hello all, this blog post's title is courtesy of Ying Ying (who deosn't even read my blog despite being invited i am giving her the mental evil eye now)
Anyway, today english was totally and absolutely crazy but in a good fun way
before i say what actually happened i have to tell you about my wonderful adn eccentric english teacher.
she's probably one of my favorite teachers, because she's so easy going, flamboyant, extroverted and fun.
when she talks its usually with a great deal of hand waving and sound effects and rhetorical questions interjected.
last year she used to have the habit of whacking the table with a plastic ruler (she stopped when one day the ruler broke) because she got so revved up by speaking to us about whatever she was speaking to us about.
anyway, today we were discussing a comprehension passage about fashion through the ages and Mrs Cheng was talking about fashion in the hippie/beatle age and then she started talking about the beatles and she gave us this strange pop quiz about the Beatles, asking us their names, who was still alive, and waht songs by them we knew.
Then she told us her favorite song was yesterday (which until today i never knew was by them!) and she started singing it in class in her loud and flamboyant way
now hello this is singapore.
none of my teachers have ever done that! even the one who had an actual music CD on sale in gramophone!
i was so surprised and impressed at her spontaneity and bravery and ease.
And later when she was talking about Charleston dancing she actually demonstrated for us (seated at her table ) with hand actions!
this was a completely random post but i just think more teachers should be fun and carefree like Mrs Cheng.
today i had a 'private' recess with weixin and ellis (basically meaning it was just the three of us and not with the others at the noisy rowdy canteen table)
instead of trooping down to the charged-atmosphere canteen, summoning stamina to endure 50 minutes of being crazy and high with the rest, i walked peacefully with weixin (ellis went to buy food first) to the gallery which was quiet and breezy and serene.
i loved it
it was so wonderful to have a recess where it was just us three and it was so much less draining and so much more real
i didn;t have to put on a facade of high spirits, rather i was myself.
i talked and laughed when i wanted to, and even read my book (anti social behavior i know i am terrible) occasionally because i knew they wouldn;t mind because it was miriam to do that and miriam is their friend <3
i feel so at ease with just them and much as i love the rest to bits for their gigglyness it can sometimes be a bit overwhelming (which is when i start writing angsty blogposts) and so it was great to have a break where i was still interacting with them (some of them at least) but i wasn;t straining to keep up with the cheer, you know what i mean?
we had blueberrymuffins and talked about the idiosyncracies of our teachers and tried to play the piano (well, i tried to play it, ellis actually played it.)
and although i usually go up 5 minutes before the end of recess, this time i didn;t even realise (or really care) and stayed til the last bell rung
anyway, for those stressed/lonely/disappointed at bad social study SBQ test results, i prescribe a recess with close friends because
they love you and you love them back (but for some reason you never tell them how much you value them except in blogposts/letters)
anyway
ONGWEIXINANDELLISYEELISI LETS HAVE ANOTHER PRIVATE RECESS SOON.
like next week or next next week
it was another wonderful, exhilarating sunday, just like those beautiful ones i had when Jan hai was around.
It started off at church.
so.
(why am i writing in such short sentences i think its because i just had dinner and my brain is slightly spazzing from the sudden rush of glucose)
actually, it started way before church
from the time i woke up (my mum woke me up which is always nice because she goes "miriam....Miriam..." and kind of massages you)
i had ama's cake for breakfast and milo which is so comfortable.
to church i wore my Muji socks which always put me in a good mood because the go above my ankles and keep my feet snug even though no one can see them (its like wearing nice underwear)
in church there was a special worship service and they used brass instruments which i love because of their beautiful rich and mellow sound. i think our church should have brass instruments in our worship normally. the song choices were simple but somehow there was this unshakable vigor injected into them that made them not cliche.
the sermon by kenny Lamm was enthralling. i didn;t feel sleepy at all and i was surprised when it ended it seemed so fast.
it was about worship, how we should desperately seek jesus(regardless of obstacles), how we should give god our all, how we should disregard criticism and wet blankets and how we should ALWAYS REMEMBER WHY WE WORSHIP
i think that man is a lucky lucky man because he is a powerful powerful preacher and he has such a gift for peeling away the layers and showing the truth.
the story is based on when Jesus visited simon and an ungodly woman cried over his feet and washed them with her perfume.
that story has always been a favorite of mine
and today's sermon made it even more special
here's a video he showed us which i liked
and another one that i like which i'm putting here because i like it
after church i found christy who had brought my birthday present and i was so happy because it was such a nice gesture (she remembered :') ) but i asked her to give it on my birthday cos it would be nicer to wait all.
that makes 4 sweet awesome people who have remembered my birthday early (and been so in anticipation that they got presents)
-yings
-chari
-hannah
-christy
i feel kind of bad because i always give people their presents late and forget their birthday and i need to go on facebook and memorise people's birthday's (not just the month)
christy also gave me Parmesan flavoured goldfish biscuits which were yummy yummy in my tummy.
then
we had combined sunday school where i had to share which was scary but not as bad as i thought it would be
and then there was worship practice with gloria hannah and the rest of the aunties and even though my voice was gross and weak today, it was nice because next week its D DAY and i just really love the song and auntie belinda's enthusiasm and willingness to organise and invite me&hannah
lunch was at bugis and i had delicious XIAO LONG BAO <3
and for dessert famous amos cookies (which reminds me there was a news report about some Singaporean who got kidnapped by people in Egypt and they said he was brought to the dessert in stead of the desert! on national television. it is a terrible thing when your own countries news channel cannot spell)
walking round bugis was fun especially the shop with all the strange things like back massagers and head massagers and lego brick notebooks and nice i phone covers and piggy banks
we went home and after making ribena ice pops and putting them in the fridge, i went downstairs on the swing with shana.
it was beautiful and sunny and the light made golden outlines round the leaves i felt like a girl in a movie as i swing back and forth on a tire (so my bum wouldn't bang against the tree root)and my hair rippled back and the wind whistled and it was just GORGEOUS :)
then hannah came down and we went on the trampoline and i could do seven bridge flips one after another
then we went back to the swing and just swung and swung til our hands blistered but it didn;t matter because it was fun and perfect
i have this overwhelming urge to unprivatize my blog
but i don't know
it's so tantalizing to see exactly how many views etc it could get
but at the same time its so daunting to think that all my stuff will be able to be viewed by the WHOLE WORLD
(this strange urge was brought about because yesterday there were 28 page views which is pretty cool since only emily, wei xin, charisse, yings. toby, christy, megan and zen can see my blog. which is eight people. which means each person on average came to see my blog 3.5 times)
maybe i'll try for a few days and see what chaos is caused
or maybe i'll be the coward i am and stick to being a recluse in the wide wide web
i don't know
people who read this i need your opinion
I don;t know, maybe my escapist mind had great expectation but somehow everything felt (to me at least, i do hope the others had a good time) flat and shallow and exasperating
After shopping in the morning, we got home and i started preparing for the picnic.
I was so disappointed that most of my frends didn't help AT ALL. or even offer.
only weixin and ellis were most kind and helped prepare the milo and carry the things downstairs.grace was also sweet and tried to help here and there. and she made potato salad which is a plus point
later my sister told me that while i was going round frantically finding picnic mats and getting food and drinks ready, most of my friends were in the lounge taking photographs without me. having fun while i was toiling for their subsequent enjoyment.
to quote romeo and juliet
"God's bread! it makes me mad!"
and what was worse was that my MOTHER was also helping and working and preparing with me, heating up the apple pie, directing me ellis and weixin as we made the milo.
suffice to say my mother and sister and brother have a very bad impression of my friends and only consider ellis, weixin, grace to be nice girls
later when we were eating the picnic, i just felt the conversation was so meaningless, you know?
about boys and stuff and i didn't even need to listen
so while we played truth or dare i just focused on the apple pie.
and then one person started talking about sick stuff and i was so grossed out i put my fingers in my ears which is rude but i hate it when people talk so crassly and make light of issues with such gravity.
What makes it worse is that the bible said flee from sexual immorality in corinthians(which i suppose includes listening to such things) and i know i don't always manage to but when i do, i do.
i don't know.
the picnic just made me so disappointed with my friends.
i begin to question if they really are my friends.
i know i wouldn't tell all of them my secrets, my hopes and fears and stories.
only ellis and weixin i would tell but i don't think i would confide in any of the others.
i don't know.
i could probably count on one hand the girls in SCGS i'd really trust to confide in.
ellis
yings
chari
weixin
(megan doesn't count cos she isn't in SCGS)
(emily also doesn't count cos i consider her a chirch/childhood friend not a school friend <3)
Today was (how to describe it) carefree and bright.
After finishing homework (some of it), i went down stairs to meet shana (the banana) to play
I got down and sat on the trampoline to wait.
to take up time i swept the leaves from the trampoline and blew the feathers off too. They were down feathers and very soft, because down feathers are the kind of feathers that are close to a birds body to keep it warm.
then i lay on the trampoline-which is a very comfortable thing to do because the trampoline bends and shapes itself to your body to your back is not arched awkwardly- and stared at the sky and the telephone wire and the tree and the corner of the roof and just thought about how long it had been since I'd been downstairs and how i missed relaxing like that and when was shana going to come?
At last shana came (she was a bit late because she had been chasing a horn bill) and we jumped on the trampoline a bit (and i can still do a front flip :) )
then we went to shana's swing which is the most thrilling thing
It's a long piece of sturdy rope attached to a tree. At the bottom, the rope is tied in a loop twice so you can sit on it . There are also two knots at convenient places so you can hold on above the first knot(if you are tall) and the second(if you are not so tall)
Shana swung individually for a while I stood and slapped at mosquitoes.
Then i went on with her. We did a special way of swinging where we both ran, i would jump off the hill first and then shana would be pulled off by my weight, so we would swing round in two arcs (kind of like DNA's double helical structure) around part of the circumference of the hill and then land back on the other side of the hill.
shana had to go to the toilet then so i swung individually, with my arms looped through the loop so i didn;t have to hold so tight to the rope (my hands were already blistering)
it is the most wonderful feeling to rush through the air, like you are the end of a conker or a yo yo being whirled around by and excited child, but in a much more controlled and sophisticated (not nearly the right word but close enough) manner.
As you swing through the air you are flung out, so you are just dependent on the rope and you don;t need to think about maneuvering because there is nothing you can do except go with the rope.
And then as the opposite side of the hill rushes to wards you that's where you have to think fast or you might land (as i have done before) on your bottom, which is funny and not as uncomfortable as you would think but humiliating all the same.
Then shana came back and after a few more breathtaking swings, we saw a monkey.
There has been a lone monkey going round the neighbourhood the past days and it was fascinating to see it close (about 10 metres away) It was eating tree bark and climbing on the telephone wire (and sliding down the telephone pole, fireman style) and doing strange rotor movements with its tail. Shortly, it disappeared into some bushes at the side of the road, whereupon shana took it as her responsibility to warn anyone passing that there was a monkey in the bushes and to please be careful.
One man we warned was so shocked that he dropped his motorbike helmet.
After picking it up, he dropped it again when shana made "ooh ooh aah aah" monkey noises.
i don't think he was amused by shana.
Then we played kick the can with the boys.
when Ned was 'it' shana and i hid on the trampoline by lying belly down on it. as we were lying there, i felt someone underneath the trampoline, someone who bumped the trampoline so it wobbled.
"who's that?"
and Dana, shana's helper came out laughing like anything.
i was amazed and so was shana and we had a giggling fit for a while then remembered that since we were hiding we should be quiet.
when i went upstairs, i did stretching (ballet on Tuesday) and to my delight, i was pretty flexible (in comparison to the past)
The pictures describe most of it.
apart from the message and workshops and worship and lunch and jamming afterwards :)
i can't really put it into words but as i was leading worship (for our god is greater) i saw a sight that truly lifted my spirit and reminded me how amazing God and how much love he pours on us individually and how poweerfully we are capable of responding to that love.
So basically, this week daddy, hannah and tim went to malaysia for church camp (while i was stuck in singapore becasue of extended curriculum) but you know whta? i stayed at home with my mum and it was fun, just the two of us.
One day we went for dinner at Great World City.
It was awesome :)
we had dinner from the Soupery in the food court ( i had chicken stew, she had chicken curry) and we just ate and talked and my mother noticed a couple who were talking yet not talking. The guys was spewing out words like a machine gun and he was really passionate about everything he was saying but his girlfriend (or maybe even wife, unfortunately) just wasn;t listening.
i thought it was pretty sad on both sides.
the girl was stuck with a guy who wouldn;t shut up about something that bored her pants off,
the guy was stuck with a girl who wouldn;t make the effort to interest herself in somehting he loved
then, we went to the Body Shop, which is something i always love because the aromas that permeate the Body shop are just so beautiful.
its a mix of love and humanity. a scent of earth and charity.
it just calms me down and transcends my thoughts and digs deep and says 'you're safe, you're loved'
sorry, i'm babbling.
after my mother's (ever futile) search for a nice scent, we went to marks and sparks to look at trousers (for my mother, my budget does not cover a $100 pair of pants)
and then we went to da paolo to get a chocolate scone and spaghetti sauce for the next night's dinner.
I don;t know, it was a simplenday out and something we do almost every sunday but it was so relaxed and simple and pleasing (the fact that my mother took time out to spend with me <3) that just warmed my heart.
I did other silly things with my mum too, like making paper waterbombs (taught from the 'dangerous book for boys' ) and dropping them off the edge of the balcony.
it's times like these where i remember how much my mum actually is like me and how we do share common interests .
i dream of a special celebration day where at a certain specified time in the day everyone in every country spontaneously stands up and sings this song.
if you had to choose your last meal for ever what would you eat?
I think i would have:
-my daddy's double boiled chicken soup
-auntie sheila's shepherd's pie
-my mum's chicken pilaf
-da paolo chocolate scone
-island creamery banana and reverso
-strawberries
-watermelon
all to be eaten over a period of 5ish hours within which i would watch 'life is beautiful' and talk to my family and friends.
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