very early 2day morning, after alena's bday party, mummy Tiff drove us 6 kids home...^0^ As we were driving along Flinder St, fog slowly encroached upon us..... slowly slowly the clear nite air turned white... very difficult for Tiff to drive..... (gd job tiff....^^) yet it is so beautiful! The night lights shine a gentle warm glow... illuminating the translucence... for a while i felt we were somewhere in the gas-lit night air of Sherlockian London...
Very wonderful experience indeed...
Sally visited my place yesterday, after her dentist appointment..... we watched some anime, talked and had some yum cha stuff for lunch. She was wearing her Sherlockian coat!!!! so nice............. Took a foto of her..... looking very Sherlock.... *yn drools*
(Dave waving a murderous knife at me already......)
Just kidding!^0^
朦朧記: on my sherlockian world...
Inspiring verses from Leviticus
Some verses in Leviticus are so comforting and inspiring!!! Quite true that we shouldn't neglect any particular book while we do Bible reading.
Leviticus 25: 20-22 You may ask, "What will we eat in the seventh year if we do not plant or harvest our crops?" I will send you such a blessing in the sixth year that the land will yield enough for three years. While you plant during the eighth year, you will eat from the old crop and will continue to eat from it until the harvest of the ninth year comes in.
Loving Heavenly Father who plans and prepares so far ahead to make sure we will WANT FOR NOTHING. More faith and less worrying!!! ^0^
The next verse equally brilliant:
Leviticus 25: 23 The land must not be sold permanently, because the land is mine and you are but aliens and my tenants.
How many things in the world we like to go out of our ways to get? and then struggle to keep? Not only materialistic thing but many more... Bear this verse in mind... we can let go of many things more easily and with better grace...
JB! JB! JB!
coming back to my english blog for a while.... after writing so much chinese realised how easy it is to write english, no need to find the correct character..... ^0^
been listening to Kangta recently..... In If You Go the R&B very authentic.... in many ways superior than so many of the chinese singers who attempt at R&B in various albums...
watched a few Holmes episodes... everytime remembering Jeremy Brett who passed away 10 years ago, i usually feel a bit sad watching him as Holmes.. strut about so confidently and charismatically, like a true Holmes reincarnate...
to think such a mild, jolly, soft-spoken actor could play Sherlock Holmes, and so brilliantly.... that even 2o yrs after he made the series.. it has not been forgotten....
Miss a world with JB... and his wonderful sense of humour.
JB quote on Holmes:
And of course such a giant, such a genius, such an isolated, damaged penguin....
In memory of Simon Ng and the thought of heaven
Yesterday wendy showed me Simon Ng's blog. (http://www.xanga.com/home.aspx?user=ToTo247) Although i know of that gruesome story ages ago... to be able to see that fateful blog entry was slightly overwhelming...
What was he thinking in the last hr of his life? i reali wonder...
Was he so oblivious of the impending danger that he kept on rambling abt his jap homework? Or he sensed something majorly wrong, but was trying to self distract and sound ok in order to normalise the situation?
When crisis arises, at least for me... my coping strategy often is to normalise, to seek a route back to the normal ways. Like when i had my cancer scare, i just wish that all is normal, i can still study for my exam despite how unwilling i was, i can still get told off by mum for trivial matters... as long as they r normal...
reading his comment about the cleaned floor... is just sad... really sad... If he knew what will happen next? will he not worry abt the cost, break the window and run for his life?
Not sure if he was a Christian or not, but it is amazing reading the 3 thousand something comments how many of them said "RIP in heaven".... seems it is the only appropriate thing to say and the only thing ppl want to say... (it does sound strange if u say: have a prosperous and happy next life...in Buddhist theory)
it just sounds weird if it turns into a mere good wish... (although i am sure i am fully capable of saying it to comfort people b4 i believed)
in fact i must confess that my idea of heaven has become less and less favourable after i become a Christian... having believed b/c i thought my current life was going out of control... i was never attracted to believe because of heaven...
and i mostly often have this feeling that it is just somewhere i wil end up eventually... if sin does not take over me and send me to eternal fire. i don't remember myself feeling excited about heaven at all... The description in Revelation about New Jerusalem walled in precious stones really does not have much appeal... And since whether married ppl r still married in heaven still sounds debatable in different books... i sometimes tend to have a nightmarish image of heaven in which family cease to be family, friends cease to be friends, and everyone wear white gowns and get numbered off into different places.
This sounds rather horrible so ppl plz rebuke me and so we won't live under strange negative impressions...
i still remember the time i talked to danielle and ariel about heaven one saturday nite..
1st we were talking about PLC old collegian association.. and danielle said to me: being called Old Collegians feels like we are already old ladies having afternoon teas... i don't feel like getting old....
and i, having just recovered from my little cancer scare early in the week, said: oh we can get old and have afternoon tea...... IF we r lucky.
danielle, knowing what i had went thru in that wk, immediately said: thats true, but otherwise we will just have Old Collegian afternoon tea in heaven, even better!
and ariel also added: u know when we r in heaven we can meet Einstein and Newton and stuff and we can ask them all about physics! (she is very enthusiastic abt physics as u can c) can't wait!
Their words almost reduced me to tears... even today whenever i thought about the Old Collegian afternoon tea.. i feel like i want to go to heaven.
i should have more faith in God who provided my life so abundantly. it is absurd that when i have such confidence in His work in my life now, to think that His plan for us in heaven would be poor and grim.
A day of pulling strings 2gether
It is such a good feeling that nowadays i can spend more time on the Bible. Opened the book of NT commentary again, and went straight to Revelation this time... certain parts of it are realli amazing... like the 7 promises with the 7 churches... never noticed it before...
Still remember the days when i first opened a Bible and decided to seriously look at it.....seemed every now and then a verse would jump into my eye and enlighten me. Nowadays i must confess that i just felt it seldom happens... If i read any passage without the aid of study bible or commentary it simply feels like a story... perhaps its due to the fact that last semester i've been mainly focusing on the Old Testament, and passages like skin diseases from Leviticus may not be so related to our lives now... but if there is any part of me going apathetic i do hope to revive a godly passion again. ^^
Has not been so keen about my English blog these days...... probably because i am kind of forcing myself to write in the Chinese blog first... It is bad every time i read books and have so many thoughts in my head and do nothing about them... so decided to at least release them somewhere.
Today was informed by mum, in my rather impoverished state, that i am still in possession of 2 $50 Myer vouchers... And she... suggested me to go shopping.......... (she still doesn't know about the 2 committee meetings this weekend... *sweat*) So i thought why not, since she actually recommended it and i have money to spend...
so yep , spent whole morning in the city... shopping. Found some presents, got myself a pair of espirit pants... and went again to readers' feast to grab Matthew Pearl's Dantes Club... a book i have always wanted since last year. Finally made the decision to buy it.... So happy!
Reading the Bible on toilet
During the trip the most memorable thing i did was to read Bible sitting on toilet cover...
being a poor sleeper as i always am.... on the 3rd day i was already half awake at 7... decided to visit the bathroom... then i realised there was something on the toilet seat. Turned on the light.... i realised it was Glad wrap...... In the half sleeping state i was too tired to take a foto so just took it off and put it in the bin.
Went back to bed, half slept for another 1hr.... prayed silently on bed for another half an hr or so and decided to get dressed, then carrying my bible and tooth brush out so not to wake up anyone else by another trip back.
I pushed open the door to the kitchen......... and saw: Glad wrap...... covering the whole door frame. just outside the door, were couches and sofas arranged vertically to block the way...
Thinking it was just a joke from the guys, i tore open the Glad wrap and pushed the couch slightly away to maked way.... wait! i thought i heard some strange sounds?????
walking out.... i saw that the guys were all sleeping around the kitchen and tv area behind the couches........ not in their usual downstair rooms.......
and they got all woken up, by my intrusion. Like what i would do.......... i retreated...
Guys were sleeping outside, everyone else were sleeping in their bedrooms... not wanting to wake up either parties again...... i put down the toilet cover, and sat on it to read the Bible.
It was actually not totally unwelcoming... sitting among confined spaces allow me to concentrate more..
Meanwhile the guys barricaded the couches again.
Not til an hr later did irene and dora wake up and we together overcame the barricade.
It is just such a fun silly experience i will never forget.
端午遐思: poet and murder
Yesterday... dragon boat festival. I never know wats the correct english translation for it.... so dragon boat will have to do...lol
every time it comes i am reminded of the story behind it.
The most well known version: a poet and politician who was very disillusioned abt the king, worried that his country would be invaded by a kingdom from the west. In order to give protest to the king's nonchalance... He jumped into a river and killed himself. Later days people remember him by having boat race on the river and throwing down rice wrapped in leaves cos they think he mite go hungry living down there in the riverbed.
but i just remembered another theory i read once on newspaper when i was stil a kid, the more i think about it the more sense it makes.
The poet fell in love with the king's most favourite concubine (the allusion of which is not so obscure in a few of his poems) Either an affair ensued or the king just want to make sure it won't happen, but to avoid public exposure, he sent for an assassin.
Then try to imagine the situation, the assassin followed the poet to the riverside. Desperate to escape the poet got on a boat, and the assassin started chasing on a boat as well. (sounds familiar? the dragon boat race) Eventually the assassin caught up with the poet, murdered him, and wrapped his body up, tied up with strings (even more familiar? 粽子) and threw the body into the river. People who witnessed the murder on shore do not dare to expose the king, but left clues of the murder in all the traditions we have today.
History is often unplesant situations idealised.
I didn't post this yesterday in fear of ruining ur appetites for 粽子... my most sincere apology if any discomfort is caused. ^0^
going nuts
early this morning woken up from a really bad nightmare: went to see the doctor and the doctor found lumps everywhere in my body... then she opened up my shoulder and axillary to show me all the layers and show me what went wrong... i woke up with cold sweats, all the fears 3 wks ago came back to me... fortunately went back to sleep... this time dreamed better: lingli having her 21st bday party.... still random but so much more pleasant.
this morning was feeling my axillary.... feels kind of a tiny swelling in one of the central LN... Reactive hyperplasia? psychopathic? i don't know but i am just paranoid.... i am sure the doctor won't feel anything if i go to her... but it doesn't mean its not there.
although i can still function normally and if i don't touch anything nothing much is wrong, but i really feel my body has been going nuts for a while and is seriously not stopping...... >_<
Procrastination(courtesy of kolin...lol)
decided to fast from North and South for a day 2day... perhaps the best i can manage. the music stuck in my head is getting a bit annoying. and i seriously waste time thinking abt it... when i take a nap i really hoped that i could be lying on the country lawn under the gentle sunshine in Helstone... daydream daydream.......
it has been quite amazing especially during the exam period... seems that everytime i waste time too much i get an encouraging email from someone...which gets me motivated again(unfortunately not for long) some of them rather unexpected.... this really is a time that i am receiving so much love from ppl. it seems that only now i realised how many friends i have... *sweat* (sori yn is very retarded)
North and South
i have largely neglected my blog.
down with a bad cold on sunday, physically quite lethargic, or is it really just my excuse for not concentrating on my studying? mum and dad both down with abd discomfort and nausea 2-3 days after lunch at my dad's favourite yum cha restaurant. Funny how my GIT is not so sensitive to this agent of infection, or should i not speak with such confidence as it may still be cooking up something during its incubation period?
watched last episode of north and south on sunday nite, it was such a brilliant series. now absolutely addicted to it... and the theme music... i just couldn't give up humming it all day.^0^ a series well done always can attract its audience.
in fact this victorian english influence has been so strong that i haven't really read or touched much chinese over the last few days. not only do i now think about words to say in an old-school northern industrial accent... i do discover that some of my long neglected english skills has come back to me. Quite amazing indeed.
