Events in the last few months pt. 1

Last few months have been eventful- more than usual. In this place called Singapore, we faced challenges, met new friends, met good friends, met some idiots, had lots of fun, too much food, gain pounds, cried some and laughed out loud.

In September one of the most memorable times was going to the Singapore National Day Parade. It’s memorable why? Because it’s our first time going to any national day parade. No, we’re not Singaporean (just PR)… but it was fun just to join in the festivities and see what the whole parade was about.

In Malaysia, I usually sleep in during Merdeka expecting the same old same old parade to happen. I don’t even bother to watch the TV. Suprisingly in Singapore, ppl here actually do come out and do the patriotic thing. There are Students that was actually ‘excited’ to sing the national ant

For me, the highlight was to see an Apache Longbow attack helicopter. But you know, the fireworks later on was very nice too

… and in the midst of all the crowd, some ppl were playing cards – chor dai dee. At that level, all you see is Ases.

Satay with pineapple sauce?

Surprisingly tasty, especially when paired with mutton satay. The tangy pineapple complements the gamey meat very well.

We had this at the Serangoon Garden food court. The food court is also well known for fried prawn mee – we have to agree that it was one of the better tasting one that we’ve had, full of wok hei.

It’s raining!!!!

For the last month, we watched our aircond temperature fall from 25 degrees celcius to 20 degrees celcius with no end in sight! When the news reported that a thunderstorm hit west of Singapore, I was JEALOUS…until I smelled ionized air blowing thru the house, with the darkest, ugliest, grey-est clouds gathering above!

And I sang…

Haaaaaa-le-lujah, ha-le-lu-jah, ha-le-eh-lu-jahhhhhhhhhhh!!

What do you do on Saturday if you have guests coming on Sunday?

We clean, clean and clean!!!!

We finally had a reason to tidy up the guest room.

BEFORE

AFTER

Unfortunately the boxes have nowhere to go so they got stashed below the table for now.

MINDEF?

A mail came for Eric recently…

Letter from MINDEF

I was like…what’s MINDEF? He mumbled Ministry of Defense and his usual grinning goofy face turned solemn.

We both had that same thought…but but but…you’re suppose to be exempted.

The Enlistment Act? *Gulp*

Notice of Exemption!!!! Phew!

The last line to the letter says to ‘kindly retain this notification for your future reference’. Do you think they would ever change their mind and this would be Eric’s only salvation? Look I have a letter….it says I’m exempted you tweet!

What do we do on a Friday night?

We drive to JB for

Ipoh white coffee…

Bentong durians and mangosteens….

and fei-lo-ship around seafood noodles and wantan mee!

I’m glad some things don’t change!

Meet Evan, our makan guru - best in Singapore, and some say in JB!

Lewis loves all things Malaysian, especially a good cuppa!

Our durian binge-ing session:

Margaret gives thumbs up to Bentong durian!

What do Malaysian and Singaporean politicians do when they get together? They eat durian!

We all wished Jesus was born in Malaysia, then instead of breaking bread we can break durian!!

We forgot to take pix of the seafood noodles and wantan mee. Got to wait until the next trip!

What’s better than the Great Singapore Sale?

Midweek bible study by Pastor Prince!

…and judging by the people that went, thousands of people agree with me!

A few weeks ago, Pastor Prince decided to have a midweek bible study – the first in 2 years. So all of us were looking forward to learn more about Christ. The bible study starts at 7:30pm but our caregroup host, Richard decided that we should all go at 5pm instead. The early birds gets a seat in the auditorium.

So off we went at 5pm and we reached there at 545pm. Not bad you may think…. but we were late late late! The que lining up to the venue was already snaking across suntec. We heard someone started lining up at 11:30am! Wow!

That’s, that’s, that’s cheating!!!

I’m simply amazed by the people’s hunger for the word.

So in the end we ended up in the ‘children’s foyer’ on the walkway towards the auditorium. All the overflow room was overflowing with people. And these are huge exhibition halls in suntec! (I went in one of these overflow room – the biggest – last week and counted 15 projection screen for about 3000).

From where we were seating, it looked like this:

Young and old all on the floor

All watching ‘DVD’

All over people were packing in.

Finally met the man…

A couple of weeks ago in church Pastor was sharing a testimony of a brother who, after coming back from the USA, discovered that his liver is damaged and needs a transplat immediately. He had a couple of weeks left doc said.

The discovery was very sudden, when he checked into the hospital, his situation was grave. Hoever, he believed in a God that heals and decided to take holy communion…

…EVERY 30mins.

For 3 days – doing it in remembrance of Him – Chris is healed. His liver failure was completely healed. That was 5 years ago.

I finally met him yesterday as he comes to your CG Here’s a picture of him, smilling from ear to ear… he says he’s been busy lately… business has been good! Praise God

Singapore efficiency…

Had a great time last weekend.

Friday was good. Saturday, was better. Sunday service was BEST.

This is BESTEST

We also had our temperature taken before we enter church. This is all to reduce the chances of flu bugs from spreading around.

JP’s message – BESTESTer.

*******Updated by Li Ping***********

I was VERY impressed with the prepacked communion since WHO has only raised the siren to level 5 a few days ago. I would expect the govt to do this at points of entry but it seems like the whole of Spore is quite prepared after SARS. Good job NCC!

Food Bargains @ Carrefour Suntec City

We pass by Carrefour coming and going from church every Sunday but never bothered to go in as we were a wee bit lazy in lugging groceries home. After all it’s a 1 hour trip spread almost equally between walking, taking the MRT and a bus to get home. But being the food shopper that I am, I’m always keen to check out different places to buy groceries especially if they are ‘along the way’. Today I just wanted to go in to have a ‘look’. As we passed by the meat section, there seems to be a massive sale going on. We decided that the lugging was worth it

We snagged these items at 40-50% off woohoo!!!

Ribeye Steak for $16.35

Small Chicken @ $2.88

French Garlic Bratwurst @ $5.90

Streaky Bacon @ $2.95

Over at produce, we found tomatoes being sold at 6 cents for 100g. I overheard an uncle who is passing by saying that it’s not possible. I wonder now if he had actually walked away without checking it out. I picked up a tomato and understood why Carrefour priced them for sale. These tomatoes are soooo ripe that they will be binned if they are not consumed soon. I just chose the firmest and most ‘unripe’ ones that I could find, just enough for the week. Guess how much they are before scrolling down…

Local Tomatoes

35 cents!!!!!!!

I love bargains!!