My First DIY Frech Manicure....

Took me 1 hour plus... thanks Myrtle for the set =)

why why am i such a nail person?

Understanding Nationalism...

As a young student, I used to read my 'sejarah' textbooks fervently, not because I was a total nerd, but just because 'Sejarah' was my favourite subject.

I'll forgo revision time for other subjects just to be more proficient with my 'sejarah'.

When I read all those stories about 'Nasionalisme', I always wandered.... how did they do it?

Remember the page in our textbook about AMCJA-PUTERA? They had like fractions all over, and then they became bigger and bigger until they formed a coliation, and had a central committee. (although our textbook was bias in it's style of delivering)

Today I got to witness with my own eyes, the same history. One day, it might be in my children's 'sejarah' textbooks, but to make sure it does, seems like i'll have to do my part.

Tonight was one random night where an acquaintance shoots an invitation via email to a relaxed BBQ party. I'm here in Singapore, not many things to do (actually got many things to do), so sure! why not? On top of that, some YB is coming. Surely, something exciting right? come on who doesn't wanna know the inside stories on the ongoing Malaysian political drama?

The funny thing is, the 'acquaintance' was someone I met so briefly because I decided to hunt down 'NO TO ISA' T-shirts, following the passing of friend (Markus Ng) whom only after his passing, I realised, was such a great person, such a great Malaysian.

So the acquaintance, turns up at my Uni's back entrance one fine afternoon via SMS arrangements to deliver the controversial T-Shirts. That day I kept asking myself, "Oh gosh, Penny, why are you doing this? since when you're so extremist, radical one?" I questioned my motives and intentions of getting the T-Shirts. But, God is really unpredictable....

I met the T-Shirt 'seller' who turns up in a snazzy black Getz, and got to chat with him a little... (I was shocked, cos I thought he was a lady given his unisex  chinese name after being romanized, cos I'm sure it's far from feminine in the chinese)

Then he asked me this question, "Why do you want to get these shirts?" I was stunned. Actually I don't really know why. I hardly know RPK (ok I dunno RPK). I don't really know what does ISA really do to people....and I had no real intentions of joining a candlelight vigil anytime soon.....

I told him the truth.... "Well, a friend from school passed on, and he was into these things"...

(I think it's our humanly way of expressing grievance over one's passing, like to honour him, we wanna continue championing his beliefs?)

"wait, is your friend Markus? Markus Ng?" 

So it seems, the t-shirt seller heard of Markus from other like minded ppl. So he gave me more shirts to give away. So I emailed some friends to tell them the story. That I thought, was already such a coincidence and miracle chance encounter in itself.

But tonight....was different. It's really history in the making in my opinion.

It turns out the BBQ party was really an unofficial start to Anak Bangsa Malaysia (ABM) in Singapore/Johor.

So I've been getting forwarded messages on Facebook about starting up an ABM-SMKDU from Markus' highschool mates (my seniors), i thought well I'm not there, so......

Suddenly, I realised, this guy (Haris Ibrahim), who doesn't even know Markus personally, is the one who started ABM (refer to this blogpost dated 6th Aug 2007), but apparently in his recent blogpost dated 23rd Feb 2009, he said he had conveniently forgot about ABM, and he posted Markus' Anak Bangsa Malaysia Namecard and said... "Markus reminded me".

See how surreal all these is? I found my way to the BBQ because I felt sad/inspired by Markus' story and looked for NO TO ISA T-SHIRTS in Singapore. Haris Ibrahim was reminded by Markus about ABM and decided to revive it.

Inspired by Haris Ibrahim, my t-shirt seller acquaintance which turns out to be not a t-shirt seller but actually a great Malaysian, supporting nationalism in his own way in Singapore, decided to start-up Anak Bangsa Malaysia Selatan. 

And tonight I saw history in the making, and I had to write this down. 

Friends, let us make sure this makes it to our children's 'Sejarah' textbooks

and the only way that's going to happen if we come together to make this a reality.

p/s : oh if you want me to vigil with you now, I will....

For a better Malaysia!

anak bangsa malaysia,

pennyloo

(Your Name) pledges to not google/view/share/upload Elizabeth Wong's pictures/videos

Why I'm doing this?

I'm totally appalled at the newest chain of events that's befalling our already dirty politics swarmed nation.
So i thought how do we respect a person's privacy? I think if I were in her position I wish people (friends, supporters, family, public etc) would never see those compromising pictures/videos of me.

So, we should pledge to not view them or upload or share simply because we believe in this thing called 'VIOLATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS!'

Let's Not Get Political About This Yet, I'm simply addressing the basic principles of Human Rights.

IF YOUR BELIEFS ARE PARALLEL TO MINE, PLS COPY PASTE THE TITLE OF THIS NOTE INTO YOUR FACEBOOK STATUS. 

Thank You for reading this note.
God Bless Malaysia!

Sometimes you cant help but be inspired...

Not feeling like blogging, but rather, happenings this past week has been rather sad and inspiring at the same time...

I love my country, I love Malaysia.

And I don't even know why.

Guess, that's why people say, love is indeed blind.

3 more months to go, living on the most non-islandish Island in the world. 

(have you heard of he's an islander, and then you imagine, hawaiian prints? well, i guess suits would have to do here)

I'm starting to miss this place. It's not home, but it has become a part of my life.

Today I jogged/walked along the Pandan Connector to the end (where the old junk of a bridge brings us towards a park connector which leads to Bukit Batok.

I couldn't not notice that there were white geese flapping around the canal. Did i say white? yeaps it's quite ironic, cos the backdrop of the canal were rows and rows of factories.

Hmmnn, point to ponder. Better scrubbers?

This island is really really much better managed. and you wonder why? (haha)

God please let me know where you want me to be?

Sighs, this child here again, always whining...

that's what we do best, whine... 

*Ystd night I just got another "wow, you speak very good English ar?" (for a Malaysian) again....

How does a girl hang around Geylang alone without getting harrassed?

Here's how....

-No offense to anyone, this is just for fun.... (girl in pic modeled voluntarily)

Why we did it?

-We miss home.

Jingle Bells

Felt like picture blogging this 'morning'. Time flies, and is still flying, soon Christmas would be here, and we'll anticipate another new year, 2009, nope, scratch that...the world is dreading 2009. Even saying the number 2009 makes it seem like a big black hole or something that could suck you right into its darkness. Issit really that dark? I dunno, GOD knows.

Below are pics that were shot randomly one Sunday evening (didn't wanna go home) around Orchard with my ol' trusty K550i. Still love my phone! its been a year! 

My adorable grandmother commented, "Aiyo, qing nian de shen tan jie pu siang shen tan jie, siang, ing tu ren de dipawali"

That was the exact thought running through my mind whilst my uncle drove past Orchard, only that, having so many Singaporeans in the car, I chose to remain mum.

My cousin Ben was funnier, he said it is as though Hitachi (lighting sponsors) didn't have budget this year and decided to call up India, China and everywhere else. The lighting manager would say something along these line "Err, hihi, I'm from Hitachi, this year economy not so good leh, got any free leftover lighting from deepavali, hari raya? anything at all, pass it over here, can?"

Charming ain't he? The youngest addition to the Chia family, Othnael Chia. (I hoped I got the spelling right). He is the starking resemblance of Ethan Ruan from Taiwan's Hit Drama this year, Fated to Love You (Bien Li Tie Ni Hai Zhi). 

Oooh, my mum always told us, no girl, you don't expect mummy to take on a nanny role when you have kids ok. "wo pu yau ar, ge...better ni men zi qi 'kau tim'" Four is enough already.

Then, when she saw Othnael, guess what she said? "aiyo, girl ar, if your son look like him, I don't mind taking care of him..." (My aunt -Ottie's mum shot us a puzzled look)

Yeaps thats my mum....when she came down to Singapore last week, the first thing she said when she stepped into my new room, "Girl, you should buy some wallpaper and cover that yellow stain on your wall" *Roll Eyes*

But I love my mother very much =) Muaakkss...

Charming ain't he? a hungry Dog gotta do what a hungry Dog does...

I went for a Malaysia vs Singapore basketball game. We lost although there wasn't one Singaporean on the Singaporean team. This is a short but weird testimony. The Sunday before this game, the message was : God wants to bless you. You can say I have faith and I believed that. During the game, I noticed ppl getting beer (cos they are company sponsored) I told myself and God subsequently, ah, God, can't I have a beer too? a free one, cos I'm too poor or cheap to buy one. Moments later, 2 guys from the lower bleachers turned around and passed us 2 beers, for free! Amen? yeaps, hallelujah.

God wants to bless me, even in the smallest, weirdest, nonsensical way. WHO gave us the idea that, God has NO time for trivial requests in our lives? Like he's too busy up there sorting out scrolls of prayer requests? He's GOD man, nothing is a mess up there, everything is just perfect!

One thing I'm praying for now, make me study!

A New Creation...

I spent the past one week scouring the bible. Yeaps, it's really not my cup of tea (usually) to scour the bible. It's not that God came and spoke to me audibly, but I figured he conjured me to do what I dislike. It started last last cellgroup meeting in CF where we were going through the book of Exodus. 

I don't know about Christians in general, but I've always taught the 10 commandments as important as a child (primary school) cos its printed in colour and graphics fanciful and all on the first page of my Zondervan, NIV Teen Study Bible. Pegs got it for my 11th Birthday.

However for the past 5 years or so in RLC (Renewal Lutheran Church), our senior pastor, Dr.Joshua Yee has always totally disregarded the 10 Commandments. Yeaps, you can say he is a Grace preacher which is kinda weird considering he was raised a traditional Lutheran Pastor. That was why he started 'Reneval' Lutheran Church.

I always felt Pastor Joshua's teaching a tad too extreme for my fancy. Week after week, you'll see signs pasted on the backboards "Your Year of Supernatural Abundance" quoted from some verse in the bible. Next year, Supernatural something and then something and something. But every year, the theme would be something 'abundance' something 'supernatural' or somewhat 'prosperity' sounding.

Every month or so, we'll have this 'anointing' prayer sessions, where entrepreneurs gather for a prayer service to pray for 'favour'. I found it a lil annoying, nevertheless, my mum, being the simpleton that she is, urged me to go for one anointing session to pray for financial assistance from LSE (London School of Economics).

Oh, and generally, RLC is kinda deemed as a prosperity church. Even my sis thinks she didn't really like attending RLC cos of its 'prosperity' teachings.

But, you know what's so funny? Both of us are ardent fans of Joseph Prince who leads a seriously 'prosperity' church in Singapore. (or thats what the Singapore public thinks)

Of course, many months after that, I got a letter from LSE's financial office, offering me a 12080 pounds Bursary, renewable yearly (depending on your grades).

I didn't really think, it's because God poured 'favour' on me just because I asked and I think I almost forgot about the anointing session because shortly after, I was rejected based on academia. So I didn't go to LSE in the end. At the back of my mind, reminding myself not to 'forget' Gods' intended favour, and somehow wanna 'honour' (repay) him.

So I came to Singapore instead to continue studying, and naturally ended up attending NCC (New Creation Church, Joseph Prince's congregation) weekly. Naturally, cos I first liked him from his CDs, I listened intently during service instead of 1/2 sleeping back home to Pastor Joshua. (heys, I like Pastor Joshua kays, but my heart was not right, and God had a plan for me)

And I received much from those Sundays sitting in, listening intently.

Now as I type, I realise how God positioned all these mish mash of things to happen to me to send me the message. Of knowing him, the true gospel of his Grace.

I understand now why the 10 Commandments is irrelevant and why Pastor Joshua always disregarded it (somehow I managed to wake up at the wrong time and sleep past the bible justification bits). I understand now that God does not need me to 'repay' his 'favour' bestowed unto me, and no I won't be cursed for that either. And I understand why people pray for favour. Its not being greedy or conceited. We're coming before him, on our knees asking him to take over our finances, because only him can make us victorious in every area of our lives. It's a surrender rather than 'prosperitism'.

And most important of all, No you won't deliberately continue sinning just because you're 100% forgiven in Christ. When you receive his love and grace, and draw closer to him, you will bear fruit, and this is what I've always missed out on. I need not bear fruit unwillingly on my own, I only need to Focus on Jesus, and naturally, He says I will bear fruit. And I am.

Cheers to our Lord, the Alpha and Omega.

Oh my current favourite song, Rock Productions (yet to be officially released) :

You Are The God Who Loves

written by: Karen

Saviour of the undeserving

You have beckoned me with love

You designed all Heaven's Glory

Yet You came, restored my worth

Majesty stripped of all honour

Man of sorrows on that tree

The God who fashioned nature's wonders

Yet You stooped to rescur me

This is love, spoken through Your brokenness

This is grace - crowning me with righteousness

You are the God who loves

You are the God who gives

Salvation, favour, victory as I stand and see

You are the God I love

You are the God I give

All honour, glory, adoration for eternity