Walkin'

Dan Dan

2006-09-07T17:40:00.000+08:00

My cousin in America recounting some of her son's (Dan) anecdotes:-

We were all in the car the other day, counting all the things we miss eating from Ghim Moh market.
We listed, "chai tao kueh, chwee kueh, chee cheong fun, char kuey teow, yong tao foo, ipoh hor fun..."
Then came Dan's voice, "Can you guys please speak English?"

***

I had gone with Dan to IKEA on Tuesday as a treat. I got to wander around for an hour while Dan played in the ball room. During the drive home, Dan complained that the boy he played with in the ball room kept calling him "Hey, Chinese boy."

Dan said he was angry and had asked him to stop calling him 'Chinese boy'.
I told him that it was ok, coz perhaps the boy didn't know his name, "And anyways, you are a Chinese boy."
"No, I'm not!" Dan said, "I'm not a chinese boy! I'm English!"
After hesitating for just a moment, he asked, "Mom, am I an English boy?"
I had to explain to him that even though we speak in English, we are chinese.
Dan was quiet for a while and then said, "I don't get it!"

***

There is this praise song we listen to in the car... I must confess I'm having a hard time deciphering the words to the second line. It sounds as though it should be "I'm lifting up my voice, I'm dancing in my joy!"

But I can never hear the right words to the song is because Dan insists on belting out at the top of his lungs, "I'm lifting up my voice, I'm dancing on my toys!"

***

I had just washed and cut up some strawberries for dessert.
I said to Dan, "Dan, come eat some strawberries!"
"I don't like strawberries.. they are sour," he replied.
"These are really sweet, Dano. Try some," I coaxed. His quick retort?
"They're really sweet? Then I can't eat them... they are bad for my teeth!"

***

Just this evening, Dan walked into our room after being tucked into bed for the night.
He complained, "Dadah! I have a mosquito bite right here," lifting up his top and scratching his side. Jon was sympathetic, "Oh, you poor thing. Why did the mosquito bite my poor Dano?"
Dan replied, "It's because I'm too juicy, that's why! I'm just too juicy!"

Song of the day: You're here with me

2006-07-04T20:44:00.000+08:00

You're here with me

You’re all I want
You’re all I need, oh Jesus
Take more of me
So I can be more like You, Jesus
And I’ll hold on to You
Whatever I go through

You’re here with me
My Saviour, my King, my everything
Oh Jesus, You are the reason I live
Forever I’ll give my all to You

Open my eyes so I can see who You really are
Open my ears so I can hear Your tender voice
And I’ll trust in You whatever I go through

You guide my path
Each step that I take
You lead me Lord
In Your arms I’ll stay

From the album, Shout God's Fame, by Hillsong Church London

Eulogy

2006-05-26T15:54:00.000+08:00

My eulogy to T.Jenni read out at the memorial services on Thursday 25 May & Friday 26 May 2006 -

To my friends who didn’t know Auntie Jenni personally, I usually told them how much they’d love my wonderful auntie if they met her. She made everyone she came into contact with feel special. She also had this ability to make you pour out your heart to her. At least that was how I felt. And this was probably because she made people feel accepted no matter what. She always thought the best of people. No matter how many times you went back on your word or broke her trust, she would still give you another chance and another chance and another chance.

She was a wise, resourceful and capable woman, always full of ideas. If you ever had a problem, you could be sure Auntie Jenni would have some great, workable suggestions for you. To me, if Auntie Jenni was on the team, everything would turn out well and successful.

Besides my dad, Auntie Jenni is the next person who had the biggest speaking right in my life. I don’t think there was any major life issue that I did not talk to Auntie Jenni about. Eventhough she’s been away for the last 2 years, she always made time to meet me each time she came back to renew her visa.

She was one cool, radical auntie and youth pastor who told some of us girls that if there were any non-christian guys who were interested in us, we should use our charm and the opportunity to bring him to church and get him converted regardless of whether we liked him or not. I remember responding to that with a horrified look!

She helped me get a $50 allowance increment when I was 15 and always helped me see things from my parents’ point of view.

Whenever the self-expectation got too much for me as a pastor’s kid, she always reminded me how blessed I am for my spiritual heritage.

With Auntie Jenni, I could always be me. I knew that no matter what I did or how badly I’d behaved, it wouldn’t make her love me any less. My time with her always left me encouraged and inspired to love and serve the Lord more.

The last time we had mentoring on Mar 22nd, I was so glad to know that she was coming back for good at the end of this year. When she left Singapore for Indonesia, our temporary lost was to the gain of the people there. So I thought that when she’d come back this time, their lost would now be our gain. However, now that she’s gone to be with the Lord, our lost is finally to Auntie Jenni’s gain. I am comforted to know that she’s in a better place with Jesus. She’s worked hard and she’s always given her best.

As I sat down and bawled my eyes out thinking of what to share at the memorial service, I was very upset with myself that I could not recall as many things that Auntie Jenni had spoken to me as I felt I should. But it brought me great comfort when cousin Cynthia sms-ed me to say “It’s not that we don’t remember, but we are already living all the things that she said to us.”

I love you, Auntie Jenni. Thank you for loving me and believing in me even when I couldn’t believe myself. It’s been my greatest honour, privilege and blessing to be your niece and to have you as my mentor. I pray that I will be able to continue to live my life in a way that would make you proud of me.

T.Jenni

2006-05-24T12:02:00.000+08:00

Today I lost the best auntie and the best mentor a girl could ever ask for. My heart is broken. I don't think there will ever be anybody who would know me and can speak into my life the way T.Jenni has. I was so looking forward to her returning to Singapore for good at the end of this year.

Dear T.Jenni,

Thank you for loving me and for always believing in me. It's been my greatest honour, privilege and blessing to be your niece and mentee. I love you and will miss you so much.

I pray God will help me to remember all the words of advice and wisdom you have spoken to me. I pray I will continue to do you proud.

I'm so glad you're in a better place with Jesus.

Sue

Because He lives

2006-04-14T06:05:00.000+08:00

God sent His son
They called Him Jesus
He came to love, heal and forgive
He gave His life to buy my pardon
An empty grave is there to prove
My Saviour lives

And because He lives
I can face tomorrow
Because He lives
All fear is gone
Because I know
I know He holds the future
And life is worth the living
Just because He lives

Words and Music by William And Gloria Gaither

Taboo Entertainment

2006-04-13T19:41:00.000+08:00

It's become a tradition to makan like crazy and play Taboo whenever we're at Worship Team Retreat. This year, we discovered we had a very intense and focused Taboo player in our midst! While everyone was only given the usual minute, we gave him 2 cos of his entertainment value!

The Five Love Languages

2006-04-03T12:31:00.000+08:00

The Five Love Languages

My primary love language is probably
Quality Time
with a secondary love language being
Acts of Service.

Complete set of results

Quality Time:		10
Acts of Service:		8
Words of Affirmation:		7
Physical Touch:		5
Receiving Gifts:		0

Information

Unhappiness in relationships, according to Dr. Gary Chapman, is often due to the fact that we speak different love languages. Sometimes we don't understand our partner's requirements, or even our own. We all have a "love tank" that needs to be filled in order for us to express love to others, but there are different means by which our tank can be filled, and there are different ways that we can express love to others.

Take the quiz

Guest appearance for Grace

2006-02-13T00:10:00.000+08:00

I'm making a rare blog appearance here just for my beloved cousin in San Franciso.

Dear Grace,

I was a little worried you'd say "I evil" for showing you the good food you're missing out with all of us here in Singapore, but I decided that I'd risk getting "scolded" by you, hoping you'd see how we all missed you and remembered you as we gathered for wonderful food on the 15th day of CNY! =)

Because you were not around to take photos of the all the food, I was given the honour of doing so. Then, must do something with the photos, right? So here I am reporting...

We went to the New Majestic Hotel at Bukit Pasoh. The place damn hip. As one review put it, so hip it hurts.

Each hotel lobby chair was different. Some looked like barber chairs to me.

The lobby ceiling looked like that of an old shophouse (think patchy green) although the walls, tiles and stairs were all white.

We had to listen to techno music during dinner?!?! Terrible! Good thing it only came on sporadically during our two and a half hours there.

I came home to find out that we could actually see the swimming pool above the restaurant from inside the restaurant. Looks like I'll have to have dinner there again to check it out for myself! ;p

We had gold-coated baby abalone in our yu sheng

Your dear brother who has taken to gloating over how Net must refrain from sashimi and a lot of other seafood told me just to tell you that this dish had foie gras. But I feel compelled to tell you more! ;p To me, I think this dish was an equivalent to a cold dish consisting of jelly fish, foie gras, roast duck, mayo-wasabi prawn with mango cubes and a slice of watermelon.

I loved the egg beancurd!

We had the most fragrant lap cheong fan I've tasted. Unfortunately I was so full by then, I only had a nibble!

Your sister's and my favourite dish was the mango sago dessert that came in a mug. It tasted like lassi cos it had a scoop of vanilla ice cream in it. Oh! And it came with 2 pieces of coconut-coated nian gao. Nice!

The other stuff I didn't take photos of cos of it's white colour (bad lighting at the restaurant) were the sharks' fin soup (there was A LOT of sharks' fin in each of our bowls, bordering along the line of too much) and steamed fish.

The "cousins table" spent a good portion of the night talking about Korean drama serials. HH is hooked onto Da Chang Jin. We were all amazed that he watched it for 30 hours this weekend. He confessed to watching it even while brushing his teeth. We all cracked up when he told us how he reached for the tissue paper when Chang Jin reunites with her shi fu.

I'm so looking forward to the next family gathering!

Miss you!