the road not taken

The Road Not Taken TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;	5
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,	10
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.	15
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference

oh my god it's the same time of the year where exactly every year i scratch my head and think "wtf was my new year's resolution last year?" and then vow to make one that i'll remember in the year to come.

EPIC FAIL T____T i didn't write it down or anything so there's no way of knowing what on earth it couldve been. in an effort to find out what it was i visited my old blog and realised i didn't post there then. but this time last year this is what i did.

TRIP DOWN MEMORY LANE
http://www.xinandjaninsg.blogspot.com/

lolz it all comes back to me now; this time last year was spent sandwiched between unidentifiable sweaty indian bodies (i swear it was like the whole of singapore's indian community descended upon clarke quay where the fireworks were) and i remember thinking I AM NOT DYING HERE TO BE TRAMPLED BY A THOUSAND INDIANS! (it was that hard to breathe in the heat & crowd)

anyways back to this year; i am going to see the fireworks later tonight in the city :D tis my first time in melb for my birthday and i hope it'll be good!

back to NY's resolutions

i thought growing out my nails was a good one but charles laughed at me saying that all over the world people make life-changing, world-changing monumental new year's resolutions T___T and mine was like ._.'

i don't care, i think growing out my nails is a friggin milestone for me so nyeh nyeh.

but here are a couple of other ones -
- to be more decisive. (this one is already going to be hard i know.)
- to go to the gym more often.. at least once a week.
- to make it a great year with charles.
- to get a HD for one law subject

i failed my driving test coz my handbrakes weren't all the way down. boooo

happy new year everyone! :D

slow down you crazy child;

Slow down you crazy child

You're so ambitious for a juvenile
But then if you're so smart tell me why
You are still so afraid?

Where's the fire, what's the hurry about?
You better cool it off before you burn it out
You got so much to do and only
so many hours in a day

But you know that when the truth is told
That you can get what you want
Or you an just get old
You're gonna kick off before you even get halfway through
When will you realize...Vienna waits for you

Slow down you're doing fine
You can't be everything you want to be
Before your time
Although it's so romantic on the borderline tonight
Too bad but it's the life you lead
You're so ahead of yourself
That you forfeit what you need
Though you can see when you're wrong

But you know you can't always see when you're right
You got your passion you got your pride
BUt don't you know only fools are satisfied?
Dream on but don't imagine they'll al come true
When will you realize
Vienna waits for you

Slow down you crazy child
Take the phone off the hook
And disappeaar for a while
It's alright you can afford to lose a day or two
When will you realize...
Vienna waits for you.

omg it's the 28th of december.. i turn 18 in 3 days!

it feels like i've been waiting so long..the big 18 heralds a new chapter of freedom in my life as well as the perks that come with being "of age" - no more fake IDs, plus being able to drive myself around, and my friends stop getting declined at liquor stores on account of me forgetting that i'm underaged and walking in.
but now that it's a mere 3 days away i find the excitement of it has somewhat dulled. perhaps it's because i haven't properly waited for it and stored up all the experiences being 18 has to offer.. for after i actually turn 18. i've tasted and tried, and now there is nothing much left to look forward to.

the other day i was talking to someone about the future (it is one of my favourite topics now) simply because i am so excited for the future ahead! not the immediate one, but beyond and after that..i find myself daydreaming about the days to come.

this year has been so unexpected in a good way. it's turned out.. beyond what i could have hoped for when i came into uni. i was told that you find many "circumstance" friends; those whom you befriend simply because two people happen to be in the same place at the same time. and yet now i can say that i didn't find friends - i've found a family. this year for mehas been enriched by trips - to rye and to gold coast, flavoured with drama and goss and personally challenged me in the sense that i've had to consider alot of things that i would never have previosuly opened my mind to. it is truly a blessing to find people whom you can talk to about anything and everything under the sun

something is always happening and i love it!
i am triply happy of the assurance that all the wonderful things that happened this year can only get better.

back to the future (lol) i was saying that i feel like i'm poised to take flight into wonderful panorama of experiences that life has to offer. opportunity beckons at every corner and the world is an oyster! i want to inhale the sights, sounds, flavours and emotions. i am brimming with anticipation and sometimes it feels like all of me isn't enough to contain all of what i want to be. i think that this year, i learnt to dare to dream. they're not big dreams but nevertheless, i now see them looming within my grasp, whereas in the past i would have let go of them to float away, too high to reach.

i hope that 2009 brings me a set of wings to fly :D

anyway yes i am aware my blog has been devoid of photos for awhile so here are some.
Shopping for our christmas dinner & getting into the spirit!

chelsea beach :D
tis a gorgeous day!
lol, yeh i don't know.. :P

XOXO :D

i have never given much thought to what the true meaning of Christmas is. i was never one of those kids who fervently wrote out wishlists for Santa to fulfill, coz i never believed there was a Santa. :P I think it may be something to do with disenchanted asian parents who inform you, as soon as you are within comprehension of the concept, that Santa does not exist, and that christmas sales are all disguised attempts at daylight robbery, and that money spent on such gift-giving should be carefully spent and not "wasted".

in singapore, christmastime is a flurry of shopping. i suppose i can't say it lacks festivity because the streets are decorated, carols are played everywhere, and on the days leading up to christmas we even have fake snow machines sadly trying to puff out bits of snow faster than they melt in the humid heat. my earlier memories are of my cousins coming over from malaysia and spending the day with us. we'd order pizza and eat in. (for some reason that created a fair bit of excitement in those days)

once my mum gave us spray-on glass paint stuff and let us spraypaint the windows with frost-like templates. that was pretty cool.

after i moved here, my first 2 christmasses were spent overseas in china on mission trips. i don't even remember actual christmas day itself, because we did so many christmas concerts and nativity stories in every town we visited, and gave away so many things, and experienced the same cheer and joy all round that it felt like the entire trip was an extended christmas. what i do remember are the smiles that lit up around the room, children finding amusement in the most simply made balloons twisted into various animal shapes, and those moments truly tugged at my heartstrings. knowing that i was capable of making someone so happy and touching someone's life in a way that they would remember was overwhelming, if not inspiring. i realised that the people there had so much less but were so much more content. i remember feeling exhausted from the emotional rushes.

from a religious perspective, christmas is a celebration of the birth of Jesus. He came to earth and delivered us with His love and compassion. through Him we are meant to reach out and show the same love and compassion in our lives.

i saw on postsecret an appeal from a mother who couldn't buy her child the christmas gift he wanted because she had been sick and could not raise the money. and following that, someone contacted her and donated to her the amount she needed just so her son could wake up on christmas morning and still believe in Santa.

this christmas, i found myself with a wonderful group of people, most of whom i've known for less than a year. and it amazed me that we were all crowded into a small kitchen, working together like a perfectly oiled machine to make a yummy christmas dinner. it felt like everything fit into place. all the faces and the laughters and the smiles were truly the best christmas gift i could have.

so now i have a new understanding of christmas.
it is a time of giving, of sharing, of hopes and wishes and dreams coming true.
it is a time of embracing humankind's ability to love.

Merry Christmas :)

oh em gee, my pastors want to come to my house to conduct what i assume must be a pastoral visit.
*flees*

it's the whole frickin' pastoral calvary.

this is highly uncomfortable for a number of reasons.

first of all i find these visits oddly premeditated and very invasive. T___T inviting pastors into your home for a pastoral visit is like going to the dentist. he knows that you haven't been brushing :(

i bet my lack of devotionals in the past months will be blatantly obvious. i don't even know where my bible's gone in the mess that's my room since when i do devotions these days i use the online daily bread.

secondly i think pastors are adults who try too hard sometimes.

my pastor once gave me a christian girl's magazine on sex. enough said.

i think i just don't like the idea of my currently not-as-wholesome-as-i'd-like-it-to-be life under scrutiny by the pastors. my dad is the textbook skeptic, my mum is christian some days and not the others, depending on when the fancy strikes, and my sister and i are well.. somewhere in the mix. not on any end of the faith spectrum, but i'd probably say i've been waning. none of us want to sit through tea and Godtalk.

'twas slightly amusing though, watching my whole family blanch at the dreaded SMS. mum dodged tonight saying we were busy but was met with a quick reply that "tomorrow night is good too"

*panic ensues*
mum (wailing): what will i coooook?????
sister hopped off the stool and made plans for tomorrow night.

as for me...

ABANDON SHIP!

..anyone wanna do something tmr night?

you and me

'cause it's you and me.. and i don't know why, i can't keep my eyes off of you.

thank you for giving me happiness i didn't know could exist.