Light at the end

The tunnel at YIH, which i only just really saw as i came back to get an emergency transcript and be happy at how efficient my school is. Haha.

Chronicles of Narnia - Prince Caspian - The Call

It started out as a feeling
Which then grew into a hope
Which then turned into a quiet thought
Which then turned into a quiet word

And then that word grew louder and louder
'Til it was a battle cry

I'll come back
When you call me
No need to say goodbye

Just because everything's changing
Doesn't mean it's never
Been this way before

All you can do is try to know
Who your friends are
As you head off to the war

Pick a star on the dark horizon
And follow the light

You'll come back
When it's over
No need to say good bye

You'll come back
When it's over
No need to say good bye

Now we're back to the beginning
It's just a feeling and no one knows yet
But just because they can't feel it too
Doesn't mean that you have to forget

Let your memories grow stronger and stronger
'Til they're before your eyes

You'll come back
When they call you
No need to say good bye

You'll come back
When they call you
No need to say good bye

Exams

War zone where we were studying...napping, talking, playing. All the things disembodied students do in school with their machines of books.

Mummy's wisdom

My mum said not to leave my bag in the open so people won't see and be tempted to take it. So she covered it.

Another example

Of luxury school food that's comforting and economical. Pan dried dory with vege and fries, plus peach tea. Five bucks.

Pasir panjang rd at dusk

The big and little things that reflect His glory

thy neighbour

was meeting jm and a/j at city hall, so i got there around six plus, and it was extremely crowded, as usual. as i was making a call, i noticed a man with a haversack, holding up a sheet of laminated paper, going from person to person as he weaved through that sea of faces, saying something to each one but obviously rejected by every one. i thought as i waited for m to pick up the phone that if it weren't for the fact that i was on the phone, he'd have approached me already, and i felt something like relief that he didn't.

a little later, as a found a small corner in that crowd to stand and wait at, reading my conrad, he came right up to me, and this time i gave him my attention. usually i do, when i know it's charitable work and not insurance/saving plans, but this time it could be because he had such a pleading look.

"please give me just 2 minutes of your time, please just listen for a while..."

on the license that he was holding up to prove himself not a fraud, there was a yellow ribbon in the corner. he began telling me that he is really just part of an organisation that helps ex-convicts like himself find a new life, and that he is offering pens for sale at $4 for 2, and from there the organisation lets him keep half of what he gets. in very polite and earnest words that i cannot reproduce now, he sorta set before me the option to buy pens from him, and support the cause, and his life, or not.

i thought it was really really brave of him to come right up to complete strangers and tell them that he is an ex-convict, and ask them to play that tiny part in his carving out a new life, and so i immediately did what i could. and i couldn't help but say, thank you for trying, please press on!

so he told me that he is currently serving his national service, and he wants to further his studies. that's why he's going around selling pens to earn himself his school fees and pocket money, so that once he finished his NS he can go and study again. here's someone who really really tries!

i wondered how many people even stopped long enough to hear his story, to realise that so close to us there are people who are striving against the odds, fighting for a brighter future, living on the new hope of every day. if we'd perhaps just listen a bit more, not brush people off too quickly, we'd find more things to also take heart in, and more of us might hear too that cheery goodbye he said, "God bless!"

Always joy in growth

Baby Jovan learns to laugh as uncle albert carries him in the sanctuary, with suping laughing in his face and his daddy watching from a short distance.

Luxury food from school

For those pamper-myself-and-do-more-work days. Salmon pasta in garlic cream sauce: six two five. Hot vanilla: three five five. The little coffee club express in the corner.