First of all,
HAPPY BIRTHDAY beautifullovelystronggodlysmileyandabitblur MOMMY! ;P
And, also to Sihui's Mommy! Yep, our mummies share the same birthday. His dad and my dad's birthdays are only one day apart! Amazing isn't it?
Not forgetting our dear sister, Cindy! You are a lovely twenty-two. A beautiful number to have :)

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I am currently re-reading Paulo Coelho's The Alchemist. The central story is about Santiago the shepherd boy, and the interesting people and incidents he encounters whilst on his journey to search for the treasure he has seen in his dream.
I enjoyed the whole story when I first read it, especially when everything came into full circle.

Here's something I would like to share with you all in Coelho's Introduction which I didn't seriously take note when I was reading it for the first time.

"... All I know is that, like Santiago the shepherd boy, we all need to be aware of our personal calling. What is a personal calling? It is God's blessing, it is the path that God chose for you here on Earth. Whenever we do something that fills us with enthusiasm, we are following our legend. However, we don't all have the courage to confront our own dream.
Why?

There are four obstacles. First: we are told from childhood onward that everything we want to do is impossible... There comes a time when our personal calling is so deeply buried in our soul as to be invisible. But it's still there.

If we have the courage to disinter dream, we are then faced by the second obstacle: love. We know what we want to do, but are afraid of hurting those around us by abandoning everything in order to pursue our dream... We do not realize that those who genuinely wish us well want us to be happy and are prepared to accompany us on that journey.

Once we have accepted that love is a stimulus, we come up against the third obstacle: fear of the defeats we will meet on the path. We who fight for our dream suffer far more when it doesn't work out, because we cannot fall back on the old excuse: "Oh, well, I didn't really want it anyway.

I asked myself: are defeats necessary?

Well, necessary or not, they happen. When we first begin fighting for our dream, we have no experience and make many mistakes.
The secret of life, though, is to fall seven times and get up eight times.

So why is it so important to live our personal calling if we are going to suffer more than other people?

Because, once we have overcome the defeats - and we always do - we are filled by a greater sense of euphoria and confidence... Each day, each hour, is part of the good fight.

Having disinterred (publicly showed) our dream, having used the power of love to nurture it and spent many years living with the scars, we suddenly notice that what we always wanted is there, waiting for us, perhaps the very next day. Then comes the fourth obstacle: the fear of realizing the dream for which we fought all our lives.

Oscar Wilde said: "Each man kills the thing he loves." And it's true. The mere possibility of getting what we we want fills the soul of the ordinary person with guilt... We forget about all the obstacles. we overcame, all the suffering we endured, all the things we had to give up in order to get this far. I have known a lot of people who, when their personal calling was within their grasp, went on to commit a series of stupid mistakes and never reached their goal - when it was only a step away.

This is the most dangerous of the obstacles because it has a kind of saintly aura about it: renouncing joy and conquest.

But if you believe yourself worthy of the thing you fought so hard to get, then you become an instrument of God, you help the Soul of the World, and you understand why you are here."

- Paulo Coelho (Nov 2002)

Well-said. He really got me thinking about my own Personal Legend. Why am I here for?
Somehow, I know each and every one of us on Earth are interconnected, intertwined by our personal callings. If we fulfill our calling, we also indirectly fulfill those of the others too.

For example, I am called to be an social economist. If I fulfilled my calling, I would implement measures that would allow the poor to have access to higher education. In the end, I may be helping a poor boy fulfill his calling of being a professional musician.

And this professional musician may be travelling around the world, playing his soothing music, healing the emotional wounds of perhaps, a widow who happen to attend his concert. Thus, this widow receives strength to carry on with her life, and continues to bake delicious bread to feed the orphans.

If we were all to pursue our dreams, overcome the obstacles, and get to our given destiny, all things will definitely work for the good of the Lord.

Before my exams began, I told you guys about this website: http://www.watch-movies.net/.

It was the only 2d animation that got primary school me to weep.
As I re-watch it, I realise the story reminded so much about myself.
Basically, this story's about Simba (a young lion cub/heir to throne) being deceived by his evil, power-hungry uncle, Scar, that he has killed his own father. So, he was told never to return to Pride Rock (his home) to be the King since he caused his father's death (in fact, it was Scar who did it). In the end, Simba realised the truth and resumed his position as King.

Many times, I was like Simba, lied to by the devil that I do not deserve to be God's princess or to be loved because I have simply done too many horrid things against God. I was told to "run, and never return". But this movie reminded me that escapism is not the solution.
No matter what, our Lord is always forgiving and embracing, so I shouldn't run away!

I love Walt Disney's 90s animated films, and how it has inspired so many of my wonderful and exciting childhood imaginations! Walt Disney, I don't care how many seemingly fake happily-ever-afters you have created, the fact that you made my childhood more interesting is already enough to make me overlook the criticisms :)

We love Walt Disney in the 90s, don't we?

This is a boring blog post.

Today, I woke up at 10am. Then, I went to give English tuition for Hendy at 12pm. I taught him some vocabulary... Like "crinkling of the nose" to show disgust, and how to answer different types of comprehension questions.

I ended at 1.45pm and met up with the girls for some Myanmarese food at Peninsula Plaza. I had Mohinga (a kind of rice noodles that tastes somewhat like, in Sihui's words "Penang laksa")with some bittergourd fritters. It was not bad and I was so full. Angie had some curry chicken rice which tasted strangely like Yu Kee duck rice! Weiying had nothing as she was still full.

We hopped on to Raffles City for some retail fix, and because of my UOB campus card, we got some good deals at Dorothy Perkins. Time passed really quickly and before we knew it, we were on our way home. We had to rush home for a family dinner at 888. On the train, we laughed quite a bit about Sihui's pet phrases ("So funny", "I see, I see").

While walking home with Angie and Sarah, we talked about blog posts. Sarah said her friends commented that her posts were like GP essays (too literary, too topic-based). But Sarah retorted that blogging about what you did on a particular day is SO BORING.

So we decided to do an experiment. So here's the boring blog post, about every single thing I did today.

At night, we all walked to 888 for zi char dinner. The moon was so round tonight and skies were clear. Too bad Angie didn't have her camera to capture the beautiful moon.

Ok, that's the end of my day. Thank you.

Yawns

It has been a Good Food week.

The food at Shokudo, as promised.



Us :)
Hahaha got this from Ching's blog. She made our neoprints into a pretty collage!

Sprüngli chocolate truffles, all the way from Switzerland! They came at the right time, just after I recovered from my flu. Wheeeeee.

Chocolates - you can never have enough of them.

Last night's Shokudo dinner with Vanessa, Denise and Weiching... AND birthday boy (terribly belated) Seng Keat was yummilicious *slurps*

The last time I went there was with Yue (and the usual suspects). The food we chose to eat weren't really fantastic (cold soba.. sob sob.) because I didn't know what to recommend since it was my first time there.

But this time round, we got wiser. Ching did her research and we went in there prepared, choosing the good things to eat. We shared everything so we could try a little bit of everything. Shokudo works in the same concept as Marche but they sell Jap food instead Swiss.

The BBQ eel bamboo rice was filling itself but it cost a mere $3.80++. A real steal I must say.
The chicken omu rice (tomato rice wrapped in egg) was MmmMm yummy.

The Japanese ebi and bacon wasabi pizza was not like your typical italian thick-crusted pizza. Instead, the crust was so thin, it could pass off as paper. But being thin doesn't mean a loss in taste. In fact, I thought this pizza was really flavourful.

After that, we took NEOPRINTS. Yea neoprints. Because Shokudo has a neoprint station too! We love nostalgia, don't we?

I'll show you guys the pictures once Denise uploads them. ooOOo I can't wait to go back again for the bamboo rice, the matcha and also the tofu cheesecake.

Talking about tofu cheesecake, I still think Sun with Moon (at Wheelock) wins hands down with their version.

AHHHHH Sun with Moon - the quaint Jap restaurant that's so wonderful even Jap expats go there for their food. I want their MATCHA PARFAIT.


I am so high thinking about japanese food, I feel so bad, especially when I remember so many Myanmarese are starving after the cyclone devastation.
When I see the picture of the Singapore ambassador in Myanmar presenting aid to the Myanmar military colonel in the newspaper, I can't help but feel worried.

We never know how these corrupted officials may actually keep the aid stash for themselves or sell them on the black market, instead of distributing them to the victims. I am afraid.

Lord, please let the food, water purifying tablets and first aid reach the people who truly need them immediately, and that these military officials will be merciful towards their fellow Myanmarese. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Thank you Thomas for pointing out a mathematical error in my previous post. I can't believe my mathematical ability is relegated to such a pathethic state that I can't even get simple percentages right.

Time to practise my times table.

REVIEWS of two good films!
Juno
This is a warm, coming of age movie that successfully captured 16 years old Juno's (acted by Ellen Page. You nailed it girl!) unexpected pregnancy period in a humorous and light-hearted manner, making the protagonist exceptionally endearing to the audience.

Love how the lazy strumming of the guitar in the beginning helped set the entire mood of the whole film. Brilliant.

Juno was brave, but in my opinion, not because she had pre-marital sex at 16, but because she chose the road less travelled - keeping her baby and giving him up for adoption, instead of going for abortion like many other unfortunate teenage girls would have hastily done.

She was a different girl. Not the typical bimbotic, high school kind. She was somewhat geeky, somewhat bohemian, somewhat sharp, spouting cute and funny quips at the appropriate moments. Very alluring to me as a character.

The ending was sweet.

I give it 4/5.

Iron Man
What was attractive about this movie was Tony Stark's (acted by bad boy/rehab man Robert Downey Jr.) arrogant charm.

He was a downright casanova with big brains to boot. But in one life-changing episode where he was held captive by the Osama bin Laden-types, he changed. With the realisation that his weapons & tech conglomerate was directly churning out so many innocent deaths with the weapons he produced, he decided to create something that would protect and defend - THE IRON SUIT. *WaAaAAHH*

What I liked about the movie was how a brainy billionaire who only cared about women, booze and fun in the past, turned into someone who was so passionate about saving the lives of the oppressed.
Bad boy turned good. What more can I ask for?

Despite the change in outlook, he still retained his cheeky demeanour and spontaneity.

The last scene where he declared he was IRON MAN nailed his personality completely!
How charming!

Visual effects were plentiful and really, the surrond sound in the theatre really helped create the excitement!

Pity Pepper Potts (acted by Gwyneth Paltrow) was a bit Vanilla - bland. Her character was slightly 2-d. But then again, I'm not complaining because Iron Man should be the focus.

I give it 4.5/5.

My pet phrase recently is "It's ridiculous!"
It comes as no surprise when everything happening around me is too ridiculous.

He would go, "It's ridulous, ah! It's rising like never before. It's just, just ridulous ah!" (The "ah" always has an interesting Singaporean lilt). And yes it's ridiculous.

As I taught my student, oil prices were only about USD$35 in 2004 and today, it's nearly USD$120 per barrel. An almost 400% increase within 4 short years!
Talk about trying to beat inflation.

Oil prices concern me and you!!! High oil prices = higher-priced everything (your clothes, your food, your houses) because we need oil to produce electricity to run the machineries that give us our clothes, food and house.
We need scientists to quickly make alternative energy affordable before we suffocate in carbon emissions from our oil-guzzling air-conditioners!

I am tired of the contradictions in our world today. This is afterall, a fallen world.