bc, jo n qy

lijun n her bf
making a wish
bdae gal wif the yr2s
lijun n e yr3s
her wif the snrs..very old ald
jo, lijun n rang
my 2 babies

here's a look at sculling stuff.
e shed
sculling boats
oars


why i like sculling?

i'm away frm the noisiness. i like the serenity tt pandan reservoir, n tiz sport provide. both wt n i love it tt it's a relatively 'ulu' sport, not tt well known in s'pore, unlike db which is getting so popular, n its beauty is eroding slowly.

no doubt its a long walk in, n we gotta wake up early on sun juz to get our butt there at 9am, n we gotta carry our boat, wash our boat b4 keeping it back to the shed..

i'm loving it.

some long overdue picx

18 Aug 2007
fireworks display at marina
yet another spectacular sight
amidst all the noise, n the fireworks, diz little boy fell soundly asleep ;]

19 Aug 2007
check out the dim sum! the pastries were d-e-l-i-c-i-o-u-s! *drool*
yr 2s wif angeline
rang wif e yr 3s
lj and yc baby..wif angela n hb

having our own fun
wenya, raine, karine, wenting n angela
birthday girl..who officially turned 21 on 24/08
e gals team

22 Aug 2007
crashing zw's econs lect, aft tt proceeded with lunch in arts. yup tts e new arts canteen btw
laksa yong tau foo, anyone?
25 Aug 2007
post bdae celebration tt started wif high tea at maritus mandarin, den movies..n finally dinner. a wheel-of-fortune style treat btn bc, wt n i.
i started wif desserts first
bc wif main course
wt looking satisfied
wt n i (i'm tryin to do a stupid pose)
view frm the top..tts ngee ann city building
dinner treat by wt

no turning back

pandan reservoir havent changed abit, even though e last time i step foot there was 2 yrs ago.

today was our 1st lesson. as usual, introductory lessons r usually very dry. Pun intended! We didnt get wet, and also, it was talks abt safety, proper handling of boat n equipment, how to board n exit, how to fix the oars..

dry. but necessary.

our instructor, razemin, brought us to the gym to practice our stroke on the ergometer. actually the breakdown of stroke is somewhat like db. well, maybe as they say..Same Same But Different. its broken down into 5 parts, but as u noe my memory fails me terribly.

catch-smtg smtg smtg-recovery

my memory is comparable to tt of dory.

there r 3 pple in the class. tts me, wt n tiz american guy. when razemin brought us to the shed, where all the boats were kept, both of us were high by ourselves. 'maybe next time i'd sign my signature on the boat..' wahahah like in the show gambatte ikemashiu. he explained the different types of boat, e different types of oars. bolts, nuts, bow, stern, coxwain (yes, in some races there's a nd for coxwain to control direction)

single boat is 14kg, double scull boat is 29kg. damn light can? i bet wif all tt trg wt's been doing, she can carry it all by herself.

anw we were daydreaming. saying how maybe in 2 yrs time, we'd wanna b able to row competitively n take part in SEA games. hhahaha tts long term goal. Short term goal is to execute the stroke B-E-A-Utifully.

came across diz pic. the last time we were at pandan reservoir, rang was playing wif my camera. tt was when we were yr1. being young, cukoo, n simply ginna, we had diz silly idea of using diz pic as matric fair poster, to attract freshies to join db. cldnt stop laughin when i saw it. read her blog, hey man..if u read tiz, juz wanna say hope u r coping well. sounds weird, but there's smtg abt ur singing tt i miss hearing.


i hope she doesnt ask me to take down diz pic coz its unglam, for i feel she looks juz fine. juz..extremely freshie. lol

God: Let me ask you something. If someone prays for patience, you think God gives them patience? Or does he give them the opportunity to be patient? If he prayed for courage, does God give him courage, or does he give him opportunities to be courageous? If someone prayed for the family to be closer, do you think God zaps them with warm fuzzy feelings, or does he give them opportunities to love each other?

Reporter: What makes you think God chose you?
Evan Baxter: He chose all of us.

watched evan almighty ytd. it made me laugh, yet some parts really shaked me up a little. maybe all these while, my prayer for patience, for courage.. it was ald answered. juz tt He chose to present opportunities for me.

maybe tts y He tested my patience by giving me the opportunity to teach pri sch kids. Too often i am too quick to ask 'why?', coz i fail to see the big picture.

Drove again, but diz time rd i hadnt really wanted to it as badly as b4. but i'm humbled by the experience. confidence is smtg tt has been restored aft i switched instructor, but the damage is done. i regained confidence but skill is smtg tt requires time to refine.

i shdnt endanger the lives of others.

anw work ended on thurs. i was kinda sad tt its over. now i've got 5 red pens, coz it was nearing teachers' day so a few of my kids ran up to me n gave them. 1B4 is pretty much a v well bahaved class. at times i nd to raise my voice to quieten them, but then aft i brought the whistle, they knew when i wanted no noise, n responded to it.

diz girl, rina, lost her water bottle aft recess. half way during lesson she came up to me, crying. normally i wld have been pissed n send the kid back to their place, coz i clearly instructed them not to come up to me, but instead to stay at their places n raised their hands n i'd come to them.

seeing her cry, i cldnt help but relaxed my 'rule'. asked her wad happened n she told me abt her bottle, n how her mummy told her to look aft her stuff coz she had no $ to buy her a new bottle. Rina was sobbing coz she realised the importance of taking care of her stuff, knowing tt if it's lost, there wont be $ to replace it.

Assigned her n a fren to b excused to find the bottle. thankfully, she managed to find back e bottle.

she gave me a pen as a teachers' day present. a red leaf pen tt cost 40 cents have nv meant so much to me. she cld have very well spent her day's pocket money on food, or smtg else. but she bought a pen. She gave All She Had.

i'm humbled beyond words. Teaching in a neighbourhood pri sch opened my eyes to the pressing needs that some kids face, be it academically, or financially, sometimes emotionally. some kids dun do well in sch, or create trouble, n its extremely easy to classify them as trouble-makers. i'm too quick to jump to conclusions too. though it was a short stint, i learnt tt there's really more than meets e eye. nv be too quick to judge.

God: How do we change the world?
Evan Baxter: One single act of random kindness at a time.

A.R.K