Updates

Went for the Jazz at d beach w FL again yesterday. Tis time round, they were doing latin groove. Its nice except it gets tiring w all the upbeats throughout the evening. Smooth jazz was better last weekend. Anywayz, met KV again. It was quite farnie. He posed a simple qns: how was the week tt's past? It was a tough qns to ans! All i cld manage was a: had my ups n downs....

thankfully... downs were less... so i'll start w downs...

Downs:
1. Been exhausted.... even with sleep... strange.
2. Was demoralized for a brief moment.... related to work. When u feel tt effort put in wasn't given due recognition... anywayz,.... brief moments... passed....

Ups:
1. Did my first long distance of abt 5km finally at east coast on friday evening. Crowded beach. I realized tt major changes (at least to me) had taken place! The fencing and vegetation at the stretch between the seafood restaurant and the lagoon food center has been removed! Pedestrains route has changed. Previously blocked by the fencing... it is now a spacious and open area. Good or bad? I don't know. Just different. Gone were all my memories of running beside the cycling track w all the different pple.... Wats 'up' abt tis? i realized.... i thank God that i am blessed w the health to run... i am blessed w the health to come out and appreciate east coast...

2. Over these two weeks i hv been encouraged by my new frens, FL's "CH" frens mainly. i hardly noe them... but the joy of the Lord that they have are infectious. They dun talk abt it... but....its something one senses... i might join FL for her tues CG (she claims its CG tho i'm like... ITS 50-pple BIG! its NOT a CG). Timing is quite 'gd' actually... i hv been 'feeling' i shld join a grp somehow... i did not say anything.... and FL came along... it seems God has put these jazz meetings in place.. cos last week, i did not plan to go for tt session. Half the time i wanted to back out, go home, even on the journey. somehow, i managed to turn up.... noe these pple.... i hv no idea wats in store. slowly i'm 'missing' the passion i use to hv... slowly i'm 'missing' living life w purpose... now entirely clear abt the purpose yet... but... slowly.... in any case, my priority is to pass my first aid course first. lol....

3. i m reminded that i hv been bought by the blood of Christ. That doesn't just mean i'm saved. That also means i'm a co-heir of His kingdom. That also means i'm His daughter. That also means He's my fren. That also means i live the 'now' in view of the 'after'.... which is wat got me out of the demoralized state. *laughs* let's see how long tis will last.

Meanwhile its Monday again. My prayer Abba is that You will help me to face it w joy, not to take work as burden, but as opportunities You have blessed me with to bless. I ask Abba that You will give me the wisdom to deliver knowledge... wisdom to discern.... wisdom to guide. Amen.

exhausted giraffe

just came back from my first aid course. sometimes i wonder to myself whether i'm killing myself signing up for these couple of courses....

in any case, we did CPR today. i partnered a secondary boy. he n his classmates gotta pass this for some badge for scouts. it was hilarious. he was probably the farniest guy during CPR and got 'whacked' by my instructor a couple of times.

test will b next thurs. i'm not even halfway thro reading the book.. alas.. and much work... just exhasuted...

nite by the beach...

just came back from sentosa.

been wanting to go for at least one of the jazz sessions at the beach (planning one next week as seen in earlier blog). but today FL called me up last min. so i scrapped d plan of running at EC and headed to sentosa.

journey took longer than expected. all the time wanted to turn back and go home and rest. (i've been sleeping all day today! but its good rest). fortunately i did not, cos the music n company was worth it.

gd to see FL again. got to noe her frens too. they were nice. got to noe a fellow guitar club OTIC of another sch. a lady from an organization i can possibly collaborate w. (yeah, cant stop talking shop). we played dtydti after the music session was over. overall it was a nice evening out.

i'm thankful for today. tho i slept most of it away, i really got to rest today. thank u Daddy. :)

now hv to go rest for church tom... and den.... term 2 week 1... commences.....

Current state: hungry

Two events i'll like to go to...

1. Filmmaking Workshop by National Geographic Channel.
Getting behind the scenes and learning trade secrets with Bryan Smith, Executive VP of Production for National Geogprahic Channels International. Gives insider's view of the creation of a NG documentary, with the focus on storytelling and character devt.
Mar 26, 3 - 5pm, library@orchard

2. Jazz by the beach
Performance by The Groove, a multi-ethnic grp tt performs in Latin jazz.
Mar 26, 6 - 10.30pm, Siloso Beach, Sentosa Island.

Both fall on the same day. On Sunday, a day I'll usually work. The Sunday just before my First Aid certification test on 31st. sigh.... hope i can make it for either one. anyone wanna join me?

Home

a place of rest.
where one retreats from the many stimuli outside.
where one finds time to breathe.

was just reminded of this.
been exhausted even before i left for perhentian.
ave waking hours at home for the past 2 weeks been less than 2 hours (excluding trip)
courses... more courses... sch camp... church prac...
i look fwd to sat when i can finally have a decent no. of hours at home.

Dive of the trip

Really exhausted now. But must blog tis most happening dive of the trip in...

Date: 13 Mar Site: Sugar Wreck
Time in: 1320hrs Time out: Approx 1430
Dive buddy: PL
Other dive mates: GR n EV
Divemaster: Yoe

Immediately after descend:
Visibility was about 1.5 - 2m. Meaning very bad. I lost my buddy immediately. Was left w GR n EV. We signaled to each other "where are the rest?" and shrugged shoulders with hands out in response "dunno". Hung ard descend point for half a min to wait and heard Yoe horn for us. But sound travels in all directions in liquid, so had no idea where he is. Suddenly he appeared w PL. And we proceeded w dive.

Approx 10mins into dive:
Was following Yoe closely cos of the low visibility. Occasionally checking on back for buddy. Just at the moment I did not check, Yoe signalled to me "where's ur buddy?" I turned back. Yellow cloudiness. All missing. (PL later told me she was playing w sea urchin w the rest, so got lost. lol) We backtracked quite a bit. Did the SOP. Search for a min den ascended to find them. After a while, saw them a distance away. They had to fight the currents to swim back to us. Poor pple. I was really glad i wasn't in their position.

We descended again.

Within 5 mins of descend
Yoe suddenly stopped turned back and blocked PL. A fishing line with many hooks was dropped right in front of him and us. We were too close. He took the line, tugged it (the person above was trying to pull it up, ha, thot it was big fish *laughs*) and snapped it. We went on with dive.

Next many minutes....
Saw many stuff... fish... corals... urchins... etc... nice dive site! And i made it a point to check on my buddy more often.

Last 5 mins
We were at abt 5 - 9 m depth. Abt time to do safety stop. I stopped checking on my buddy den cos... well... we were ending dive, and seriously at tt depth and good visibility, there was no reason how anyone could be missing! But... i was... wrong....
Yoe took up an urchin and played w it on his palm. I was looking at the urchin and all. Den decided to check on buddy. BUT THEY WERE NOT THERE!! Incredible. Yoe was also like... huh? So we looked ard tt area only (cos anywayz, everyone noes we were to end dive soon, so wldn't drift far). I spotted some bubbles, but those disappeared quickly. So we just did our safety stop, meanwhile i was playing w a batfish.

Ascended...
A distance away, i saw the rest of them climb up the boat. The boat came for us. We went up too...

The story behind why they got lost:
GR was v low on air again, so was sharing air w PL. So a bit like mahfan oredi. At this point, of all times, EV's mask strap gave way!!! So while using alternate air source, GR had to work on EV's mask while PL held on to the two of them. Finally they all ascended w EV like a blind person being led ard for that short while. LOL. And the farnie part was, both GR n PL thot EV was pulling a stunt when she turned to them w no mask! LOL. Absolutely hilarious. I missed the show. *chuckles*

We all concluded that must hv been d most happening dive of the trip. Pple got lost 3 times. We had a situation of guys going on alternate air source while leading a 'blind' diver ard. KE KE KE.

battered body

sun burnt from face to arms to legs... as in... really red and feeling quite raw.

rashes all over the body... arms and legs.... dunno where from. my guess... from the sea and showering with salt water all the 3 days as there's like no freshwater to shower in!!

bruises on both my arms.. and urm.. yah, legs also. from where? God noes.. prob from climbing up (actually i mean being hauled up onto) the speedboats from the sea.

cuts by corals on knees.... and abrasion on ankle cos of sand in booties....

battered... battered... battered...

narcosed giraffe

just reached home from perhentian.

'interesting' dives.

great dive sites.

saw many new things like anemones and corals i've neva seen before, fish like titan triggerfish, porcupine fish (the one in Shark's Tale that puffs up, razor fish, many many...

v. long journey.

nice local dive operator and DMs.

gotta noe PL

terrible food

very very very exhausting dives after dives.. such that the person-in-charge and a senior DM told us straight in our faces that we are crazy to try to clock so many dives in those hours.

no time to blog 'interesting' details cos got course tom morn... till nite... argh...

zzz... w wet hair...

long long long day

early in morn, last min call to tell me i hv to go sch on my own. by God's grace, i made it down in spite of late notice.

long day of many periods.

did marking.

did 2.4km run for the sch sports event. darn warm weather.

went for my first aid course.

darn tired now. but feeling pretty good...

long long long day

lesson observation is finally over today.... after much trauma. my performance was not up to my expectations. But will do. :)

met up w dive gang sat nite. tho things are not as 'simple' as previously, its nice to meet and talk abt simple things... :) getting pple who are concerned abt u, ur work... being caught up w each others' stories... always good to see my xiao mei, buddy, GR, LD n RG, ha ha.. esp the first two!

SYF coming up. Training intensifying. But half the time i still dunno wats going on.. worrying

starting my first aid course tom. hope i dun kill anyone...

still tinking abt tis thing called frenship. questioning the 'value/worth' of the so-called 'the times we've spent together in the past'. i used to treasure those and treasure old frenships. now i'm qnsing. does it matter? bcos it doesn't seem to matter for others. rediscovering.

looking forward to trip to perhentian tis weekend. been planning for it since end last yr when i looked at all the weekends. HA... its finally coming.

did my 2.4km run last wed. horrifying timing!! from 13+ mins mths ago, i degraded to 16 freaking plus mins!!! i'm a slow giraffe.

no input for now oredi. in a state of.... 'no feeling'. :) morning stressed... after observation was in cloud nine and very stimulated after the time w my extremely active class today... now.... emotions all expendited in the day... all gone.... :) looking fwd to meet my bed after watching desperate housewives.

the mouse escaped....

i did not even hear it drop... the apple mouse i was bringing home w the notebook for work. just checked the retail price of it... cost a freaky 50 bucks!

sigh... everyone in sch 'envys' me for hving the cool processor.. but alas.. the price that comes with it....

can anyone tell me where i can get a replacement mouse at a cheaper rate?

Current state: Cant be bothered to really think of loss - too tired.