head tune

"mercy falling down on me
mercy falling down on me
and i am free
and i am free.. "

:D

random acts of kindness.. to me!

keith my newest hero came over to repair my apple hdd.. the best part is, he works for apple computers and i hardly even know him. how amazing and cool is that. and i had to leave for church midway while he was here but he happily stayed and did everything everything even when the installer won't work and the screw from the old hdd wouldn't come off.. he stayed and fixed it all up..

and coming back from church i was so hungry i could eat a horse and raj was so kind he gave me some food which i heated up and ate with rice from my neighbour mili. also had cake from girish and agar agar from another neighbour whose name i had forgotten but mannnnn... i'm blessed beyond belief.

:)

Yea it's been quite the two months so far. God has just been so great.. Bankside has been such da bomb..everything and more.. and i just love it, love it all.

I just need to get my research proposal moving. i'm quite looking forward to the whole thing actually. anthropology rocks.

coming up: ski holiday!! watch this space. :D

an irrational season

:D

a weekend to remember

brighton was like a sweet dream and coming back to london was like coming back to everything nice and yummy and homey. if only we had a fireplace, things would be wow extra cosy. can't get over how the nicest things happen so spontaneously. god is truly amazing..

and everything about you makes me smile. :D

hehhehehheeeeeeeee....

dear g-in-the-future,

i've never been as happy to be here than now. now now now is the new
day. now is da time. and even though certain things (such as school)
could be a lot better, I have more things to be thankful for than to
complain about. good friends, good neighbours, good workmates, good
teachers (kinda..), and don't forget, that you are the disciple whom Jesus loves.

mmm. mm..mmm..

wokies.

:)

g-now.

not-so-new song

"standing here
in your presence
thinking of the good things you have done
waiting here
patiently
just to hear your still small voice again
holy
righteous
faithful to the end
savior
healer
redeemer and friend"
- For who you are, by Marty Sampson

(it sounds better with the music)

randomization

been rather busy. church had conference and i was volunteering. darlene zschech spoke in church today and it was so good.

had indian buffet today.

seet yuan came to visit for the weekend. daniel's coming tomorrow (or today).

term starts tomorrow (or today).

i have no jobs pending. how wonderful that feeling. (soon to be gone tomorrow.. or today).

i'm quite broke. hehe.

also quite happy.

and all that.

heard stu g live.

life is so short!

worlds apart

i look beyond the empty cross
forgetting what my life has cost
wipe away the crimson stains
that dull the nails that still remain

more and more i need you now
i owe you more each passing hour
the battle between grace and pride
i gave up not so long ago

so steal my heart and take the pain
and wash the feet and clense my pride
take the selfish, take the weak
and all the things i cannot hide

take the beauty take my tears
the sin-soaked heart and make it yours
take my world all apart
take it now, take it now

and serve the ones that I despise
speak the words I can't deny
watch the world I used to love
fall to dust and thrown away

I look beyond the empty cross
forgetting what my life has cost
so wipe away the crimson stains
and dull the nails that still remain

so steal my heart and take the pain
take the selfish, take the weak
and all the things I cannot hide
take the beauty, take my tears

take my world apart, take my world apart
I pray, I pray, I pray
take my world apart

- jars of clay

dear danz

yeah so. im back. like i said, it's easier to update everyone here about what's going on in my (not-so) happening life, instead of explaining myself 10,000 times.. so next time when we meet we'll just skip the awkward what have you been doing in london questions and head right into "yeah, so i read that you are now dating this hot londoner.."

:P

or not.

so, i'm now in the basement of the school's old building. it stinks here coz it's near the gym and locker rooms.. like musky sweaty testosterone smell.. eww. speaking of which, im thinking of joining a gym. Gym Box, to be exact. only it's gonna cost too much.. :P :)

meanwhile, i handed in my dissertation on time last thursday and it's been too much fun not living in anticipation of crucial deadlines. just moved into new place at bankside. am the *shudder* subwarden of the hall.. haha.. but the students are not in yet so im just basically living there without working, for now, coz the place is being turned into a motel so there's all these random people walking around. im quite anonymous and unknown in the building.. which is too much fun. :)

also started this other webct job which is keeping me busy.. although i havent really put any work into it yet..

my hdd is sick. it's making weird noises and working really slowly. takes me half an hour of coaxing to start it up. have to reboot few times before it actually moves into "starting mac os x mode" so im a little worried. waiting for tech support who'll hopefully come on friday..

i bought a new rug for my room. £20 from gumtree.com. i like my new place. i thought last year's covent garden was pretty unbeatable, but then i took a walk along the waterfront at night from london bridge to my place and my gosh, the view was gorgeous. could see st pauls, lights from the bridges, the city up north, ships, wind, smelly water, whole works. :) too cool. it's just a whole different atmosphere down by the river (as compared to theatreland), and i.love.it.as.much.as.i.did.the.old.place.. :D

have couple of weeks before week-long pre-sessional quantitative methods on the 20th and then term on the 27th (i think?) and then beginning october it'll be crazy until december..

so am taking it easy, relaxing, and thanking god for today, coz vasu's gonna help me move my old stuff from storage at his shop to my new place. and he's gonna loan me his small tv (with in built dvd player) and mini mini fridge for my room, to last me the whole year.

groovy. :D

come visit. my room's huge. and now that i've the tv, fridge, rug, er.. that's it? maybe a sofa in the future, and christmas lights, it's gonna be quite the pad.

x

home..

is too much fun.

alex my other flatmate and me

at wagamama's. he helped me move all my stuff to drurylane for pick up and ruined the big already half-ruined suitcase in the process. hehhhh.. alex is too sweet and the kindest englishman ever. from some angles he looks like volverine. :D

i saw

a fox on the street outside my house while going for a run earlier.

it was kinda running away from a very territorial cat.

it looked at me, i tried to get it to come so i could pet it.

but it doesn't respond to doggie calls. instead, it ran down bedford avenue, looking so frightened and vulnerable that i wanted to tangkap dan bungkus back to my room, give it a warm bath, fluffy towels, tuck it nicely to bed and feed it hot chocolate.

this is the second fox i've seen on the streets here in london. :)

some other pictures

my siberian tiger. (it's actually gail's and it's actually smaller than it looks in that picture)


wagner at the royal albert hall.


somewhere out there is the queen in purple, on her 80th birthday.


my uncle and my cousin..

one fine afternoon on june 11

this was when gail and i stood in line that sunday to get into church for united live. we arrived at the dominion at 4 meaning to get into the 4:30 service, but ended up queing for the 6:45 service instead.

if you zoom really closely, you can see joel houston right in the centre and marty sampson on his right.

it was totally worth it. the queue, the heat, the exam the next day... wowww.. all good stuff... can still hear marty sampson's pseudo-martin smith voice "swinggg lowwww....." in my head.. :D

finding of the month

the english.. :D

matt my flatmate and me

from some angles, he looks like hugh grant.
especially when he smiles.. and according to him, some people say also in mannerism.
:D

while ordering kimchi and tofu

so aunty wai and i met for our last tryst this season at oriental city..

and when aunty wai visits oriental city, it's like a celebrity making an entrance..

she'll wave at everybody and say hi to someone every 2 seconds.. and i get introduced as her "kai lui" (god-dotter)

too much fun. :D

anyways, i was returning from the korean store with my food when i saw the letter on the table. apparently it got mailed to her house a few weeks ago and she had left a message on gail's voice mail which i couldn't check coz her line got barred.. since then, she had been carrying it in her handbag with the hope of meeting me.. not knowing its contents... and me happily unaware of its existance.. (coz i was expecting something of that nature only in mid-august..)

so i opened the nondescript-looking envelope, and voila, inside was a letter from the financial office saying that the school's gonna give me a research studentship which will cover 90% of my incredibly expensive tuition fee for a year.

groovy hey.. so i now have a place to stay, have tuition (for the year at least) taken care of.. kinda.. yeah it's taken care of.. and a job when i return in september at my favourite photo developing centre on kingsway. heheh. is that great or is that great?

aunty wai thought at first that it was for 1,000 quid.. and then she found out that it was 10,000quid after examining it closer and almost fell out of her chair. the guy next to us, eating noodles, looked in our direction and said approvingly, "wow.. that's really good..that's a good skolarship", the guy behind us texting on his phone was staring and smiling at both of us.. and the family next to us were complaining loudly in cantonese that the food didn't have enough soy sauce. me, i was just sitting there finding it all quite amusing while practising my fake english accent (and manners) with aunty wai.

so anyways, i appear to be quite set for the year... god's so taking care of me and everything's so falling into place i'm quite in awe to the point that i'm just like wow.. ok god.. work your magic again.. i'm not even gonna think too much about it. hehhhehh... thanks to those who have prayed and been so supportive. this is as much yours as it is mine. then again, i don't really feel like it's mine. it's a strange love-hate attachment that i feel towards my studies... sometimes.. (maybe coz i sometimes think that it's all quite alotta bullshit.. ok that's not entirely true.. but it's not easy to do meaningful anthropology and you do end up reading quite some bs.)

but whattodo hey, it's been entrusted to me in the meantime. so rilek dan minum dulu.

and by the way, did i mention that

I CAN'T WAIT TO GO HOME!! TOMORROW WON'T COME SOON ENOUGH!!! WAAAAAILLLLLLLLLLLLL!!~! *sob

:)

*sob

what to do ya.. what to do.

*sob

so like that lah..

:D

and so how ya..

i'm restless..

just spent the day with my uncle, aunt and cousin whom i've not met in over 10 years.. was surprised we still recognized each other. my aunt kept getting me and abigail mixed up and we had to tell her a few times that she was indeed talking to g. lol. they were too sweet.. took me shopping, told me old stories about my mom and her london years, and helped filled up the missing gap in mom's family history. tough life and i guess every parent want more than they ever had for their kids.. and i think my mom's the same as well. with what she knew and what she had and what she could dream about, she perhaps dreamt for us, in her own way... and i am grateful. i think the older i get the more i realize how human my parents are, and how hard they try the best they knew how to. and i think that's all we can ever aspire too.. doing the best we can, making things up as we go along.. coz there is no prescribed mode of happiness, is there? there's no set one way to live as well.. with some heavenly butt-kicking along the way, the best we can do is to do the best we can. lol. talk about a circular sentence that..

and so how ya.. one life to live, one chance to make it, multiple chances to screw up or to take breaks along the way.. or to call a time-out halfway through this long long race.. in the end, may it all count towards something. if not, might as well die now hey.

may his grace be sufficient for you.