Friday, December 31, 2004

1:14 AM
i want to learn. on the otherhand, it would be so easy to be misunderstood. or perhaps it was what was meant in the first place and i am the one who is oblivious. as always.

what a pickle.

Thursday, December 30, 2004

1:25 AM
not sure exactly where this came from but...


How Old is Your Church?
If you are a Lutheran, your denomination was founded by Martin Luther, an ex-monk of the Catholic Church, in the year 1517.
If you belong to the Church of England, your denomination was founded by King Henry VIII in the year 1534 because the Pope would not grant him a divorce with the right to re-marry. The Church of England separated itself from the Catholic Church under Henry VIII but it didn't actually become a new Protestant religion until the reign of his son, Edward VI.
If you are a Presbyterian, your denomination was founded by John Knox in Scotland in the year 1560.
If you are a Protestant Episcopalian, your denomination was an offshoot of the Church of England founded by Samuel Seabury in the American colonies in the 17th century.
If your are a Congregationalist, your denomination was originated by Robert Browne in Holland in 1582.
If you are a Methodist, your denomination was launched by John and Charles Wesley in England in 1744.
If you are LDS or "Mormon" (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-daySaints), Joseph Smith Jr. started your religion in Fayette, NY, on April 6th, 1830.
If you are a Baptist, you owe the tenets of your denomination to John Smyth, who launched it in Amsterdam in 1605.
If you are of the Dutch Reformed church, you recognize Michaelis Jones as founder, because he originated your denomination in New York in 1628.
If you worship with the Salvation Army, your sect began with William Booth in London in 1865.
If you are a Christian Scientist, you look to 1879 as the year in which your religion was born and to Mrs. Mary Baker Eddy as its founder.
If you consider yourself a member of one of the Pentecostal churches, your movement began in Topeka, KS (1901) and Los Angeles(1906), in reaction to perceived loss of evangelical fervor among Methodists and others.
If you call yourself a Mennonite, your movement was named after Menno Simons, a Catholic priest for 12 years, who left the Church to join the conservative Anabaptist wing. The Amish, started by Jacob Amman around 1693, are just one of many different church bodies within the Mennonite community in the U.S.
If you belong to one of the religious organizations known as "Church of the Nazarene", "Pentecostal Gospel", "Holiness Church", "Pilgrim Holiness Church", "Jehovah's Witnesses ", your denomination is one of the many thousands of new sects and religions founded by men within the past several hundred years.
If you are a member of one of the Orthodox Eastern Churches your church separated from the Catholic Church in 1054 in the Eastern Schism. Although imperfect, the communion between the Orthodox Churches and the Catholic Church is so profound "that it lacks little to attain the fullness that would permit a common celebration of the Lord's Eucharist" (Pope Paul VI, quoted in CCC para 838).
If you are Jewish, Abraham became the first Jew when God promised him: "I will make you a great nation...". Your religion was founded by God in the Jewish calendar year 2049 (1711 BC), over 3700 years ago. God revealed Himself to the Jews through the Prophets and promised to send a Messiah. Jesus Christ, a Jew from the House of David, came to this world as His only begotten Son in fulfilment of the scriptures.

If you are Catholic, you know that your Church was founded in the year 33 A.D. by Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

1:20 AM
"people always ask if your cup is half-full or half-empty. perhaps there's a third option - perhaps your cup is too big."
~ a drunk ex-surgeon under a tree outside a church in the US

Lord,
as 2004 comes to a close, help me to treasure everything that You have given me and to know that Your blessing is always with me.

Wednesday, December 29, 2004

1:05 AM
catholic medical society's end-of-year party was held at my place this year. we even had mass! alvin did a wonderful job of printing the mass booklets and organising the religious aspect of the gathering. i on the other hand... *blush* haha...faithful follower of procrastination for dummies...

anyway, at least most of them seemed to be having fun. about 20 people came (including my family) which i suppose is a decent turnout. dad had a wonderful time regaling the medical students with tales from his long-ago youth. my parents seem to like entertaining even when it involves large amounts of manual labour both before and after the event.

it's a bit difficult to mix with the crowd when you are the host; i mostly shuttled between the storytelling and mahjong camps, trying to encourage people to finish the food. of which there was (as usual) excess. it's a strange thing, but when food is placed before me, my hand seems to reach for it independently of my consciousness. and that's how i completely wasted all the wushu training i did this morning.

miss wushu. or rather i miss the times i spent with my wushu batch. the nonsensical family tree, biyun's inane antics, our cute xiang ba lao...fly back to me my dears! life is horribly dreary without you...

Monday, December 27, 2004

11:55 PM
23000 and rising...sigh...

just yesterday i stepped into my father's new office at mt elizabeth. it was bright and shiny and a gilded cage. i know it's horribly ungrateful of me, but sometimes i have doubts about choosing medicine. the interest is real enough, yet, when i look at the consultants cloistered in their little rooms, i feel a sense of dread instead of expectation. it is small things such as these that fill me with regret.

then, as scenes of utter devastation were paraded before me, it all came back; watching the wounded crying out in pain, i wanted, needed, to be there. the same need i felt when i was 9 years old and watching the terminally ill at tampines home and hospice struggle to down a bowl of porridge.

it hurt.

i couldn't do anything then, and i can't do much now, but by taking up medicine, perhaps one day i will have the ability to do something...


(that sounded really melodramatic even to me. :p but i guess it's just...well...a calling.)

Sunday, December 26, 2004

11:53 PM
eternal rest grant unto them oh Lord,
and let perpetual light shine upon them.
may they rest in peace.
amen

at 9am today, an earthquake measuring 8.9 on the Richter scale struck just off the coast of sumatra. together with the resultant tsunamis, it claimed the lives of at least 6500 people.

wars, viruses, terrorist acts, natural disasters...after a while it is so easy to become numbed by the constant onslaught of media reports. maybe it was just the sheer magnitude of the event that caught my attention - at first i felt some measure of...excitement, but then it hit me that these were people dead and dying. human beings with families that would now have a gap in their lives where these persons should be. people with an identity and a past but who had no future.

there was this one time during sailing when justin and i were caught in a sudden storm. the topper overturned, and visibility in the pouring rain was near zero. we held onto the topper for dear life and thank God we were eventually swept to shore. i know what it feels like to be a speck in an immense ocean. to be tossed about without regard for abilities or assests. because in the face of that inexorable tide we were, we are...as nothing.

so i can begin to imagine the fear they must have felt when a 10m wave reared up in their faces. the terror that washed over them when they knew there was nothing they could do.

and then the guilt descended.

it's said that drowning is one of the more pleasant ways to die. that after a while one stops struggling and begins to feel content to just drift along. but dear God, i'm sure not one of them stopped fighting to live.

12:10 AM
worst x'mas of my life. don't ask.

Saturday, December 25, 2004

12:00 AM
MERRY CHRISTMAS!

hope you all have a blessed year ahead....


love,
teri

Friday, December 24, 2004

1:35 AM
CAROLLING 2004. the end.

we finished with quite a bang! i thought we sung rather well at prof lau's house, thanks to the presence of all the seniors who showed up. definitely our best performance of the season. after the carolling we had a bit of impromptu practice where the seniors taught us 'jingle bells' and 'it came upon a midnight clear'.

gliding along on a clear winter's day
sleigh bells are ringing as they seem to say a
sweet jingle-ling, you're invited to stay
you're more than welcome so climb on the sleigh

that's going to be stuck in my head for the foreseeable future. fine. so the basses have finally got a part that confuses the sops. one song. i can live with that.

david (doctor? sings bass) remarked that we were really enthusiastic because i insisted on repeating those irritating lines till they finally stayed in my mind. of course now they'll be running around driving me crazy till some other song pushes them aside. i suppose i am obsessive about certain things. but it can be a good thing right? demanding perfection... especially in a profession like medicine, where we have to deal with people's lives yadda yadda...

wahh!!! angela will become a real doctor next year and cms will lose it's most powerful (and probably only truly functional) alto. i have no idea how we're going to teach the future m1s. as it is, we sang most of the carols without the alto part because there were no real altos amongst the people who regularly turned up. guess we'll have to improvise somehow. and ian mathews is a wonderful teacher. don't know how we'd have been able to learn the carols at all without him. thank you!!!

haha. i'm beginning to feel like that red robed, white-bearded old man. nope, not santa, but yue lao. it seems like everytime i join an organisation, people start pairing up about me. the couples just proliferate like weeds...first wushu...now cms...oh well, at least there'll always be plenty of entertainment... XD

Wednesday, December 22, 2004

1:14 AM
shopping...

first there are the orchard road, bugis, city hall prowlers. inclusive of students, yuppies, tourists and family units on weekends, this demographic is probably more in search of a place to hang out than some serious shopping.

then there are the hdb bargain hunters. the faithful customers of 99c shops and mama stalls selling basic necessities for 20% less than ntuc, they comprise mainly of middle-aged housewives.

finally, there are the catalogue browsers, who in turn can be divided into 2 further sub-categories. the IT-savvy younger generation who make online purchases, and the well-to-do tai tais who have catalogues from developed nations shipped to their door.


i suppose i'd probably come under the first category; i mean, rgs was all of 1 bus stop away from orchard road...i practically spent my formulative years there! still, there is much to be said for hdb shopping. i went with mum to rochor road today to pick up some x'mas deco and was horrified when i realised that i'd been swindled all my life! and they have the most charming curios there, things you'd never find in a departmental store. the next time i organise a shopping outing, i shall drag my friends to the the nearest housing estate (aka bishan muahahaha!!!).

online shopping has never held much appeal for me, except for amazon.com. if i had a credit card i'd probably chalk up a deficiet on freight charges alone. so it's probably a good thing i don't. as for ordering through paper catalogues from britain/france/us-of-a...haha...that'll have to wait till i'm grey-haired and rolling in money. if ever.

1:02 AM
http://www.tongcom.co.kr/dingani_13.htm

kawaii des ne!!!

Monday, December 20, 2004

1:15 AM
Last Christmas
I gave you my heart
But the very next day
You gave it away
This year
To save me from tears
I'll give it to someone special

Once bitten and twice is shy
I keep my distance
But you still catch my eye
Tell me baby
Do you recognize me?
It's been a year
It doesn't surprise me
Last Christmas
I wrapped it up and sent it
With a note saying "I love you"
I meant it
Now I know what a fool I've been
But if you kissed me now
I know you'd fool me again

chorus

A crowded room
Friends with tired eyes
I'm hiding from you
And your soul of ice
My god I thought you were
Someone to rely on
Me?
I guess I was a shoulder to cry on

A face on a lover with a fire in his heart
A man under cover but you tore me apart
Now I've found a real love you'll never fool me again

Last Christmas
I gave you my heart
But the very next day
You gave it away
This year
To save me from tears
I'll give it to someone special


carolling at uncle john's place was wonderful. alvin and chris' number was especially hilarious; i don't think i can ever listen to 'last christmas' again without reliving their very...ahem...gay and happy performance in my head. it was a bit embarrassing to sing in front of so many people who practically watched me grow up, but rather gratifying as well.

celebrated daniel's 20th birthday after the carolling had ended. dad, mum, uncle john and auntie pris sang 'oh why were you born so beautiful...' in an apparently time-honoured tradition. we had chocolate cake from four leaves. delicious! tsk tsk...apple pie and cheesecake and chocolate smothered pastries. i'm stuffing myself silly this hols!

Sunday, December 19, 2004

12:20 AM
02s72 had our first class reunion since uni started today. we met at char's house for dinner. or rather, garlic bread, free pizza and a sizable amount of alcoholic drinks. entertainment was in the form of screenings of 'super-size me' and 'love actually'. it was quite fun to watch 'love actually' with the others; more people to laugh and cry together (although technically only jayne cried).

it was a very successful class gathering as such things go. all the doctors, lawyers, indian chiefs...jess, deb, yinshan, haihan, sirui, char, jayne, angelene, vanessa, robin, grace, weijie, hsien, yuying and i...14 people, more than half the class! the largest number of people who have ever showed up for a class outing. perhaps absence really does make the heart grow fonder.

still had nothing much to say during the party itself though. it's sad, but i'm not really comfortable around my jc class even after so long. ah well, it was good to see them anyway.

on another note, i went to watch 'ocean's 12' with jerm and claire yesterday. thought it was a far cry from 'ocean's 11'. too much jazz and too little plot. with the exception of lotr, i've yet to see a sequel match or better the standard of the original. haha. i suppose it's the same in any context. nothing quite compares to the first. so it might as well be the only. and still i wait.


(because if you can't say it at Christmas, when can you say it eh?) ^^"

Friday, December 17, 2004

1:52 AM
cms had it's first carolling performance today! it was...sort of a success? people clapped = we're not that bad after all...haha...it was a fun experience, rather different from practices. the songs just went by so fast! i think my favourite is "o holy night" but most anything sounds good when sung in parts.

we went to st anthony's community hospital and sang from 6 to 8 pm. proceeded to have a late dinner at cafe cartel. i'm never going back there again! they took 40 mins to process my order. i guess they had to butcher the pig before carving it up for my pork chops...

met yiming, amanda, sarah and qi at orchard this afternoon. as usual, we arranged to meet at 12 noon and the dears turned up around 3. sigh. should have expected it i suppose. it'll take a miracle or a knife at their throats to make them punctual. it's rather tragic, but i can really see how our lives are diverging. apparently ym, amanda and sarah have been clubbing/pubbing several times a week. and amanda has even taken up social smoking! oh God, what a vile habit...but who am i to tell her how many other more pleasant ways there are to kill yourself?

i love them, i really do, but sometimes i could strangle them.

Wednesday, December 15, 2004

7:09 PM
love actually...

hurts.

1:39 AM
did some christmas shopping with deb today. bought presents for thomas, claire and jerome, but i still have absolutely no idea what to get for mum and dad. maybe i should try making something... ^^"

finally got my black pants for carolling. thanks deb for letting me drag you through half of orchard to get that perfect pair. i also bought a long-desired book from kino, and i was so tempted by judith tarr as well...bookshops are bad for me and my pocket.

when it got dark we walked from borders to plaza singapura to see the lights along the way. honestly i don't understand the great hoopla about it. i think last year's blue and silver theme was more beautiful then the red and green deco this year. there's just something about winter that makes christmas that much more magical. i wish we had snow.

the parents, claire and jerm are coming home tomorrow...well...later today...yay! i miss them...

Tuesday, December 14, 2004

1:14 AM
this is insane. i'm absolutely exhausted, but the inertia is simply too great...i can't...i can't...walk up the the stairs to go to bed.

stayed over at uncle john's place on sunday. i got absolutely lost trying to find my way from the airport to east coast road. *blush* he had to come look for me at the mazda showroom in the end. we had a sort of indoors bbq thing with meat overload! steak, lamb, chicken wings, salmon, prawns...and no vegetables. now i'm normally quite a carnivore, but the sight of all that carnage was too much even for me. at the end uncle john and auntie pris plus gerard, borah, gareth, glen, auntie lita and uncle micky watched me cut a mini cheesecake. i'm really lucky...3 cakes in as many days...i feel so loved XD

braved aye via ecp to get to nus at 8 am. haha, and no i didn't get lost...again...as usual...anyway, frs presentations were mostly insomnia curing though wongyi was hilarious when he presented for our group. colgate fever; still find it hard to believe even ns guys would down colgate just to get hyperthermia to get out of camp. that stuff is foul. oh well, it's over now, farewell carageenan and dicalcium phosphate forever.

went swimming at src while waiting for carolling practice to start. think it'll be some time before i swim at school again since THE HOLIDAYS HAVE OFFICIALLY BEGUN!!! carolling practice was fruitful; i think we're really quite presentable after all that whipping into shape..oops, i mean practice. our performance schedule is quite packed though, and uncle john kept needling me about carolling at his place on the 22nd...oh quiver in fear all ye mortals...the cms choir is about to be unleashed... muahahaha (deb the evil laughter is contagious!)

watched national treasure with sirui at j8 after dinner. exciting show. i have low stress tolerance. kept freaking out when i thought the bad guys were going to catch up with the protagonists. got home at 12 and then the inertia set in...

finally done...good nite cruel world...

Sunday, December 12, 2004

3:59 PM
what a wonderful birthday...

my body clock has been completely messed up after 2 nights of staying up. tried to get some sleep during the day on saturday, but circadian rhythm wouldn't cooperate; spent half the time tossing on my bed.

woke up at about 5pm to meet my anatomy tutorial group at j8. we went to anson's house to play ps2 and some mahjong. kahyee, ruxin, el, anson, zhongyang, zhongkai, wongyi (gabby!), (chief) alvin, fuqiang were present... thanks my dears for the wonderful surprise you'll sprang on me! i hope we didn't get too much chocolate cake on the mahjong table.

el, ruxin and i stayed over to watch EuroTrip and play more mahjong. sigh, i doubt i'll ever make it through one entire round of dong1, nan2, xi1, bei3. anyway, played some more sega tennis on the ps2. ruxin is really good at electronic games. she beat el and i at both tennis and one of those hit-every-button-in-a-futile-bid-to-smash-the-opponent games. and metal slug has got to be the most brainless game i've ever played in my life! haha...but fun...stress relief...

the 3 of them walked me home at around 5am. i hope they managed to find some breakfast. love the smell of morning air; the dark, empty streets and chill wind are probably the closest simulation of winter that singapore will ever have. j8 was deserted as well, but the xmas lights were so pretty i could practically smell xmas in the air.

got to send thomas off to the airport soon. will probably stay at uncle john's house tonight and go to nus from there. i am so going to fall asleep during frs. ah well, it's a worthwhile trade-off.

Friday, December 10, 2004

11:54 PM
THANK YOU EVERYONE!!!

deb for the wonderful layout, jess, kah yee, weifeng for planning the party, aishu, wenyang, zhaoqi, biyun, mingjian, zhigao and her hyperness en'en for bringing fun laughter peace and joy...

this is one of the best birthday celebrations i've ever had. from braving the storm to collect our precious popiah to the much mutilated brownie cake...oh yes! and charades is a wonderful game, especially since even the in-extreme-pain-due-to-wisdom-tooth-extraction-weifeng was able to participate. it's amazing what people can come up with when they try to portray food. the session also proved that our wushu batch still has mo4 qi4! muahahahaha!!! after all the time we practiced together...we dominated the other team. of course, biyun is evil. unless she's on my side. then she's brilliant. the things she can come up with...

yup thanks for the presents. some of them are...interesting...though i am never wearing that shirt in public no matter how much blood and sweat you stained it with biyun & lmm. i appreciate the effort. deb and en bought me this 4-in-1 top cum skirt that's got a pretty butterfly on it. weifeng is your gift a hint for me to entertain more often? aishu got me some authentic indian deco from india. zhigao aka naima!! do u think i'm a monkey? though i'm not sure qi's chicken is much better... XD

i enjoyed myself so much. thanks again and again and again for celebrating my last teenage birthday with me my dears.

jess, deb and lingmeimei are staying over for the night. shall imbibe irish cream and get higher than i already am!

10:47 AM
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MA CHERIE...

may this 19th year be filled with happy thoughts ;) and lots of laughter and joy...

and [cue dramatic music ie. dumdumdum]

plenty of blogging... XD

enjoy.

[curtsy]

[exit: stage left]