Special post for and about my brother :)

let's give it a try =P

1. Dear my brother, the most memorable thing that you did for me was when you tried to glue back my stone necklace!! We were very young that time, but I was so touched that after I accidentally dropped my necklace and broke the stone because I was rushing, when I came back from English course you already glued it again!!!

2. He's really talented in drawing Manga (Japanese cartoon) =P

3. Once he said, he doesn't need his future wife to be able to cook well, as long as the wife can fry a chicken for him =P

4. Thank you Bro for giving me tips to exercise and cut down my tummy size (sorry, I don't persevere in those torturing exercises!)

5. He's crazy with bikes >.< well, next time we should travel together. I trek up, and you do your mountain biking

6. He eats a lot (yes, go and be friend with Paul tomorrow onwards in Bali)

7. This year, he's been the one reminding me to buy gift for my parents. He's actually a sweet boy. Hahaha. Once he ordered bouquet of flowers for our mom

8. When he was in kindergarten, he has a hard time waking up to school. He would just move from our bed to the living room, and my parents cajoled him that they would buy him hermit crabs (keong!) that were sold outside school if he wanted to wake up

9. As little girl and little boy, we used to fight a lot. When we fought, I would say very very evil thing like, "I wish I don't have brother!!" well, now, I really feel thankful that I have my 'little' brother

10. In high school, once my friend thought my brother is my boyfriend because he's much taller than me. >.<

11. He knows about gadget A LOT!!! He needs to push me to buy a better phone. I didn't follow his advice early this year, now I regret

12. He has a very nice handwriting. But...he doesn't write nicely most of the time. He can, if he wants!!

13. Thank you for driving me at 5.30 am every day to Church last August =P

14. Thank you for accompanying me to learn driving even though you feel like vomitting every time you sit in the driving-lesson-car

15.  He's not a fan of soccer

16. He has good taste in fashion. I'd better bring him when I do my shopping. He used to complain about my bad sense of fashion, "The clothes in Singapore are so nice!! Why are your clothes like that????!!!" Oh well, now I think my brother was right. Hahahaha.

17. He used to play guitar!

18. My brother is quite muscular now. Can you believe that he was superskinny before????!!

19. Once he thought of studying in Medical school, but my parents asked him to think carefully. Thank God he listened to my parents. He loves drawing and there he is now, studying Architecture :)

20. When he was in kindergarten, he used to color a cup with black. A messy black. Mom asked, "Why do you color it like that?" My brother answered,"The coffee spilled all over the place."

21. He's quite self-conscious that he's already 21 this year. In August, instead of teasing me that I'm already 23, he said, "How ah...I'm 21 this year. How ah..." =P

Dear Ferditius Bernardus a.k.a. Adot, Happy Birthday!!!! :):) May you grow closer to God :)Thank you for being my 'little' brother!

Chika, me, Richa, my brother!

7 Quick Takes Friday Vol. 26

I finally write my Quick Takes! Merry Christmas!!! =)
First of all (stealing one point of Quick Takes =P), please help me to pray for baby Judith. It's her first Christmas in this world :):) She's my Legionary friend's baby and she's been fighting her swollen liver.

- 1 -

This is my first Christmas in Singapore!! It turned out to be...amazing!! =) I went to Christmas Eve Mass with Paul at the study centre where he usually goes for formation. I met Fr Joe there, and he asked me, "How are you?" I answered, "Well, this is my first Christmas away from home!" Fr replied, "Life changes, this is home." Tetotttt..KO. Hahaha. He's right. =P

First Christmas together! with our friend's Christmas tree at the study centre =P

The funny thing was, I met some girls of the girls club with their family. One of the girls stood beside me with her signature smile, "Who is that guy?" (referring to Paul). I said, "This is my boyfriend." "You never told us you have boyfriend!!" A few seconds later, the little sister of this girl came and gave another signature smile, "We never know you have boyfriend." I replied, "I told you in June camp, but you forgot." Yeah...so now they know Paul too. They called me "Tita Ferninda" (Tita in Tagalog language means 'aunty'), so they called Paul, "Tito Paul" (Uncle Paul) hahahahaha.

- 2 -

On Christmas day, we had Christmas gathering at my house. Joanne, my roommate was our chef. It was a very nice experience. My colleagues came too. We all watched "It's a wonderful life" :) One of my friend cried watching the ending of the movie (I held my tears, embarrassed =P ). Oh btw, my piano teacher came to Singapore to travel last week :) We had a great time eating at Founder Bakut Teh near Paul's house :)

Joanne, my roommate, our chef!

Our simple Christmas tree

Housemates+colleagues+hostel friends :)

My piano teacher with her three kids, me, and Paul

At the Bakut Teh. Btw, her three kids' name formed "Do Re Mi" (michael alDo, RAchel, MIchelle --> youngest to oldest)

- 3 -

Poor NUS students, they got their exam results on Christmas eve!! I was trying to console my friend in NUS on Christmas Eve because she didn't get the result that she expected. I hope things turned out okay!I tried to convince her to continue honours year.

- 4-

So..here comes my friend's wedding which made me stay back during Christmas =) It was a beautiful wedding indeed. Something in the Archbishop's homily struck me, "You are unique delicate Catholic young adult. Thank you for your family!" (sorry, can't remember the exact sentence). They have families with strong values :) I also enjoyed their wedding banquet. I could really feel that they are surrounded by close friends, and TRUE friends. The girlfriend of a guest, sitting at the same table with me, cried a bit as she watched the wedding video and heard the speech of the bridegroom. In the video, you can see how the bride whispered "I love you" to her father. Every time I see the bride's father's eyes, I can't help to think how touching it is to see how happy the father is. The husband of this friend is Indonesian (my friend is a Singaporean), so after Mass, they did the rite of asking blessing and saying thanks to the parents (there's no such thing in normal wedding Mass in Singapore). As usual, I cried a bit too. I mean, no matter whether you are Indonesian, Singaporean, or whatever nationality, your parents played an important role in planting the seeds of your vocation. It's sooooooooo beautiful :)

- 5 -

My brother will turn 21 tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!!! tsk tsk..not a little boy anymore..

- 6 -

Last Friday I finally went to teach Ryan again. I read him "Guess how much I love you" =P he's kinda like it :)

- 7 -

So yeah..I'm going to Bali tomorrow :) So no Quick Takes next week. After Bali trip, we all will do another roadtrip to Cisantana, Kuningan (West Java) for pilgrimage to a shrine of Our Lady. I'm really looking forward for this vacation!

Happy New Year!!

More quick takes at Jen's blog!!

Hold my hand

I'm always struck by the scene of elderly couple. This morning, as I was crossing the road to Church, an elderly man gave his hand to his wife to help her as they crossed the road together.
Another time in the same church, I saw another elderly man, had difficulty in walking, but he himself pushing the wheelchair of his wife. He also tried to help his wife sit in the pew. After the Mass ended, he was helping his wife to transfer to wheelchair again, and this time some other parishioners were helping them.

It's amazing. I've never known how long they have been together, yet you could see the love in each of them.
It's just so beautiful, and as I see them, I pray for other young married couples to be granted the graces to persevere in their calling. Truly these grandparents have been true witness of faithfulness and True Love without even realizing it :)

Praying for fidelity to our vocation

One of my new year's resolutions is to pray for fidelity to my vocation every day. Well, to be honest, sometimes I forgot about it. However, after what has happened in this past year, I am really reminded that vocation is really a gift from God.

Firstly, it's so beautiful to see the path that God wants for us (thanks to God's grace). This really reminds me not to complain too much because at the end of the day, I want to see my vocation and I thank God that He let me see this light.

Secondly, this calling can't be taken for granted. There are many ways in which I'm not thankful of this gift, for example, when I'm selfish, when I am not grateful with my boyfriend and demand too much from him, when I complain to God when I need to sacrifice something (especially time!!) to do apostolate, and so on and so forth. So as Christmas is coming and end of year is coming too, I really think I should remind myself more to be more thankful and to fulfill the duties of my state better (as a not-married-yet 'lady' *cough...I want to say 'girl', but not suitable anymore* )

Mother Mary, pray for us! :)

Missing pieces: November-December

Oh well, I feel like taking revenge today! (with 3 posts in one shot)

This is my last post before I'm going to iron my clothes (this is another 'revenge' of ironing =P)
I finally tried my first ever flower arrangement :)
Well, it's a 'false-start' to start with round arrangement. When I did this, I imagined there was a semi-circular line on the vase and my flowers need to 'hit' that imaginary line so it can form a perfect round. However, as you can see, some flowers were higher than the others. Some flowers were also squeezed!! (sorry flowers!)
I didn't have many options as the leaves. Those smaller flowers that I used as leaves were more expensive than the chrysanthemum!!! >.<

The other side of the arrangement. OOps, sorry for the bag. I was just coming back from Legion meeting

Dessert at Hillcrest Study Centre for the Feast of Immaculate Conception. Yummy!!

The last session with Ryan in November. I haven't seen him again since our visit to dinosaur exhibition. He's so creative, the 'pyramid-like' feature is a bus stop for him. Tsk tsk. Cool!

and he attempted to take photo of me. Unstable hand =P

Interesting Churches in North Sumatera,Indonesia :)

My parents recently travelled to North Sumatera Province in Indonesia. When we travelled, we used to think that "It's okay to miss Mass on vacation". The good news is, my parents have been travelling with Catholic neighbours who know that we shouldn't miss Mass, so there she went: attending Sunday Mass even though she's on vacation =)

So...I requested her to take photos of the Church. The Masses at St Francis of Assisi, Berastagi (note that this Church is not located in Medan, but in another town called Berastagi) are held every Sunday at 8am and 6pm.

Church of St Francis of Assisi (Gereja Santo Fransiskus Assisi)

Rumah Gadang, the traditional house of Minang people. Look at the roof!

Inside the Church of St Francis of Assisi

This Church below was built in Indian style :) It's located in Medan, the capital city of North Sumatera province, Indonesia. I didn't know that there is the title Our Lady of Good Health!! Mom said that this church was built by Indians (I haven't found any reliable sources about this Church). However, this title is based on the apparition of Our Lady in Vailankanni, India.

Graha Maria Annai Velangkanni (Maria Annai Velangkani = Our Lady of Good Health)

 And of course, there are more things to see in Berastagi and Medan =) Just in case you're wondering, in North Sumatera, there's this famous Lake Toba in which an island is located IN the middle of the lake. (yes, a small island in the middle of the lake). The island's name is Samosir Island (Pulau Samosir). I'm not sure if my parents went there, but my colleague went there before and she said it's beautiful :)

Did they color-code on purpose?? >.< It's my mom who likes yellow. Oh well, this happens when your wife is the one packing your clothes =P

Yeah..for this, I guess, it's my dad who initiates this pose. Mom doesn't like motorbike =P

Mom's Patchwork: December

My mom loves to send me her patchwork photos =)
Here are some of her latest masterpieces:

cushion covers :)

Each Christmas tree is a coaster!! 

ps. I need to ask my mom to send not-so-blur photos >.<

7 Quick Takes Friday - Vol.25

- 1 -

I disappeared last week for Girls' Camp! It was tiring, but I think I'm kinda 'used to the girls'. A couple lent their house to us (yes, to "us" --> 15 primary school girls + 2 adults). So niceeee!! So we kept telling the girls to take care of the house. (Well, they tried their best)

It's better than renting a chalet, because this house is a home :) It's naturally homey and of course they have stuff here and there (so no kids do cartwheel in the house). They had water feature in the first level (Thank God without any fish, because the kids soaked their legs in the 'pond' as if they were going for fish spa).

They performed Annie! So nice! I was quite touched when they sang Tomorrow ^^ They were very talented!!

Ohh..one of the mothers taught the girls to cook carbonara for dinner, to prepare breakfast for the Saturday morning, and to bake pizza for Saturday night!! (I learned a bit too, these girls were much much much better than me). They loved cheese a lot, so me and Marie didn't have much cheese left on our pizza. However, one of the girls was so generous in 'donating' cheese for us =P They were very sweet. On the last day of camp (the performance day), one of the mothers asked me, "How are the girls? Are they well-behaved? Are they naughty?" To be honest, I think they are okay :) Even though it's quite tiring to go up and down the house because when I said "It's your group's turn to clean up, right?" some of them would say, "later" and how I was a bit frustrated that some of them told ghost stories and the smaller girls were scared while I tried to figure out how to switch on the light again, I think they are nice girls :):) Naughty is definitely not a way to describe them. They're just a little bit messy (like me!!!). How patient my mom is...nah, now I know >.<

- 2 -

End of year is coming, so I've been thinking of my past resolutions. When people ask whether I have accomplished my resolutions, I can't say much because my resolutions are concrete habits that I want to foster throughout the year. There were months when the resolutions are accomplished, there were also months when I just forgot about it (or tried to do it, but failed).

I think so far, my most accomplished resolutions were the exercise and the cutting-down of MacDonalds =P At least I'm more aware of the importance of these two =P

- 3 -

I've just finished Brideshead Revisited (ps. how to pronounce "Brideshead" properly? Is it "bride-shead" or "Brides-head"?) I didn't enjoy the book at the beginning, but I was just curious and couldn't wait to see where this friendship between Sebastian and Charles led them into. I started to feel 'awake' after the scene of meal between Sebastian, Charles, Cordelia, and Brideshead. I imagine Cordelia (Sebastian's younger sister) as a sweet girl (well, for that scene, I imagine her a bit like one of the girls in the girls' club) and how she innocently said, "I'll pray for you, Charles". I laughed alone too when she said that she'll just offer a decade of Rosary daily cos she got a long list to pray for. Hahaha.

I did enjoy the description of the setting, especially Sebastian's house! However, due to my poor vocabulary (and again, laziness to look up meaning of new words in dictionary), I don't think I imagine it 'accurately'. I wonder how Charles' painting really looks like!

And.........I enjoyed the 'drama' of Sebastian's family. It's like, hmmm, how to say, just 'watching' a normal family. I'm quite impressed by Lady Marchmain's "little chat" with Charles. Well, it's not something that my mom does with my friend, but her relationship with even her son's friend is not something beyond imagination for me after I see how the mothers of the girls in the girls' club take care of 'the soul of their daughters' friends' too. There's an openness and a real concern about Charles in Lady Marchmain.

- 4 -

So now, I'm taking a 'break' by reading Peter Pan =)
It's like catching up on English children books because I didn't have chance to read before =P
The 'problem' is..the reason I read quite fast is because I read my novels on my way (even as short as from bus stop to office), for example, on MRT. Today I have been smiling (with a big smile) as I was reading on the MRT. Hehehe. --> crazy!

- 5 -

Ahhh it's so nice to have a weekend!
This week has been tough. Well, I think my colleagues have been working very hard and I should've worked harder >.< It's really challenging to keep awake after lunch and sometimes I felt a bit feverish, or I had enough sleep but I woke up feeling a bit dizzy.

1.5 more weeks to Christmas!!
It's too fast!! I haven't done anything!!!

- 6 -

A good news this week: I managed to scrub the bathroom (including the hidden corners). I felt sooooooooooo happy. You know, after you constantly need to remind the girls to clean up and put order in the house during camp, you feel so ashamed of not putting order in your OWN house (that's what I feel!). I really need to make a routine. This week, I tried to clean little by little. I'm not that super-clean yet, but at least, know scrubbing toilet bowl is an automatic thing for me.

The thing is..I need to be realistic at the same time. I shouldn't find excuses, but cleaning schedule for a single-full-time employees-living-with-3-busy-housemates is different from a full-time homemaker's schedule. My mistake is, I find it very annoying and difficult to sacrifice my going-out time to clean up my room. However, at the same time, I find it depressing to have a messy room (or house). So yeah..the aim now is at least I must spare time to clean my own ROOM properly, and try to clean the other parts of the house bit by bit every day. Clean joyfully!! =) It struck me a lot when the Gospel reflection on the Feast of Our Lady of Loreto mentioned "Put an element of sacrifice in things that we do at our home." Wow...it's true. When you're happy and energetic, it's easy to empty your rubbish bin. When you go home late and tired, emptying rubbish bin is a BIG thing. It does need a sacrifice, but if we do it cheerfully and offer it up for Our Lord, it is a humble but beautiful offering too :)

- 7 -

Yesterday me and my friends watched Singapore Symphony Orchestra.
As I was watching the concert last night, something that made me sad  is the fact that I won't be home for Christmas. Yes yes I know that this time I'll spend Christmas with my boyfriend (and I'm very grateful that we can spend Christmas together), but it's still different. Anyway, I'll invite my colleagues to my house to celebrate Christmas with my housemates too. :):)

More quick takes at Jen's blog!! Oh, I forgot to share the link to 7QT two weeks ago!!