It's now time for... "Scary Assignment Season!" When i scare myself into completing my assignments on time!

Practicum II:

1) Case Presentation
Due: 7th April. Status: Undone
2) Intake Assessment Report
Due: 14th April. Status: Undone
3) Session Report
Due: 14th April. Status: Undone
4) Term Paper Reflection
Due: 14th April. Status: Undone

Multicultural Counselling:

1) Individual Paper II
Due: 12th April, 12pm. Status: In Progress
2) Group Presentation and Essay
Due: 5th & 12th April, 12pm. Status: In Progress

Whoopee?

heart and soul capturing pieces

The driving earthy beat, with what sounds like ethnic specific instruments coming together with an orchestra to create a rich, expansive auditory experience. I could also almost picture myself standing atop a cliff and looking down at a vast open landscape before me with the wind catching in my hair.



After listening to some music Gem sent me from a Japanese anime, i was reminded of a very short snippet of music from another Japanese film called Princess Mononoke. I remember my heart being hopelessly captured by just a few bars of music that was tastefully embedded in a video that my JC friend had created for the JC (he was in the media resource club. G should know who. ;) ). Here's an orchestra playing music from that film, but the melody i heard so many years ago isn't from this piece. If you don't have the patience to listen to orchestra music, don't click on this one unless you enjoy musicians in close-up action. But of course, the piece is good listening as well. :)



The short snippet is found in this piece! 1) 0:56-1:05, 2) 1:45-1:56, 3) 3:59-4:06. The chord structure! OMG. So heart wrenchingly beautiful. But of course, best to listen to the whole piece.



On Youtube, this particular piece received a whole lot of responses from people who were so touched by the music and now i'm one of them. It gave me the goosebump chills just taking it all in. It has soul. Grand, passionate, majestic. Usually i would enjoy a piece of music from a movie better after watching the movie with the soundtrack, but this really got me hook, line and sinker without the movie which was out about 10 years i think.



The rich sound of the impassioned guitar solo caught my attention at the start of the song. The entrance of the saxophone was tentative and gentle but gets more urgent and it sings a heart tugging melody to you. And then.... THE GUITAR AND SAXOPHONE GO CRAZY!!!!!!!!!!!!! Some crazy riffs can. Woah liao eh, i could listen to it forever on loop.



Piano, flute and orchestra intertwining to create a gentle, flowing, yet decisive piece. Fresh, inspiring, heart wrenching.

HATE paperwork (post counselling report writing). Like, detest.

But... Anyway, with a little help here and there, i'm finding it to be a slightly more positive experience being in the counselling room... I find that having a little confidence (and of course, some priming) helps a big fat deal.

Today, had counselling "overload" in a good way. Lots of case conceptualization training, analyses, learning from others and just talking things out with my counsellor classmate who helped talk me through some of my own knots. Realized, it's quite nice talking to guy friends cos they don't get emotional easily. Sure, there are cons to that part of men (the whole hear-problem-give-solution shebang), but sometimes, all you need is some straight talking guy friend who is sensitive to your worldview but who will also challenge you without having emotions as part of the equation.

Learning curve is like scaling the Devils Tower. But after a day of counsellor-cog-wheel-frenzy, it feels pretty good actually. I think it's because i find myself thinking more in line with other counsellors and i feel as if i'm doing some things right. AT LAST. Need more practice in the counselling room, need dialogue with other experienced counsellors. There's so much to learn and i am lapping it up!

Got home after a long day of being at work and school and looked at my growing pile of clothes that were meant to be hand washed. On other nights, i'd be groaning internally but tonight i decided, "kay, tonight's a good night for some quiet, solitary, brainless activity". So i take my pile of clothes to the washing area and started the whole washing routine. It felt good. Seriously.

Today was a good day. Started pretty darn early, but i was surprisingly "lucid" the whole day despite all the mental acrobatics. On most days, i would've shut down a long time ago.

It must've been mom praying for me throughout the day. Yesterday night, i was grumpy, solemn, stressed, anxious and downright grouchy. So much so that i blurted it out to my mom and she cheerfully said that she would pray for me. Well, looking at the dramatic change in me today, all i can say is, prayer works.

Well. Of course. :)

A long time ago when i was around maybe 5-6 years old i remember being in my church's old sanctuary with my mum and dad one day, before it was renovated. The sanctuary, what it was called back then, was where the adults would go for services.

I remember that incident quite vividly. When the adults were singing with praises and worship to God, i felt a churning in my being. Not the toilet sort of course. For the lack of any better word, my inner being felt "touched" and "inspired", I just felt my insides feeling overwhelmed with emotion. Tears would come and i didn't understand why. But i could draw and write. So i drew an image of something or other, and wrote something with "Jesus" and "Prayer" in it and i remember showing it eagerly to one of my folks.

Looking back, i know now. Being a child, there just wasn't any preconceived ideas, no theology, no debates. Just a clean, untainted slate, open and receptive to God's presence.

And that's how God wants us to be like. To be like little children, coming to Him innocently. With hearts and minds open, clear and totally trusting.

I cannot wait to become a counsellor with a reasonable number of years of experience in the field, to be someone who is more confident, more skilled... Because i really want to help. I realize how much i enjoy the helping process, but the journey to learning to be a better counsellor is certainly painful. And i really mean, painful.

Someone had a word from Father God for me, and that was: Persevere and press on. Your mountain needs to be conquered and you can't conquer it if you don't climb it. You are not alone He is already ahead of you holding the ropes for you and securing it so that you will not fall off the cliff. Only persevere and you will reach the summit.

It's certainly a steep cliff here. And i'm at ground zero. I wish there was an elevator, but it looks like there're no short cuts and i'm going to get some hard knocks climbing up. I just have to trust God that He's got my back in everything that i do and it doesn't matter if i, in my definition, fail and screw up. Because in Him, i've got full insurance and assurance coverage.

weather or not, i believe.

This morning as i look out my window to behold the clear, brilliant blue sky with puffs of white clouds, i'm reminded of God's humour and goodness that i wanted to share...

Yesterday was my dad's birthday and my family was going to spring a BBQ surprise on him with two other families whom we're close to and have known for years. On the surface, i looked fine and even emotionally felt fine. But if you know some thing about me and my family, celebrating his birthday isn't an easy affair deep down inside. But, anyhow...

The weather looked good for the early part of the day, but slowly and surely, the sky started to turn grey... and then the rain came in all its glory the way it has in the recent days in the west side of Singapore. The sky remained dark and grey. It rained for hours. The kind of rain that keeps going on and on and on...

It was quite saddening because firstly, it was our planned surprise (food was prepared by all parties involved), and secondly, we hadn't had a BBQ in a long while. But i decided to just PRAY and TRUST. Truth be told, there were times when i was telling God i trusted him, more to convince myself to trust! As i chopped my garlic and onions and minced up my basil leaves in the kitchen which has a nice big window, i kept praying and asking God for good weather in time for our BBQ.

If you could read my thought bubbles, you'd see things like "God! The plants have already been watered... Enough rain!", "God! PLEASEEEEEE stop the rain!" "Please please please please..." "God, please stop the rain to prove to (X, no names here!) and to me that you are a good and great God!"

Let me tell you, there were times when the rain seemed to lessen and when i got excited, the intensity picked up again. -.-"

So the time came when our friends arrived and i had to collect the BBQ pit keys from the security office. I trudged up with a big ole brolly, slippers slapping into fresh puddles, with thick rain drops drumming down around me. Even the friendly guards were empathetic towards us and gave some advice about how to keep the food sheltered. When i returned to the pit to hand our friends the keys, it was 6pm. They then began to set up the pit with such enthusiasm anyway.

Then the miracle happened.

Between 6 to 6:30pm when i started to squirrel the food downstairs (while sister distracted dad with his new iphone in the room so that he would not know of our disappearances), the rain started to lighten.

I asked God, "God, i'm trusting you for a total stop of the rain!" I cannot explain it, but i just BELIEVED that God would stop the rain though it did not look like it would at all. I felt like a child begging her dad for a toy, but somehow the begging was a happy kind of begging.

I am fully aware of the fact that i'm just a tiny little speck of a human child in the whole of Singapore, let alone the universe, and that asking God for him to stop the rain just for me and my family and friends seems like an arrogant, smartass, self indulgent favour to ask of such a gigantic and all knowing, powerful God. But even so, it was His heart that i trusted.

And at scheduled 6:30-6:40pm when it was time to bring dad down for his surprise, the rain had stopped. Totally.

Not just that. The sky had cleared, the clouds had broken and parted. Once more, blue was back and there was a brillant, orange sunset that was just beginning to spill its orange glow all over. As far as i know, such rich orange sunsets happen only on hot, rainless days.

I felt like God was saying, "Just wait for it... Trust me. I know when's the best time. It will be amusing!"

From just a moment ago when the rain didn't seem like it was going to stop, within a short 30 minutes, it did. And we even had a beautiful sunset. All of us who were there were praising God for the good weather, just in time!

Yes, i may be a small speck asking for weather to stop just for me, for my dad, his friends and for his birthday. From a God.

A huge, unseen, maybe seemingly distant God.
An all intelligent, all powerful, all mighty, all just and righteous Warrior God.
Yet He is also an all loving, all kind, all merciful, Creator God.

Yes, i may still be a speck to many, but my dad and I are not specks to Him. To Him, we are Children. Precious. Loved. Remembered. Cherished.

And it is precisely because God is all that, and more, that makes Him the God I believe in and worth doing so.

I do wonder what yesterday did for X, but i hope that this little episode ministered in a simple and profound way.

While thinking of what to do for my group counselling session today, i fell asleep. And i dreamt that a peacock flew into my home via the kitchen window and it was a VERY friendly peacock that behaved like a devoted little dog! HAHA.

Hi folks, just saying, well, hi. It's the busy assignment period at the moment when everything is due all at one go. I thank God that i've got a 2 week break from practicum so that gives me time to get my stuff done as well.

IBS has been acting up again, with the feeling of bloatedness after meals. Classmate advised me to avoid citrus fruits in particular, and to drink apple cider with water as a supplement to aid digestion. He suspects that i might not be able to breakdown fructose and/or lactose, as well as starch, efficiently. Lately i've also not been watching my diet as strictly as i used to, so i guess i've been suffering the consequences. Been giving in to whatever my brain says it wants to taste and been eating more than my stomach can take. Ah well.

Oh, and i discovered the brand Aesop recently! Ok, i know it's been around already but i've always thought it to sell their products at high and unaffordable prices. But one day while at Taka, i decided to step into the shop and, well, i was transported. The scent of aromatic botanicals gently enveloped my being and the rich, full notes and beats of the music playing overhead just brought me to a different plane altogether.

Fell in love with the stuff there because of its focus on using the goodness of nature, without too much of all that chemical stuff. And best of all... i found a GERANIUM body cleanser AND body balm! HAPPINESS. I ABSOLUTELY LOVE the scent of geranium. It makes me high, i tell you. I've got a facial moisturiser (into my 2nd bottle already) from Nuxe Paris (this brand can be found at John Little/Guardian pharmacy/Sasa) that contains geranium oil and every time i apply it on my face, i always take a moment to savour the scent with my fullest attention. I put my fingers to my nose, close my eyes, and take a deep, long breath. The fresh, rosy and slightly citrus-sy fragrance fills my consciousness and it's undescribable.

One website describes it as "uplifting and gently inspiring -- or evoking a sense of calm and tranquility."

Ah... :)

This was when i was taking my 'O' Level exams in Ghim Moh Secondary School. We were lining up two by two outside the chemistry lab waiting to go on for our chemistry practical exam when...

Me: *sniffs the air* HEY! I SMELL ONIONS!!!

(this was followed by great flurry of classmates flipping through notes to study onion cell structure, etc)

Outcome: we were tested on osmosis and diffusion, using onions to work with.

Then, while we were lining up outside the physics lab, one of my guy friends Ridzuan (the class joker) suddenly jerked his head up, stiffened, with eyes large like saucers said,

"I smell, i smell... PENDULUM!"

I could've died laughing.

Outcome: we REALLY were tested on some concept (gravity, methinks) using the bouncy metal spring pendulum thingy!

I wonder how my students did for their A Levels. Hm...

Rider's Cafe with B, G and the BFs

I'm not sure if my girlies want their faces posted here, so i've omitted the humans. Ok, but that's B's behind in the photo below.

Welcome to Rider's Cafe! A cool al fresco kind of place overlooking the Bukit Timah Saddle Club. The kind of place where you wear a pair of sunnies on your head, and nice flowy, airy and light coloured clothes to.

From where i was seated. Love the high ceiling and woody interior. We had planned to have brunch with P who had just returned from NZ, but he got held up so the rest of us continued on. It was truly quite lovely being with old friends, eating good food and being ourselves.

G's coffee. I guess it was as good as it looks.

Think this was Ph's burger.

My lovely, lovely salmon eggs benedict. From this photo, you can see the rather unique surface of the poached eggs. You can't blame us for thinking that it was whipped cream at first when the waitress delivered it to our table.

From another angle.

B's fish and chips.

Can't remember whose soup this was. But i remember it was lovely too.

Me and a horse in its stable! And yes, i do so love horses. I grew up as a little girl lovingly surrounded by My Little Pony toys, many horse figurines, drawing countless horses on stacks and stacks of rough paper that my dad/mom would bring home from work. Well, i drew dinosaurs and dragons too, among other things. I've got a permanent bump on my right hand middle finger to prove it!
Snaps of the various horses around the area:

Stuck my camera lens in between the fencing to get this unblocked view of this Lovely. :)

Buttercake and Cream (Sunset Way)

Gem and I went on a little date after church one night and he brought me to this place called Buttercake N Cream at Sunset Way. It was originally known as Peaberry and Pretzel, but changed the name and concept with the change of management. We ordered the couple set. Dish one was unfortunately a dismal (portion and variety) looking salad. It was fresh, at least.

Oh, but things get better now. This mushroom soup was absolutely tummy warming, tasty, creamy and full of juicy pieces of mushrooms. Lovely, without a doubt. Bowl was a little small though.
Main course 1: Pork chop. Somehow it didn't wow me, but it was not bad and it had that lovely grilled/bbq (i'm not quite sure of how to describe it) taste along with the tasty marinade. Chips were nice and thick.
Main course 2: Beef Steak. Also didn't blow me away, but it was pretty decent.
Gem had one of their recommended beverages, the Lemon Lime Bitter (LLB), while i had chamomile tea. They were served in mini-not-so-mini JUGS. After having eaten a fair bit of food, the amount of drink served was certainly quite a bit for a full stomach, but since we'd all want our money's worth, i've no complaints. I was impressed. The LLB drink was really good, by the way. It was too bad we were on the full side to really enjoy it. But i wouldn't change a thing. :P
Finally, dessert: Warm chocolate pudding, served with vanilla sauce and ice cream. Ice cream was ok as ice creams go, the vanilla sauce was smooth with just the right amount of sweetness, (made with REAL vanilla beans) and the chocolate pudding was... Rich and thick. Warm. Melty. Slightly bitter which complemented the ice cream and sauce provided. Lovely.
Here you go, another picture!

Fruity finds

Little pomegranates! So cute! But my phone cam focused on the leaves BEHIND it.

Was walking out along the covered walkway and what should i find?

There are TWO! Sneaky little things.
Pomelo! Woah, wanted to bring home sia. But could only bring home photos.

And just the other day as i was walking out, i found a PASSION FRUIT PLANT WITH FRUITS! I was so in love. No seriously, i love passion fruits and seeing them growing on local soil is actually quite charming. How often do we get to see fruits growing naturally before they land up in our supermarkets?

I shall be keeping my eyes peeled for more fruity finds at secret location.

girly buys from Sephora

I've been wanting a vitamin C serum for about a year already. I was eyeing the one from Skinceuticals but it would cost me an arm, so i settled for this. Was hoping to find something that would deliver and wouldn't bust my pocket. Bought this because it's made with organic products, brand seems results oriented but also has adopted practices that love the Earth. When it comes to skincare products, i make an effort to read the ingredients. So what i saw on the box pleased me: there wasn't a plethora of chemicalish stuff i cannot pronounce but was instead made from a combination of nature's botanical goodness. it does not do testing on animals, contains no petrol chemicals, parabens or those lauryl sulfate stuff, nor synthetic fragrances or colours. I didn't know what a gem I had bought till i went online to look for reviews. Apparently, it's a product quite a lot of people like! I've only used it twice so far at night, and not on consecutive days though. It has a strange smell (which i like) and i'm really liking what i see in the morning after applying it overnight. Skin looked supple and plumped, and i'm not sure about this, but i thought my acne scars looked a little lighter.

In my quest to complete my work attire look for my practicum/work, i bought this palette of eyeshadow colours.

Having been wow-ed the first time, i decided to buy this after trying it the second time (and was wow-ed again). I brought "that gal" home! It really does increase the mileage of my foundation. Skin looks smoother!

This isn't a very good photo... But here's a picture of the cake that i've ALWAYS wanted to eat but never got a chance till i went for a buffet at The Melt (sister's birthday). I LOVE the Ispahan cake: a soft, giant pink macaron, sandwiching a layer of raspberries and lychee, filled with rose buttercream.

Yes, i died and went to Heaven.

Washed dinner and dessert down with a light and simple English Breakfast tea. Divine. :)

I wonder if Samsung got the inspiration for one of its message tones by listening to nature.

This morning, i heard a call of a bird outside my window and mistook it for my phone's message tone. Teehee.

Wow. If you remember, i was really upset over a certain person (X) who was, in my opinion, giving me plenty trouble. Simply put, person in authority who might've been able to help me had her hands tied. X is a "big shot", so it's not so easy to change status quo.

I prayed about it very honestly to Father God. You know, just telling Him how i really felt about her and the whole situation. I specifically asked Father for X to take the initiative to opt out. As i was asking God for that, it occured to me that that scenario happening actually seemed very unlikely/impossible.

But i remembered the story of Gideon. Of how Gideon went to war with only 300 men each armed with a trumpet, clay pitcher and a torch against thousands and thousands of enemies, and won it. I mean, who in the world goes to war with a flower pot, a musical instrument and a simple light source?! Much less, WIN it?

Gideon did. Because He had a God more awesome than any million of battle worthy soldiers.
And so do I.

So, i just had faith that my God is a God who works in funny ways which i'll never come up with and He'll make a way for me. So i just did my part: be nice, respectful and do what needed to be done.

Until now, i find it hard to actually realize that God really answered my prayer the exact way I had hoped for, just in the nick of time. A prayer completely answered though it had seemed so unlikely!

Clementi: yummy food place! (Le tian something something...)

This was a sambal (was it? cannot remember what type of chilli was used) pork rib dish with some kind of savoury cream sauce. Woah. Frekkin' nice man, i tell you. And i am blogging this at 2am which is a bad time to get hungry. HA. The dish was a great blend of salty, sweet, spicy. It was tasty and went very well with hot rice. Any of my kakis who live near me or not so near also, if you're interested, i would be glad to bring you to go eat this!

These little nugget guys are actually crispy deep fried scallops coated with batter and salted egg yolk. SHIOK for people who love, well, salted egg yolk and scallops. ME! Gem, who does not fancy eating salted egg yolk actually enjoyed this.

These two dishes were featured on a channel 8 food show, and the shop takes advantage of this to promote these dishes quite exclusively. I'm game if you are! :)

Not advisable to do on v day

You can read it if you try hard enough...

The sign read "Flirting Point", complete with the imprint of a juicy smooch. Couldn't capture it on the phone cam though.

I was amused. They can't be serious! :P

This is Jed showing a little reluctance going down the stairs to reach home after his sunday afternoon walk. This is because the smart little pooch knows that a bath awaits him and he hates to bath! He gives me that manja look and wags his stumpy tail every time i talk to him. Aww!

Here's another manja face for good measure. :P