| because I was in the area and curiosity got the better of me, |
[Jun. 21st, 2009|02:41 am] |
I visited our new church building this afternoon.
It's amazing, how starkly different it is from our old church. The sweet homely feeling is gone, along with the ancient playground and gigantic trees, all still fresh in my memory. Our old, two-and-a-half storey building (complete with a steeple-like roof!) has been replaced with a spanking new glass-wood-and-metal structure, devoid of the lush greenery that used to characterize Bartley. It really isn't bad though, I wasn't overcome by any this is awful, I want our old building back feeling, just felt sort of nostalgic and awed and sad but glad that we've been blessed with such a lovely new home. It was new, yet familiar, sort of.
Wawawa now I'm starting to miss the old building. Understandable lah, I practically grew up there and it holds countless memories for me. My parents met there when they were in their late teens/early adulthood, you know. I'm of old church lineage, har har har. I must say though, I'm pretty excited about the new building, it really is quite cool. No more parking nightmares! No more overcrowding (I hope)!! Enough space to hold only one service every week (for now)!!!
Aiya, it's nearly 3 am and I really should sleep. Reminder to self: a pot of tea at midnight is never a good idea unless you're pulling an all-nighter. Zzzzz. Staying up alone at night makes me think a lot about people and things and Life. It makes me emo, which I do not like. It also makes me ramble, which no-one reading this likes, so bye. |
|
|
| (no subject) |
[Feb. 21st, 2007|09:35 am] |
I'm in the staffroom now. The colleague who has two very cute kids but talks to himself is sitting behind me facing the screen. It makes me feel awkward. Never mind, my back is facing him so I shall just ignore him and do as I please.
I love Chinese New Year! :) :) :) why oh why do visitation holidays only last for two days. I haven't uploaded crazy cousin pictures yet, nor have I grabbed friend-party photos from anyone else. Shall do so soon (hopefully).
Anyway, Nalli came over to my place on the first day. She really likes my cousins, Shaun especially. After dinner, all of us congregated in my room and talked and laughed and shrieked at the top of our voices as we always do. Daniel shared stories of how he goes around IJC terrorising the J1s by drooling from the mouth and pretending to be some sort of maniacal retard. At the end of it, when we were driving her back, I asked what she thought of my beloved relatives. She said, "they're weirder than you" and I don't suppose she meant it as a compliment. Ha ha.
I visited Sheryl (Ann) Lee on the 2nd day! :D Her house is cool, and her sisters are so cute. Michael was there too, and I brought Tasha, and we played uhm. Sardines. Which is kind of like hide-and-seek, except only one person hides while everyone else looks for him/her. And once you find the hider? you squeeze into the hiding place with him/her, hence the name of the game. It was my idea heh. And though her mom chased us back into the room, it was fun while it lasted. Her dad's really really nice :D also visited Xizhen and Bev. This is the first time I've visited friends on CNY! How sad is that.
Also, I discovered that Catherine? Katherine? Lim has relatives who live two or three doors away from me. I saw her walking to her car which was parked in front of ours. It just occurred to me, though, if it's the house two doors away from ours, then she was visiting Hansen or whatever his name is, the ACS (IB) former ACSI vice-head prefect a year below us.
Scratch the surface and you will find that we are all connected in a thousand different ways.
*
I attended Chek's grandmother's wake last night, along with Darren Ethel Shaun Bev Barry Alvinmun Alaric and, of course, Chek himself. It wasn't all that solemn, which is characteristic of an elderly's wake. It was hard, though, watching the relatives grieve and hearing their sobs. It's that sense of helplessness that gets you, knowing that your friends are hurting but there's nothing you can do to help except be there. Sometimes, also, you can't help but feel as though you're intruding on their right to mourn.
It's amazing, if you think about it- my eldest cousin on my mother's side is nearing thirty. On my dad's side, Hannah is already twenty-three. It's crazy how we've all grown up so fast, from the adorable hyperactive children we used to be (yes we were DEFINITELY adorable. Old photographs and videotapes attest to that). Yet all four of my grandparents are still alive. It's something I thank God for. I can't help but wonder, though, how I'm going to feel when it's their turn. |
|
|
| Good Night and Good Luck |
[Oct. 12th, 2006|09:34 am] |
So this is it huh.
Two years ago, when I graduated from Nanyang, I posted an entry dedicated to my dearest friends and actually cried while typing.
I can't believe it's been two whole years since then, and so much has happened. I've laughed more in these two years than I have all the rest of my life put together, or so it seems; I've made countless new friends, all of whom are very very special to me and whose friendships I wouldn't trade for the world.
There will be no photographs in this entry, because all those I have are too happy to go in here.
Baccalaureate yesterday seemed more like Valentine's Day than anything else- crazy phototaking, notes, sweets, cards, laughing at Fish's funny Valedictorian's speech, crying when he did, the crazy retarded Arts Video [yes Michael we did it thank you so much for doing all the technical stuff you really are a genius at this], making Mr Ngoei whack a pinata after he made his very emotional goodbye to the class [which other class would do something as retarded as that, seriously? Thank you Jiamin Zhi-Lei Vivienne and Szeyen for the ingenious idea (: ] going for lunch in XLB as a class, dinner with all the friends in New York New York- it was a fantastic day, and surprisingly I didn't cry at all during the bacc service or even during Sir's speech.
After lunch at HV, though, I came back to school to study [nerd alert!] and at one point the hub got too cold for comfort, so I took a walk outside. And somehow, perhaps unwittingly, perhaps not, my feet took me to the empty Happy Hut, up the stony walkway into the tiny aisle between NLs 1 and 2 which we've all come to know so well and take completely for granted.
And I stood there, leaning against the glass windows, looking into the locked, darkened classroom, and everything was the same- the post-it corner, the desk arrangements, the crap from Fun-o-Rama still languishing at the back of the class, the GP tray along with some other crap sitting on the never-utilised front row, and I could just see everyone in there. I could see Ade standing up shouting something to the class, Bev gesturing wildly as she described some awful event or other to Bra, who would be listening attentively with the occasional interjection of 'omigad', Michael flopped on his desk watching some video on his Creative, Nalli listening to her iPod Nano, everyone else talking or laughing or doing their thang. I could just see them all sitting neatly in class, with Mr Ngoei or Lancelot or Geoks or whoever standing in the front feeding us with information and covering the board in hieroglyphs which we could somehow decipher. I could see all that, staring into the empty classroom, which seemed so hollow without any of us in it; and I knew that all those things I saw would never again come to pass, that they would be nothing more than a part of my memory of life in ACJC. We've spent our last day in NL2, we've said our good-byes, we've had a fantastic time and the best form teacher that anyone could ever have asked for, and things will never be again as they were.
If you were a part of my life in AC in any way- it doesn't matter how long we've known one another; all that matters is that you've been a friend to me, or you know my name, or I know yours, or we smile at one another upon meeting, or that we'd be able to recognise one another as schoolmates if we met on the street in a year's time- then this entry is for you.
Thank you for being a part of my life these two years. Thank you for the racuous laughter, the mass congregations in the Void Deck, the deviant messages on the magnadoodle board, the many crazy CRAZY birthdays, the sweet messages, the deep meaningful conversations -or should I say, bleacher talk- thank you for being a Hub/LT3/studyatvoiddeckoroldhamwing companion, for putting up with my endless singing and humming and stupid stupid jokes and -to quote deborah yap- 'horrendous laughter'.
There will be people, I believe, whom I may never see again after leaving AC, people whom I've seen around and whom I recognise but will never keep in touch with. And that's what I'll miss- seeing a familiar face at every turn, running into clusters of friends behind each corner, knowing that there will always be someone at the Void Deck to talk to/hang out with at any time of the day. And this is what I'll miss. I'm going to miss the class of 2006, learning and laughing as one. No matter how much we return to visit after this, it'll never be the same again, and I'll miss that.
I'll miss AHBlue, and my desk, and smiling across at Ethel Esther Zhu Debbie Chek Beh Bobby blah blah in AHRed. I'll miss popping my head randomly into their class to talk to them, make friends with Dollz, take pictures for and with them and so on. I'll miss all the other friends, the SCOnes and the SDOnes and the SC3ers and EVERY SINGLE PERSON IN THE ARTS FACULTY. Truly, I would give anything I had to extend JC life by two years or more, or to let it go on forever (hurhur). I thank God for putting me in this school, in this class, for letting me make these friends and printing these indelible memories in my soul.
I can't imagine what life would have been like otherwise. I can't remember what life was like before I met all of you- thinking back to pre-AC days, it seems almost as though a part of me knew that I was going to meet you, and all of us were just waiting to happen to one another. I believe that we were. It may seem like the end, but we're only starting to wake up to the reality of life, and I believe that our friendships take off from here for the rest of our lives.
So, my friends, won't you grow old along with me? For the best is yet to be. |
|
|
| navigation |
| [ |
viewing |
| |
most recent entries |
] |
| |
|
|
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
meeseow's journal
pensive
melancholy