Topsy Turvy World: Pancakes! @ Raspberry Farm in Tasmania

When things are going just alittle mad, when people around you are kinda different and slightly weird, have a yummilicious desert. And then, pray :) These few days it seem, I'm constantly reminded about praying. Each time i silently ask God why, the same answer returns - pray. So let's have a dessert (pancakes and berries preferably. though i settle for ice cream too) and pray.

A few more days to the hols and i'm leaving on a jetplane. *claps hands excitedly

emergency numbers :)

You will never want to miss this inflight safety video

I grabbed this off Liwen's facebook - who grabbed it off someone else - who grabbed it off Thomson Airways, a UK based airline.

So smart - everybody will totally listen to the in-flight safety video for once! :)




Marilyn's back today. Yay!! :)

proof that i'm really very sick of marking

Assuming a teacher has 300 scripts to mark. Given that the teacher has 7 days to complete the entire stack (yes, sadly teachers work over the weekend too):

(a) Calculate how many scripts the teacher must mark per day to complete her marking [1] (b) Assuming the teacher has other duties to attend to for 3 hours per day (well, you know), and spends the rest of the day marking (with no sleep), calculate how many scripts she must mark per day to complete her marking in time. [2] (c) Given that the teacher’s speed of marking is x, calculate the diminishing marginal rate of return for this teacher. [4]

ponder a wonder

'Truth is always stranger than fiction. We craft fiction to match our sense of how things ought to be, but truth cannot be crafted. Truth is, and truth has a way of astonishing us to our knees, reminding us that the universe does not exist to fulfill our expectations.

Because we are imperfect beings who are self-blinded to the truth of the world’s stunning complexity, we shave reality into paper-thin theories and ideologies that we can easily grasp, and we call them truths. But the truth of a sea, in all its immensity, cannot be embodied in one tide-washed pebble.'

Dean Koontz, A Big Little Life

Many struggle with understanding how wide, how deep, how high and how long God's love is - and sadly, many see their incompetence in understand the abstractly simple concept of agape love as God's inability to love them past their pains and hurt. The truth however, is far from that. Just because we are unable to love past a certain undoing doesn't mean God can't. Just because we cannot believe that He loves us, doesn't mean he stopped loving you. And just because you feel too unwanted and incorrigibly horrible, doesn't mean he can't see past those hurts and reach for your heart.

Just because you can't imagine Him loving you, doesn't mean that He can't.

And He does :)

what a wonderful way to start the week

credits: Jose Villa

It's off-in-lieu today *does a few virtual cartwheels cos i can't do it in real life*... and we'll back at work marking like mad to meet the deadline. But it's great to wake up lazily, waay past Mr Sunshine and stroll down to get a nice brekkie before hitting the roads for work. When the day starts right, it feels like you are right in Tuscany, enjoying cups after cups of delicious afternoon tea and scones.

credits: 100 layer cake

... and what a wonderful way to start the week with such a sweet and inspiring couple like the one we see above. It's the simplicity of love and life that brings us back on our feets, reminding us that life doesn't have to be as complicated as we may periodically make it out to be.

Have a good one guys :)

Got a nice reminder in my email today :)

There was a little boy visiting his grandparents on their farm...

He was given a slingshot to play with out in the woods and he went to practice in the woods; but he could never hit the target.

Getting a little discouraged, he headed back for dinner.

As he was walking back he saw Grandma's pet duck.



Just out of impulse, he let the slingshot fly, hit the duck square in the head and killed it. He was shocked and grieved! In a panic, he hid the dead duck in the wood pile, only to see his Sister watching! Sally had seen it all, but she said nothing.




After lunch the next day Grandma said, 'Sally, let's wash the dishes'

But Sally said, 'Grandma, Johnny told me he wanted to help in the kitchen.'

Then she whispered to him, "Remember the duck?'

So Johnny did the dishes.

Later that day, Grandpa asked if the children wanted to go fishing and Grandma said, 'I'm sorry but I need Sally to help make supper.'

Sally just smiled and said, 'well that's all right because Johnny told me he wanted to help?

She whispered again, 'Remember the duck?' So Sally went fishing and Johnny stayed to help.

After several days of Johnny doing both his chores and Sally's; he finally couldn't stand it any longer.

He came to Grandma and confessed that he had killed the duck.

Grandma knelt down, gave him a hug and said, 'Sweetheart, I know. You see, I was standing at the window and I saw the whole thing, but because I love you, I forgave you. I was just wondering how long you would let Sally make a slave of you.'



Thought for the day and every day thereafter:

Whatever is in your past, whatever you have done... And the devil keeps throwing it up in your face (lying, cheating, debt, fear, bad habits, hatred, anger, bitterness, etc.)...whatever it is...You need to know that: God was standing at the window and He saw the whole thing.



He has seen your whole life... He wants you to know that He loves you and that you are forgiven. He's just wondering how long you will let the devil make a slave of you.

The great thing about God is that when you ask for forgiveness; He not only forgives you, but He forgets.

It is by God's grace and mercy that we are saved. Not by what you can do :)

hello from a long time ago :)

It's been quite a while since i blogged here. And we do realise that there's a whole backlog of photos that we promised to show (i dragged Isaiah in with the 'we' so that we share the blame. Married and all. Hahha.) We really hope that this web space doesn't become one of those dusty *coughs* one that gives you the feel of a *ah chew! dust allergy* reaaally old house when you visit it once in a really blue moon. And to do that, we really have to get our fingers moving and to turn on my old Mac more. These days, i talk to good ole HP at work more often than i communicate with Mac. How sad. Thankfully this isn't reflective of our 3 month old marriage. Far be it! :)

Well, I've a grand plan (granted i've many grand plans) to post them up pretty soon, now that my writing block is kinda unlocked :) So bear with us alright (yes, pun intended). Take pity in the fact that poor Ms Huang is in school right now (on a saturday afternoon where the rest of Singapore is shopping or doing something fun), facing not one, not two but three deadline extensions and still have difficulties finishing the marking and handling over the goods.

April's gonna be one crazy crazzy madd maddd month. But we'll get through it. Splendid and brilliantly in fact :) Cos God says it's gonna be awesome.. so it'll be. :)

Have a good one guys (and gurls). Love BIG, Love MANY, Love like there's no tomorrow.

hello from the sleepyland!

Sorry for the lack of updates recently. Been caught up with work and trying really hard to get out of sleepyland. These days, it seems like i can never get enough sleep. The most infuriating thing is that i would bring my lappy to and fro school and home and do nothing - except burn off calories from carrying the 10000034323423000 kg laptop.

I will will WILL post about the honeymoon soon. To those of you reading out there, thank you for coming back time and time again. We really appreciate it. More interesting stuff soon i hope! Considering that our lives are pretty colourful, we ought to share more love and fun! Like the beautiful houses in Brighton Beach, Melbourne, you see above :P

Have a great week ya'll. It's a short one.. or a deceptively short one. :P

God bless!

something to cheer your day

These days i've been doing alittle of tumblr surfing while managing my department's english resource blog. I really must get down to blogging about the honeymoon.. especially when we are really missing Tasmania oh-so-much now that Benny is there. Ahhh, Tassie.. the fresh air, green green grass and blue blue skies!

tee hee

A bear, however hard he tries, grows tubby without exercise.
-- Winnie the Pooh

3 days: HUNNNNNNNNNNNIMOOOOOooon

We are finally getting our honeymoon details settled :)
It rocks to see Isaiah joining me in my crazy idea to settle everything ourselves, from flights to hotels to car.

3 more days. 300 more things to do!

heart melts

Went for SGX Bull Run with Isaiah. :) First time i actually got up close to the starting line when the runners are starting! Saw these cute white balls with children's drawings on them. So sweet and simple... reminding you that life doesn't have to be that complicated. :)

12 days: note to self - remember to have fun! (love, char)

with this drumstick, i thee wed

Jason snapped this picture during our very first wedding rehearsal. I think the look on Asher's face (my cute page boy!) is priceless!

Recently i spoke to a fren (i'll protect her identity. heh) who is emceeing for a fren's wedding. And she was telling me that this fren was so undecided on most things. For some sadistic reason, it made me feel good... cos i am not alone! Wahahhaa. :)

In the midst of wedding planning, sometimes we lose sight of the reason why we fell in love in the first place. I think CF's comment on how a wedding can be planned in 48 hours actually sparked something in me. As ridiculous as it sounds, its true. If wedding planning brings you away from the happiness that you are going to celebrate, then its quite sad dounch ya think?

In fact, Vincent my hairstylist puts it succinctly; enjoy the moment he says. He was talking in the context of having kids lah (mind you, he has three! wahhhh). But i take it one step back and remind myself that i must enjoy the wedding planning and i must enjoy the wedding.

For all it's worth, i'm going to have fun :) Which brings us back one full circle on having our wedding central on the theme of fun. After all, a gown can be super pretteee, the make up can be $1000 flawless and you can have the slimmest hot body... but take it from one international wedding blog hopper... it's the radiance in the couple's smile and face that brings the house down, any day, any photo :)

PARTY ON PEEEPORRR! :) :)

13 days: list of to dos and wedding rehearsal one

My plan for tonight:

Do up bouquet with mummy (checked!)
Book hotels for honeymoon
Check out colour scheme for church
Select photos

its 2am now.
I think its time for bed.
Hafta be in school bright and early.

LESS THAN 2 WEEKS?!?!?
ahhhhhhhhhh!!

p.s. blog about the funny towel and budget wedding during the wedding rehearsal after i hit my beauty sleep quota.

p.p.s it's a myth that the bride and groom gets to sleep early the month before the wedding. HOW TO!?!

p.p.p.s thank God for lovely Yee Lou from Dreamzworks :) She's such a dear :)

something lovely for a lovely morning

Sorry for the lack of updates; especially when we do have a million things to share! While work hasn't been too crazy and Isaiah been so sweet :) ... somehow we are both losing quite a bit of sleep. Spent the whole of yesterday walking around in a daze and in my kuku specs. I seriously wondered how i managed to get through gym class; only by the grace of God for such a stubborn cow like me i guess :)

Well, something for a lovely morning. Check out davina+daniel - simple yet heartfelt photos :) I think that being in a temperate countries just gives u so much other options to explore, especially for photography. Or perhaps we have yet to explore our motherland?

Lovely thursday to all!

Loads of love and God bless
Isaiah & Matz

names

I'm going to name my daughter Windee and my son Dreamii.

Too much of 7 dwarfs and Grey's Anatomy.

Remember the good ole days? :)

Procrastination at its best. So much work to do but I can't bring myself to do any.

*prances around happily, twirling my hair, disturbing and laughing at my colleagues, laughing like a hyena and just staring at my desk.

Wedding to dos today:
Call Caroline
Sing song
Eat to stay alive
Drink coffee

101 DAYS TO THE WEDDING!

!!!

Fell flat asleep when i was supposed to rush through some stuff overnight for work. Argh argh argh!!!! Can you see the sleeping apple? The one with the flawless skin? Thats me. :P


I gobbled down an extremely significant amount of food for my two breakfasts just because i wasn't thinking much. It was nothing healthy like the apples that i used to bluff you. It was muffins, bread, etc etc.. When stressed, I realised that I binge eat. Fascination.

Let's just hope that when the wedding stress start (wait, why isn't it starting yet?), I won't binge eat. And when i do, people, PLEASE STOP ME! I know i am uncontrollable.. but just tell me the gown won't fit anymore or that my butt is huge.

in less than 60 minutes...

we will be watching the '4' at the countdown board turn to '3'...
we have officially less than 4 months to the wedding!
I told myself that we would be prepared 3 months from the wedding. What wishful thinking!!

On another separate note, i got proposed to by some random European guy in Plaza Sing. He had such sparkling and earnest eyes! I was honestly flattered and nearly said yes... but alas, Isaiah has more convincing words :) Hhehee *cowers for some hiding place before i get tickled to death.