The Merry Month of May: Park Connectors, Grouches and Rogues
(Apr-May 2007) - -
28.05.07

Meet the men that I love!

My friends,

For some reason, I had never thought to type "Wedge Antilles" into YouTube before today. Look what I found.

An AMAZING tribute to the Rogues. It's truly amazing. It's wonderful. I love it. These are the pilots that I love, man. This is the reason I love X-Wing. :D



Video: "Yub Yub Commander", fait par Saria (sariafaelwen)

I mean, I think the video truly is able to capture the idea - WHY is Rogue Squadron so beloved of its fans? It's not a shallow squealy fangirl thing. It's because of the IDEA - the reason that they fight, the ideals, the knowledge that one must take a stand for good: the truth that apathy and refusing to take a stand does not mean no decision, but is already a decision that plays straight into the hands of the enemy. It's because to love Rogue Squadron is to love freedom, to love honour, and the pursuit of excellence. It's because Wedge and his friends can always be trusted to fight for Right, no matter how hard it may be or how great the sacrifice involved. It's because the battle that they fought is a battle that we too must take sides in and which we can fight everyday. C'est ca. It's because they show us how to fight the good fight!

Most of the quotes are in French, though :P but haha, it's strangely appropriate (there are certain languages which are associated with the idea of fighting for freedom a bit more than English is - or rather, in a different way)... it adds a poignancy to lines like "Je m'appelle Tycho Celchu, fils d'Alderaan, orphelin de la galaxy..."

It's a splendid video! Splendid picture selection, showing a very in-depth acquantance with the Rogues indeed, splendid sequencing, EXCELLENT choices of pictures and quotes - I love the arrangement, the transition from theme to theme, not random at all but subtly organised and very well done. Pictures selected are all those that matter most - from the comics, from the non-X-Wing comics, from the NJO Japanese covers, from the movies, even from Empire: Darklighter :) :) :) .... (haha, actually I've seen all the pictures before and I know where they're from... and it's clear that she got some of the pictures from certain well-known websites hahaha...)

Ahhh... What an immense thirst it can be for companionship in these pursuits (cf. CS Lewis - Surprised by Joy), and what joy it is, to know that there are other exact, perfectionistic, purist fans (with better video editing skills than I will ever have) out there who love Wedge, Tycho, Wes and Hobbie as much as I do!! :)

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27.05.07

I have successfully spring-cleaned my entire room (a process that was set in motion 3 weeks ago when I moved back from hall and had to dump all my stuff on the floor because there was no space in the cupboards)! By dint of throwing out most of my secondary school notes, I have finally managed to shove everything into my cupboards in an organised and systematic fashion. :) I have even reorganised my fiction/poetry collection (which has overspilled my cupboard-bookshelf to fill another small bookcase, two more shelves and three cubby-holes) and there's actually space to put new books in the year to come. That should hold it... until another year from now :) My room is very tidy now (if still somewhat cluttered)!

Did I mention that my phone also died around the time I moved back (it was never quite the same after the first episode of running in the rain to Pasir Ris - but it'd served me well for 2 years!)... I managed to rescue all my important info and pictures! :) And at the time I also cleaned out and reorganised my computer (both the shared family desktop computer and my laptop) so all the computer documents I've ever created IN MY ENTIRE LIFE are all organised and the unnecessary ones deleted... and backed up everything on my father's external hard drive! Newly springcleaned room, newly springcleaned computer and new phone :P My life has never been so organised before hehehe :)

* * *

There are 3 movies I want to watch:

1. AMAZING GRACE!!!!!!! (Ioan Gruffudd) This is THE show I've been waiting to see the entire year!!! (It was my father, early this year, who'd first alerted me to it - "They're making a show about William Wilberforce starring that actor... Eeeoyan Grooofoodeedee"... hahaha - the real pronounciation is "Yo-ann Griffith") I was so stunned to see in the newspapers that it opened on Thursday! I thought that Singapore (increasingly immoral, increasingly disinterested in stories of good people, increasingly looking to titillation and shallowness for entertainment) would never bring it in! I immediately messaged Zichun haha who replied that he'd seen it in the papers too and was wondering why Joanna hadn't gone ballistic yet - haha! I AM DEFINITELY GOING TO SEE THIS SHOW - who wants to come with me? :) It's showing ONLY at Lido. I hope the run doesn't end soon!

2. Pirates of the Caribbean 3 - not really high on my list, but I'm going to watch it the week after this coming week with Viks and Dawn. Anyone wants to join us? :)

3. The Wind That Shakes The Barley - a show about a part of history which has always fascinated me. Unfortunately I think the run has ended, so I'll have to wait for it to come out on DVD :P

And after school ends I'd like to hold another movie marathon! (maybe this time we can bake apple pie beforehand, I'm starting to get apple pie cravings again!) Already I'm eyeing possible movie marathon-friendly shows that we could watch - Akeelah and the Bee, Cool Runnings, and the Japanese love story Be With Me (choose 2)... can't wait! :)

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26.05.07

On Tuesday I went to see Priceless with Dawa (we'd already agreed that if a good French movie came out we'd watch it together), Viknesk, Marcel, Jeremy Mong, Susan and Mohana :) Dawn also joined us for dinner beforehand. Haha, this is the most diverse group of people whom I've ever invited to watch a movie together before. Still, it wasn't awkward or anything so that was good! :) It was good to catch up with Dawa again... Don't think I've seen him since quite a few JC class reunions ago! Found out that he's playing with a band now and works part-time at a bar in Clarke Quay with a Che Guevara theme - that's interesting! (Though as usual - a far cry from what Che himself would have imagined his name to be used for!)

Priceless was quite a funny show, but also full of immorality haha I think all of us were kind of stunned by the amount of casual sex in that show though the guys found it very funny heh. I wasn't too shocked (after all, c'est un film francais) but in Mo's words, "I'd expected something arty, not tarty" heh. It wasn't as nice as any of the shows I'd previously seen the show's leads in - eg Amelie (Audrey Tautou), La Doublure (Gad Elmaleh). Those shows did have sex in them but they had substance and a proper story-which-one-can-relate-to besides lah, which made them funnier too :P this one was just funny-because-grotesque. I guess in the end the essential pathos of the premise of Priceless - people sleeping around for money - can only be so funny - after a while the joke kind of wears thin :P The actors are first-rate though - they ought to be in comedies with a bit more to them (like La Doublure).

Oh and guess what - the French restaurant guy in Spiderman 3 (every DOTA gang member's favourite character), who did a very good imitation of John Cleese, is Bruce Campbell, not John Cleese (yeah, well, I did think he wasn't quite John Clees-y enough, and didn't quite look like him heh). Still, it made me wonder for a while.

On Wednesday we had VCF CG - Stephen came to give a message which I felt was very good - about the importance of being kingdom-oriented Christians instead of church-oriented ones, and how actively working to do good to others, to make the world a better place, is as much a part of the way we can be used by God for the salvation of others as, say, the action of actually leading them into a relationship with Jesus; how social action is - as demonstrated by Jesus - as much a part of bringing the kingdom of God to the world as talking about it. An excellent reminder of what it means to be a Christian, and how one's one's worldly profession fits within one's faith. :)

And I just had a good run with Jeremy Mong today :) we tried out the Kallang Park Connector for the first time for both of us - starting from Kallang MRT and ending at Bishan Park (about 7-8 km I think). It wasn't that great a route at first because there were so many roads to cross (though as consolation there was the Kallang river), but it was a pretty good run from Potong Pasir onwards, when the route became quite unbroken. Heh, we subsequently found that Bishan Park is between Bishan MRT and Ang Mo Kio MRT - we took the MRT back from Ang Mo Kio! It was a good run because of nice scenery, nice weather (it was cold and rained halfway but the sky was bright after that and dried us off) and good company, as always!

At Bishan Park we saw a very pretty dog - it looked like a Labrador. Jeremy was completely smitten! ("It must be a girl dog because it's too pretty to be a guy" - Jeremy) He says he'll get a big friendly dog like that next time because he's going to be old and lonely haha (so he claims - bosh!) I've told him that next time when he becomes a rich surgeon with his fast cars then pretty girls like Audrey Tautou will try and seduce him like in Priceless haha. Hmm.. maybe his dog will help him to sniff out the right ones!

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It's May, It's May, The Merry Month of May
21.05.07

Hi! I'm back! :) Diaryland's been slow for the last month cos it was undergoing some server move i think. I was almost contemplating moving to blogspot or wordpress :P

Wow, I haven't blogged for such a long time I hardly know where to start! For the last few months every single day of my life has been packed to the brim - every day after hospital/clinics there's always been some meeting to go for, someone to meet for dinner, some work that needs to be done or some fun to be had :) It's been a really great experience. Everything went on hold during Emergency Med posting, which was my favourite posting of all the postings we've done so far (and the only one which fit my sleep cycle!) It was during that posting that I think I finally truly fell in love with Medicine :P God had already been using each posting to teach me so many things - about myself, about life... and I've never felt more eager to study hard and apply passion to learning so that I can help others in the future!

Since then, (through Radiology and Family Med postings) there's been Publications stuff to do (it's my committee's responsibility to produce the Yearbook for my hall by the end of July), and a lot of VCF meetings; there was a retreat for Medicine VCF leaders which was during my Emed posting which I enjoyed and which I felt was a good time of sharing and learning about each other, and since then there's been a series of planning meetings amid growing excitement for next year :) Zichun, Ching Mien and I also had a meeting last weekend to review how the year in KE CF went and to plan for next year, and that looks really exciting too - as we talked about what the role of a CF in hall should and could be, I felt a lot of hope rising that - yes, with God nothing is impossible, and He will surely enable this to happen as we play our part :)

I feel very blessed. God has been using everything in my life to help me to grow and blossom so much as a person over the last year, and by throwing myself in all my activities I sense that I've become a much more confident (outgoing even!) person than I ever was - completely transformed! I must be careful, though, not to neglect my personal friendships amidst all the busyness. Just yesterday I was reminded not to be complacent with all that has been added to me this year and to remember that I only have all these blessings by the grace of God, not because of anything I could do on my own to make them come :P And also to remember that while God uses all things for good - I'd begun the year as a miserable person, throwing myself into all these activities so that my mind would not be idle and keep returning to sad things, and God used those activities to transform me into a much more self-disciplined, effective and beautiful person than I ever was before - I must be careful now not to use workaholism as a way of sidestepping the need to build relationships, but now that I have been blessed with so much, I must turn these newly discovered aspects of my character to learn more concern and compassion for others and make an effort to be a more relational being. Great things are afoot!

Heh I have so much to write.... All I shall be able to offer though is a few snapshots!

Moving out of hall (5 May, Saturday). The whole hall was moving that weekend and it was so funny to see all the hustle and bustle and people trooping with suitcases and boxes all over the place. I had accumulated so much stuff over the year! And the day I'd chosen to move out my father fell sick and couldn't bring the car down to help me :P Fortunately, kind Jeremy Mong came to the rescue with his guy muscles and his car and helped me to ban jia! We were considering bringing my brother along to lend his muscle power but after we shifted my whole rubbish dump of stuff out we realised it was just as well he wasn't free in the end because he wouldn't have been able to fit into the car hahaha. When we got to my house at the end of the day and unloaded all my stuff on the floor my father looked at the huge mess we brought back and commented dryly, "Just as well I was sick!"

The Easter weekend sharing at youth group that we had, in April at Easter... we watched the Passion, which was so sad that I was still crying when it was my turn to go up and give my testimony that I'd prepared on Joy! :D

Doing Pubs Comm stuff in the JCRC room with Viks haha. I'd missed Viks so much after not having seen him for so long heh (between my Emed posting and his going back to Penang) that when I saw him again for the first time in 6 weeks I couldn't resist giving him a hug even though it was on my way to Family Med tutorial! :) And yesterday we were joined by the very high Marcel while we were doing photo cropping!

Our VCF meetings - sharing at first Med VCF CG on Wednesday, preparing with the CGLs and the subcomm... I feel that working with the Med Christians, though I was a bit apprehensive at first (because they're all very relational people and I'm not very relational), is opening my eyes to a lot more aspects of things as simple as how to be a better friend. Oh and it was so funny because when I went with Ben Khoo to the FES office to look for Bible study material, Jasmine and Hui-En found this ancient handbook called "The Role of the Lady Vice-President" haha. We had a good laugh over it (because both Hui-En and me are going to be lady vice-chairs to male chairpersons)! There was even a section on "Getting Along with the President". So funny! They assumed that the president was always going to be a guy and the vice-president was always going to be a girl!

Going to GP posting with Dawn! We had such nice GPs to mentor us. Our main GP reminded me of David haha (the way he enunciated). Will have to bake cookies with Dawn sometime soon to thank them :) I enjoyed my posting for many reasons, and really wouldn't mind being a GP, I think it's a great profession. There was also a shop next to the clinic that sold very nice traditional childhood biscuits heh (like the icing biscuits). I would drag Dawn to it after posting every day to ogle biscuits haha.

Running with running buddy Jeremy :P Heh we ambitiously ran from Pasir Ris to my house one weekend (the backwards direction of the route I usually run, so that we wouldn't stink up the MRT on the way back) :P and we were dying of thirst during the last 1/3 especially poor Jeremy who loses electrolytes very fast... And then there was this empty bottle of 100-plus standing on the last overhead bridge as if to mock us haha and I heard this desperate yowl in my ear - "I'm hallucinating 100-plus!" HAHAHAHA... when we finally reached home I produced the 1.5 L bottle of 100-plus which I'd gotten ready for the occasion... and I've never seen oral rehydration performed so fast as Jeremy did!!... :) I've also discovered that Jeremy swims about 1.25 times as fast as I do heh.

Watching 300 and Spiderman 3 with Sirui and company! What both of them had in common were that, I felt they were both very... 'kiddy' shows, yet with 'adult' themes that didn't make them entirely suitable for kids. Spiderman 3 was very cartoonish (I felt that it tried to cram enough material for 3 movies into 1 movie, which diluted the power of all 3 storylines), 300 had a 'comic book' rather than 'epic' feel, not quite the mythic battle of LOTR stature which I'd always associated with Thermopylae, but I did enjoy it. And that's the 3rd time I've seen Dominic West play a hum sup guy heh. The minute you see Dominic West come on screen - you know immediately "oh no, he's going to sleep with the Queen!" Poor guy. What a role to get typecast in!

Planning for electives in India next year with Mohana, David, Jeremy and Kokwei! :) so fun so fun!! We'll have to send in many forms, get all our vaccinations, etc. (David: "Oh, Jeremy, can I give you your vaccinations? I promise not to hit your axillary nerve!")

Jan came back from the US with a LEGO Chewbacca for me! :D apparently the cashier who sold it to her had been the stereotypical 'blonde' type who'd said, "Oh, Chewbacca! He's so cool! Like, totally! He's got, like, so much hair!" :D HAHAHA

Time with my family... I've been staying at home for the last 6 weeks (cos of Emed posting I stayed at home though I still had my room in hall), and getting used to my mother's nagging again and also learning to appreciate my parents more :P Last Sunday was Mother's Day and my father's birthday too! I'd gotten them presents - a book by Alexander McCall Smith for my mother and a car magazine for my father (I spent a long time deciding between an issue on Ferraris and an issue on F1 and Kimi Raikkonen) and was congratulating myself on having gotten the things I felt they would like best. BUT.... when the time cane to open them.... it turned out that BOTH parents already HAD those things! :P and I didn't know... in fact my father had just bought the exact same car magazine for himself just a few days before. Phooey! Haha... sigh I think I know my father's taste too well! :P

I'm looking forward to spending more time with God! Have resolved to sleep earlier and wake up earlier each morning to pray - because I don't want to squeeze God out of my life and leave Him till last (I've been having quite erratic Bible-reading time). I want to put Him first, and I want to love Him more and more and be changed by Him into someone who's more loving and lovable too! :P

Hall friends... though I didn't get to see much of them in the last 6 weeks, it's always such a pleasure to meet up with them. Went to see Annie off at the airport one day during lunch break from my GP posting when she was flying off to Japan with her MEET team. Zichun and Dawn dropped by my house yesterday on their way home to drop off some of Dawn's baking stuff! :) I think I torture poor Zichun with my MSN conversations though heh - they always involve me thinking too much about me. The latest one was about how to be a better friend.

Sigh, I always feel that no one could be better friends than my friends are to me :P As Zichun said, I've been very blessed. And it's time to give back. My current aim is - now that I have recovered from Being Sad and have no more excuse to look inward so much - to be a better friend to others and get in touch with the heart-oriented side of me which has all my life been eclipsed by my more brain-oriented desire to 'enlighten' people, to help them see Truth. As others have enlarged me as a person, I've come to see that life is not just about showing Truth to people through words - it's about living it out through learning how to care for others in the little things as a friend, as has been so generously demonstrated to me. I want to know how I can be as good to others as they are to me!

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27.04.07

Some people are just grouches.



The following quotes of Oscar the Grouch are from Wikipedia.:

"Go away and LEAVE ME ALONE!!"--Oscar's trademark phrase

"Uhh...we Grouches never say thanks."

(talking to a happy person)"Hey, (character) why are you so happy?"

"Heh, Heh, heh, I love the smell of cheese and bagels in the morning"--when Oscar has trash delivered.

(When someone is angry)"Hey don't stop now, you're just getting to the good parts!"--during an argument.

"And Stay Away From My Cheese"--Said by Oscar after someone leaves Oscar's trashcan.

"Don't Mention It, ...and Go Away"--said by Oscar when he does somebody a favor.

"Have a rotten day!"

"SCRAM!"

"Ding dong, you're wrong!"



And I'll be blowed, but some people do sound just like that!

Picture credit: got it from here.

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16.04.07

It's the second week of my posting in Emergency Medicine. Been a busy and tiring but fruitful time! Last week, I passed my Basic Cardiac Life Support course (which means I am now fully qualified to do CPR etc etc - which I subsequently did on one patient), set a few plugs successfully (and failed to do so on even more occasions), took blood to test for alcohol from someone under police guard suspected of alcohol intoxication (obviously not the first time I've taken blood, but I'm proud of this because I did it smoothly first try in front of the policemen k!), done many ECGs and learnt to read them, performed my first naso-gastric tube insertion and IM injection.... and got a lot of scoldings from fierce Emed doctors! but also learnt a lot! (I think Emed posting is a bit like having a preview of what it'll be like as a houseman heh... though only in terms of procedures)

Today I woke up from my nap in the Changi General Hospital students' lounge to the sight of Ben Khoo sporting a black eye! It was a fine specimen of its kind haha - the eyelid all swollen and discoloured as if with eyeshadow and the eye half-closed. Apparently while playing soccer over the weekend he had tried to take a header; to his misfortune someone else had had the same idea.

Jaws dropped. Janice complained that she couldn't even bear to look at him and ranked "Ben's Black Eye" among the most unpleasant sights ever, on par with the indelible "Jingxiang's Curly Hair" hahaha! :D (Ben's retort: "At least mine wasn't self-inflicted!")

Anyway, I had a most wonderful weekend! Friday night was my ambulance run, so I was following the paramedics at Alexandra Fire Station from 2100 hrs to 0800 hrs. It was a very exciting night with 4 calls (in the course of which I met Hwee Chyen, Daniel, Wenxian, and the whole gang of them at NUH multiple times) - and in between the calls I didn't sleep but actually read the whole of my 'ECG made easy' - with the result that now I can read ECGs! :) Hooray!

The ambulance run was really an eye-opener. I was blessed to be following a very nice (very kind, sensible and tough) lady paramedic and a medic who was very funny, and I think from the calls we made, which spanned proletariat neighbourhoods and opulent ones, I learnt more about human nature than medicine that night!

The next day (after catching up a bit on sleep) I went kayaking at East Coast with Kokwei, Jeremy Mong, David, Eunice and Nydia :) I really enjoyed the break after a very gruelling week! It was great kayaking for an hour, and we saw a magnificent rainbow which extended all the way down to the horizon!

After returning his own kayak Jeremy swam out and capsized David, at greater cost to himself than to his victim. It was a sight to behold, watching a panicking David on his kayak ineffectually exclaiming "You suck! You suck!" to the determined Mong clinging like a limpet to the side of his kayak haha. In the end, David got overturned, and Jeremy got a bellyful of sea water for his pains heh :P but that didn't stop all of us from having a pig-out dinner at the famous food centre afterwards. The conversation was side-splitting. Eunice and Nydia are two very funny (and pretty) ladies! Haven't had many opportunities to talk to them before (except when Eunice still stayed in KE), so I'm glad I had this chance to get to know them a bit better :)

On Sunday after church I had a nap and then went to run to Pasir Ris, which I hadn't done for a few weeks. This time I started off earlier than I usually do and reached with some daylight to spare, so I decided to explore Pasir Ris Park and see if the part at which some of my favourite childhood memories were formed is still there (what in its time was the best and biggest children's playground in Singapore, with many different stations to play at). Haven't visited it for years. Found that much of it is being renovated and has changed, but those few of the new play stations that were up looked promising (including a tall and convoluted new slide which could only be reached through climbing a system of nets, which would be fascinating to young children). Glad to see that the playground doesn't look like it'll be "dumbed down" or become boring lah even with these renovations.

The one thing that was unchanged was the old Spider (why did we call it that?), still dominating the area with its network of ropes rising to a point high above the sandy ground. It used to be my favourite when I was young because it was the most challenging of all the things around... we children were so fascinated by it because it was there for the climbing, and so high - and no safety nets; children could die from climbing it, we thought - and therein lay the attraction! Besides, from young I always loved climbing as high as I could. I still feel small compared to the Spider (though when I first climbed it I must have been much smaller), so climbing it hasn't lost much of the thrill for me :) Have become a bit less fearless than I used to be when small though I think! Anyway, I climbed it, sweaty from running and all :) The Spider is one of the few physical points in Singapore at which, I feel, I can touch base with my childhood!

Anyway, have just come back from afternoon shift that lasted till 11pm and later. Thankfully Susan's parents gave me a lift home! :) Susan's mother calls me Joey too haha. I like that!

K time to sleep!

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Park Connectors
15.04.07

Ever since the first time I ran from my house to Pasir Ris I've been interested in running/exploring the rest of Singapore haha. So, have just been looking at the NParks website at the routes of all the Park Connectors. And now very excited! Didn't realise Singapore really had so many parks and rivers to run alongside. The routes of the park connectors are more or less the routes of the rivers - and one really appreciates the smallness of Singapore, which means that there is really a significant tracery of rivers and tributaries all over the country (though most of the tributaries are big longkangs lah but very nice to run alongside also)!

Take a look at the routes of all the park connectors and find the one in your area! I was surprised at how extensive the coverage is and how much greenery is really within running distance! Bu4 kui1 Singapore has the title of Garden City! It's really becoming quite exercise-friendly.

Although linkage of all the parks in Singapore is not yet complete (there are plans to connect them all, with a map on the NParks website of what the completed network will look like - looks good have a look! it's the "Network Progress Plan"), have discovered it is very possible already to run to many places, especially in an East-West direction (park connectors in the north eg Yishun, Sembawang are not v well developed yet though).

Note on official distances: The website says that the route from East Coast Park to Pasir Ris Park via the Siglap-Tampines Park Connectors (which I already run, though I don't start all the way from East Coast Park) is only 10 km! Oh no... I'd always imagined it was about 12-13 from my house leh (maybe 15 from East Coast).. That means I've been running very slowly! It takes me at least 1.5 h to run to Pasir Ris Park! That means I can run from my house to Pasir Ris and back and still have not completed a half-marathon! :( But actually I think that NParks measures it in straight lines on the map without counting all the little curves on the route... which does make quite a large distance. Aiyah I think that counting the curves it has to be at least 10-12 km from my house to Pasir Ris lah!

Have discovered that I can run to Bukit Batok from NUS (via the Ulu Pandan Park Connector)! It seems shorter than from my house to Pasir Ris Park in fact (website says it's 9 km, I think it may actually be about 11 km when I run from NUS). So finally have found a Park Connector near NUS. Maybe can invite Ben Khoo and Danson they all to come and run also haha.

Logically could also run to Jurong Bird Park from NUS. But that one got a bit of problem cos the Jurong Park Connector is not linked to the Ulu Pandan Park Connector - have to run along main road for a while and breathe in a lot of exhaust!

Also found that I can run to the National Stadium from my house! (via Geylang Park Connector, which begins near Paya Lebar MRT.) I think the route's about 7 km including the part before I reach the Connector. No Park Connector along Sims Avenue, but I can just run beside the road for that stretch (and breathe in exhaust). This one is running buddy Jeremy Mong's area! :) NParks plans to link the route up properly in the future :P

And can run from Bishan to National Stadium also (via Kallang Park Connector)! I estimate it'd be about 8 km. Actually the Kallang Park Connector only stretches from Bishan Park to Kallang Riverside Park, but that end-point isn't too far away from the Geylang Park Connector. Haha that means technically can run from my house to Bishan via a 15 km route. That's not actually as far as I imagined it would be! I guess distances between residential areas in Singapore are really not that large!

That means have discovered training ground for full marathon already! (take all the distances above times 2 cos can run back after that!)

Haha. So exciting. And it'll be easier to cycle as well.. eg on cookie-delivering tours :)

I really love living in Singapore :) Haha I think running really bonds you to the land (not as if I didn't already love Singapore before lah) - it's really very nice to run and take in all the different sights and explore new routes and see how beautiful the country is - all the quiet and green places tucked among all the residential estates representing the places where your friends stay and linked to each other with friendly park connectors :) And seeing your fellow Singaporeans of all ages and combinations running up and down also and keeping fit and kids with their parents in tow playing and having fun. It's really a priceless experience running and watching everybody and feeling a sense of being part of a whole. Thank God (and NParks) for Singapore's parks and rivers and park connectors! :D :D

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12.04.07

What a difference a year makes :) I just realised that it was this day one year ago that my world fell apart. And lo and behold, just one year later it is fixed! I couldn't have imagined that one year later I'd be as happy as I am now, or that I'd ever pull myself together - but hey, it's ok now :P Thank God... and thank God for blessing me so richly in the past year!

Truly, He has given me life when all there was was death; He has always given me life where there was only death.

Sang this at KRU today... a splendid time when people from all the halls united for prayer and worship at KR.

To The Ends Of The Earth
Hillsong United

Love unfailing
Overtaking my heart
You take me in
Finding peace again
Fear is lost
In all you are

And I would give the world to tell Your story
Cause I know that You've called me
I know that You've called me
I've lost myself for good within Your promise
And I won't hide it
I won't hide it

Jesus, I believe in You
And I would go to the ends of the earth
To the ends of the earth
For You alone are the Son of God
And all the world will see
That You are God
That You are God

* * *
Didn't sing this at KRU, but I thought I'd post the lyrics anyway

Mighty To Save

Everyone needs compassion
Love thats never failing
Let mercy fall on me
Everyone needs forgiveness
The kindness of a Saviour
The hope of nations

Chorus:
Saviour
He can move the mountains
My God is mighty to save
He is mighty to save
Forever author of salvation
He rose and conquered the grave
Jesus conquered the grave

So take me as you find me
All my fears and failures
Fill my life again
I give my life to follow
Everything I believe in
Now I surrender

Shine your light and
Let the whole world see
We're singing for the glory
Of the risen King
Shine your light and
Let the whole world see
We're singing for the glory
Of the risen King

Saviour
He can move the mountains
My God is mighty to save
He is mighty to save
Forever author of salvation
He rose and conquered the grave
Jesus conquered the grave