Tuesday 24/02/09: Went for work in the morning and in the evening, went for caregroup with VJC people, where we prayed for new seeds in the school so that we can build a large and prospering caregroup.
Wednesday 25/02/09: Had a caregroup outing with my caregroup; Me, Louis Hor, Li Yin, Shi Wei, Nicole and Chloe. It was Part One of our fun session together, whereby we took turns to do stuffs that some of us like, so that we can understand each other better. So it was Li Yin's and Nicole's turn and they decided to meet at East Coast Park and cycle. It was kind of what i like too haha. We rented 2 double bikes and 2 single bikes. Louis Hor doesn't know how to cycle so i had to cycle with him. I did some tricks and he got really scared! Haha. We cycled all the way to Changi beach area and turned back, cycled a total of 2 hours. Anyway, it was a enjoyable session together, except that Nicole was sick that day and Chloe accidentally knocked into a kerba and suffered a bit of a shock. She was silent for most of the period after that. Nevertheless, it was a great bonding session.
After cycling, i decided to go back to VJC to bathe. When i opened my bag, i realised that my bag is soaked with soap, because apparently the bottle wasn't closed tightly and it leaked out. Lol. After the bathe, i coincidentally met Subra, Nick and Joel in school. Nick and Subra were there to meet Miss Chiam, for fun haha. So we decided to go to Plaza Singapura to watch Slumdog Millionaire, the movie that won 8 Oscars award. Joel drove us there with his brother's car. How i wish i can get my driving license asap too! So we watched the movie, it was great, but considering the number of Oscars awards it received, maybe it could have been better. It's about the life of an Indian man, who grew up in the slums in India and use his life stories to answer accurately the questions for Who wants to be a Millionaire and win the millions.
Thursday 26/02/09: My caregroup went to TJC to pioneer again, to look for friends who are interested in joining us, seeds that will build a caregroup themselves. We had lunch with Eileen and Tian Li.
Friday 27/02/09: Went for work.
Saturday 28/02/09: Went for church then there was a grads meeting after that to inform us that we have to move on to our next caregroup soon, in the tertiary session, because we are already expired in the youth group, according to God. And there is a greater plan by God for us elsewhere. So we should move on regardless of what.
Sunday 01/03/09: Went for a gym work-out with Han Wei in the afternoon. Then went Queensway to buy my soccer boot with Subra. We bought the same one.
Monday 02/03/09: In the morning, it was my first driving lesson as i attempt to get my driving license before i get enlisted into army. Had a great instructor, called Fahan, a thin Malay teenager. He cleared me for the first 5 modules. After noon, i had my 2nd driving lessson. The instructor was quite fierce and he constantly shaked his head in despair as my driving technique was not so good. After all, it was my first day, so i will definitely improve! In the afternoon, it was Part Two of my caregroup's fun session, organised by Chloe and Shi Wei. We went to watch a horror movie together, with Jun Wei, who was our invited guest haha. Watched the movie, My Bloody Valentine's in 3D. It wasn't scary but just full of gore and violence. Watching it 3D was quite thrilling because you can see things flying towards you and sometimes you may sub-consciously duck to avoid the axe, etc. I was sitting next to Louis Hor and so i attempted to scare him at times. Anyway, it was another great session with my caregroup. We learnt who is scared of such movie haha. Went back home after that because i was tired from waking up very early for driving.
Tuesday 03/03/09: Had double driving lessons again. In between, went for the E-trial test for my Final Theory Test, otherwise i had nothing else to do. Anyway, the food at the driving centre was bad. Thank God that i will only eat there for these 2 days. After driving, went for work.
Wednesday 04/03/09: Went for driving lesson in the morning. Then went back home to apply for all the scholarships that suit my field of study, environmental engineering. I really pray that i will get a scholarship that will send me overseas to study, so that i can get my Masters in Civil and Environmental Engineering in just 4 years. Of course, there will be 6 years of bond to whichever organisations that offer me the scholarship but at least it assures me of a steady career. My choice of universities will be Imperial College, London or University College, London or University of Edinburgh, all in UK. Because i realise that i may not like the US culture for some reasons.
Thursday 05/03/09: Went for driving in the morning. Then went for work at One of the Bun with Nick haha. Wanted to earn extra income this month so that i can spend in April before i enlist. The work was tough!
Friday 06/03/09: It's A Levels results day! Went for driving in the morning. Then went to Shi Wei's house for a prayer meet for all A levels candidates who are receiving their results too. Anyway, i was quite nervous till i received my results because i was afraid that i will not score up to my expectations. But then i realised that God has a plan for me and whichever results he gives me, i will still be blessed in the future. Thank God that he gave me AAAA for my H2 subjects, B for GP and Merit for Maths H3. It was almost what i prayed for, except for my Maths H3 (actually i shouldn't expect so much since i was so slack when i study haha). GP was really great for me and God blessed me so much! Because my GP was usually poor, getting E for the whole of JC1. It was really a breakthrough by me with God's help!
There were definitely people who were delighted with their results, as well as sad about them. So i thought that for the next few days, i must sensitive to how people feel, console people if necessary.
Anyway, after we got the results, my class went to Marina Square to have dinner together at Swensens, to celebrate haha most of us did well. We also played pool, which i won all of my singles games. Yay! :)
Saturday 07/03/09: For the first time in weeks, i had shepherding with James. But thank God that i remain committed to him even without shepherding. It showed that i grew in some ways in my spiritual life! :) Then had a JC prayer meet for church before i went ushering. After church service, i went to WWS, for their first ever night patrol, which i was in charge of. The route was crowded as expected, due to the weekend crowd in areas like Esplanade, Clarke Quay, etc.
Sunday 08/03/09: Went for work at One of the Bun again. It was quite boring.
Monday 09/03/09: Went for driving in the morning. Then went to TJC with my caregroup. Went to VJC after that to get my results/CCA records/testimony photocopied and certified. Coincidentally, i met my classmate Yi Jin at the general office, she's going to teach at VJC from term 2 onwards. In the evening, went for a gym work-out with Han Wei. He's still dissatisfied with his results. Although his grades doesn't look really good, his total ranking points is still not bad. Haha.
Tuesday 10/03/09: Went for my car driving Final Theory Test, passed it and went for work at WWS then One of the Bun.
Wednesday 11/03/09: Went for car driving lesson in the morning. Then went for work at One of the Bun. After that, Joyce and Li Ting suddenly called and asked if they can come visit my house and rented a movie to watch on the way. So Michelle Loo and Jun Wei came along too and we watched One Missed Call, a boring horror movie lol. At night, i went to play soccer at the Cage with my dad and friends. I used my new soccer boot. It was great and i scored a lot of goals, partly because my dad's friends didn't have the stamina to last the game.
Thursday 12/03/09: Went for car driving lesson in the morning. Then went to TJC again to issue invitation cards for our ESS dance concert this saturday, called the Curtain Call. Then went to work and had caregroup in the evening at Li Yin's house.
Friday 13/03/09: Went for car driving lesson in the morning again. Then went for work. It was a long day as we had the AWS meeting. In the end, we decided to reduce it to a one-day event, a pity after all the plans we had to make it a 3-day event.
Saturday 14/03/09: Went to NTU Open house in the morning with Han Wei to check out their environmental engineering. I stayed for around 45 minutes then left to head to church for the ESS. I went for both the first and second service as we had visitors for both. The dance concert was excellent and it was great to see so many people opening up and coming to know God, as their hearts are touched by his love.
Sunday 15/03/09: Went for the NUS Open house to check out their environmental engineering too. And i feel that NUS is better than NTU for me, so likely that i will apply for NUS only. Of course, if i get a scholarship, i will immediately pursue my Masters at UK, which takes only 4 years to do so, compared to Singapore whereby i have to study 4 years to get a Bachelor then another 2-3 years to convert to Masters. At the open house, i met a lot of friends, primary school and secondary school. They have really changed a lot and it was good to meet them after so long. In the evening, the pioneer caregroup went to Settler's Cafe to play board game together. Haha our caregroup is really turning into a playgroup, always calling each other out to play.
Monday 16/03/09: Went for driving in the morning. Then shepherding over lunch with James at Plaza Singapura . After that, went back home to read all the emails from Brightsparks and VJC regarding results and scholarships. Did some research on the UK universities i want to go too.
Tuesday 17/03/09: Went for work in the morning. There was an event for Siglap Secondary which i had to lead the students out for the bike patrol. After that, i held my Marina E^3 Challenge meeting, to inform my station masters what will be happening this coming sunday, when we have the trial run for VJC, SRJC and WWS. Around 3pm, the Singapore Poly students came to install the computer game they created for us. Apparently, it couldn't work even after working with it for 4 hours. Some stuff screwed up i think. In the end, they still couldn't work out the problem and they kept me at my work place because my boss already left and Shiang Nee and i had to lock up. So i left my work place at 6.45pm, when i'm supposed to meet my friend, Li Hwa at Yishun at 7pm for dinner. So we met for the first time in 2 months and chit-chat about the stuffs we have been doing for the past few months. She didn't do that well for her A levels so she was really in a dilemma whether to re-take her examinations or not. But i definitely feel that it's better not to re-take unless you have the drive to work hard 24-7 even without going to school. Better to try applying for NTU Business/Tourism Management or apply for SIM or pursue a Bachelor in Tourism Management overseas in Australia for her case. There are definitely many options better than re-taking.
Wednesday 18/03/09: Went for driving lesson in the morning. Then went for my LTA Scholarship interview at noon. With God, i found assurance and confidence and so i didn't feel nervous during the interview, just say what i want to say, why i'm interested in environmental engineering, my experience in the environmental field and where is my dream university (Imperial College). But the minus point for the interview was that the interviewer forced me to make a choice between LTA and other scholarships like NEW, BCA, etc. To be honest, it will be difficult to make a choice if they all offer me a scholarship, hopefully. But God will show me the way. After that, i went to Metamorphosis with our new believer, Eileen. She was incidently holy-spirited baptised on that day, with many other people in the church. Thank God for her for showing her committment and faith in God. We had several learning and worshipping sessions and played games with the Dunman High caregroup as a team.
Thursday 19/03/09: Went for the JTC Scholarship interview in the morning. It was another good interview session, just be honest and say what i want to say. One of the question asked was What will you do if the usual method of doing things does not work? So i took some courage and shared to the interviewer about God. Then i went home for dinner, then driving lessons at night, whereby i completed my test routes and moved on to module 3 (S/Crank courses, Slopes, Directional Change, Parking).
Friday 20/03/09: It was an incredible day. In the morning, i was getting increasingly angry because i'm still not given my army enlistment date and if i don't get it, i can't book my final car driving test date. So i prayed to God that he will help me. After my car driving lesson, i checked my phone and my mum sms me that i have been enlisted; 24th April, School 2. Excellent! Then, i went to URA for the writing test, which is part of their scholarship selection process. There were 3 choices and basically, they want us to comment on the good and bad of the conservation efforts by Singapore right now. After the writing test, i had a 3-hour break before my interview at 3.50pm, so i decided to go back to WWS to print out my enlistment date from the online NS portal, then head to the driving centre to appeal for an earlier car driving date. Then as i was leaving WWS, the sky was dark and being dressed in the formal interview clothings, i wanted to remain presentable to the interviewers later on. So i rushed to the mrt station and just when i reached, it started pouring. When i reached Eunos mrt station, it was still raining heavily, so i prayed that the rain will stop, otherwise if it continues, i will either be wet or be late for my interview later on. So i walked to the bus interchange, boarded the bus and when i alighted the bus at the driving centre 10 minutes later, there was not a single drop of rain. OH MY GOD! So i walked into the driving centre, to the customer service to book my driving test date. Thank God that the lady at the counter allowed me to book the date using the online notice and i even managed to book the one and only, final driving test date remaining before my enlistment. Thank God. So as i walked out of the driving centre, it was drizzling and so i rushed to the bus stop. When i reached the bus stop, it started raining heavily again, amazing! After that, i went for the URA Scholarship interview and it was an excellent session. Surprisely, the interviewer told me to consider other scholarships instead of forcing me to make a choice whether i will choose URA. This is because to them, URA doesn't really offer core engineering, so even if they offer me the scholarship, i can have the right to decide my engineering future. In the evening, i went for a gym work-out with Han Wei. Then i had dinner at home before we went to AMK Hub to play arcade.
Saturday 21/03/09: In the morning, i went WWS to help out in their bike patrol. Apparently, the boy brigade didn't turn up. So they didn't need so much help after all. In the afternoon, church service. Then at night, my parents bought me a new bag, from Zinc. Because my present sling bag is tearing apart, about to reach breaking point.
Sunday 22/03/09: So it was the day of the Marina E^3 Challenge, trial run, an event which i put so much effort in planning. There was 3 teams of 3, VJC, SRJC and WWS. I held a pre-challenge briefing for them before they set off for the challenge. To prevent them from getting lost, i constantly followed teams and guided them when necessary. In addition, due to the lack of game masters, i had to rush from Station 2 to 3 because the VJC team was so quick at first. They led from Station 1 to 3 before they got lost too, looking for Kim Seng Park and ended up 3rd in the end. The SRJC and WWS teams stuck together and ended up 1st and 2nd respectively as they know the WWS bike route well. Overall, the participants enjoyed themselves and i was delighted as my efforts paid off. But there are certainly room for improvement. Some of the tasks are too easy, partly because it was restricted by time. Also, it didn't do much in educating them about the environmental aspect. Regardless of what, i really believe that it can be improved and used to involve people, educate them about the environment and raise awareness. At least i'm doing my part for the environment! :) Anyway, it was a tiring challenge for me too, as i had to follow the teams and cycle to every single stations to ensure smooth flowing of the event. After that, i went for dinner with my pioneer caregroup at Plaza Singapura Pastamania, then played arcade again! Also, i realised that this coming saturday might be our final youth service before most of us move on to tertiary service. God has a great plan for us ahead and i will obey him for what he has for me. :)
Monday 23/03/09: Had driving lesson in the morning, learnt vertical parking. Then came back home and typed this long blog, having neglected my blog for one month! HAHA. To be continued..