It's been a good Sabbath, chilling out and resting at home, reading, cooking, doing the stuff I like... Received a phonecall from Kenneth, this Ugandan architecture student I met on one of the planes to Tanzania; he's back in the UK now, twas nice to catchup. Today's a nice end to the week I feel... except that it's not quite the end yet, 'cuz there's Sunday tomorrow. Wish I'd more time to chill and just be quiet - be still my soul - but it's all good, it's been an interesting week. Thanks Daddy.
Had my first try at port this past Monday, and ahh, it is now my favourite alcoholic beverage ever. We had port and cheese at Risking Living, this 8-week course on leadership organised by St Mike's. Went to Roger Simpson's house, which was gorgeous - a quaint vicarage, rather spacious, very homey. Company was great, and it was there during a study led by 2 girls that I was really struck by issues of pride (see about 2ish posts below).Tues and Weds were two days of intensive mugging, which was great. I didn't read a terrible lot because I'm quite a slow reader, but I covered more than enough ground for Thursday's Anglo-Saxon class. Also managed to finish up my UCL application, so I'll be sending that in next week. Woosh!
On Thursday morning I bumped into John Poon and had a nice chat and breakfast with him, after which I left for Anglo-Saxon. Halfway through the class it started snowing! First time this academic year, so naturally we creatures of the tropics got rather excited. I've forgotten just how mesmerising snow is, how beautiful. Elizabeth Tyler released us earlier than 12.15, so I decided to take a nice leisurely stroll through campus...
Met Pepper in Langwith bar at 12.15pm to get my bike light, and there we shared squeals of snow-joy. We concurred that the snow-covered benches outside looked terribly romantic, and wanted to get a shot of it with us but without having to get out into the cold, so we stood in front of the glass windows and got someone to take a shot for us. Nope, wasn't successful. So we went out and frolicked in the cold anyway.
Went to the gym after that, then wasted the time away in the afternoon, can't remember what I did actually. But I left around 7ish for Lucy's 'cuz there was Fat Birds. Just to give a bit of a background: the term Fat Birds came out when Lucy, Tash and I were lying on Tasha's couch last year after a stayover, and we were all gazing out of the window at this really bare tree. There was this huge bird perched on one of the branches, and Tash went, "look at that! look at that! Look at its contentment." And from then on we started calling ourselves that, to seek after contentment in the Lord even in the barest situations. Fat Birds - the 3 of us as well as Beth and Lauren, 'cuz we meet up once in a while in each other's houses. They've been such a source of support and love at uni, 5 of my best girly mates in York. I'll miss them so, so, so terribly when I leave uni.
Lucy prepared fantastic Greek salad and moussaka, and Lauren did some gorgeous mushy fudge cakey thing. Ahhhhhh we all got so stuffed. Thank God for hospitality and the art of cooking! :D
On Friday it was, yes, food again. Well not quite. YCCF had a care group social that night, and I was privileged to have a 45-min (which I overshot, naturally) slot to share about Tanzania. There were a gadzillion things on my mind to share about, and I had to give many things a miss. But even tho I was feeling quite flustered and the sharing didn't go as I had originally desired, I'm glad it went ok and that people were kind enough to offer positive feedback. Thanks guys. We had CNY-esque food after that, my first time trying some stuff like kimchi with 年糕 (the white, not brown, kind) instead of cabbage, 红豆年糕, and home-made 汤圆! Yummmm. :) Here's Kevin and Louis looking strangely drugged on their little tang yuan friends:
After YCCF Kevin, Louis, Jason and I headed over to Yiwen's with a bowl of soup for the poor kid who's sick on his birthday. Jason had a cake too! But we left it with Lindley K since he couldn't possibly eat it then... ah, but I hope wenwen that you get well soon and eat it soon k!? After the surprise pop-in to his room we hung around in the kitchen with our nacho friends (not to mention guacamole and salsa and mayo) and a funny conversation revolved around cheesy Singaporean patriotic songs. After we got serious about putting something together for Week 7's cultural performance I grabbed Shan's guitar from Yiwen's room and put a medley together - it was all such fun, felt like I was going back to the good ol' days of Musicfest. Hope it goes well!
And today after a day of chilling I went to see the uni production of West Side Story. Expectations really make or kill a production - after not quite enjoying Fame last year, and seemingly negative feedback from Jason (via Cuifen) and Jia Min before today, I hadn't really expected anything. But it took me by surprise, and I really really enjoyed it - the stage movements and choreography, the fight scenes, the 50s clothes and style, the pretty dresses and 'Stepford Wives', even the acquired accents. I thought the casting was really quite good, except maybe for the male lead whom I thought could be a lot more expressive and vocally trained. Miranda was a darling! and though her voice was drowned out at times when it was more chaotic, it was so beautifully pure and sweet, and absolutely wonderful for someone who professes no prior training or vocal background! And I feel so, so happy for her, for her acting and singing and all that effort, and for just how stunning she is :)
And Jake - yes! That intentionally ah beng look really really fit the bill! And apparently he got so into the role that his face was streaming with tears at the point when he released the trigger. Whoaaa intense - You go, boy! Proud of you too, and the name you bring MOE, hurhur! :) Jia Min and Cui too, you should hear Lin cheering you on in the darkness whenever you had to come out. Thanks for contributing to an enjoyable night. :) Oh, and the weirdest thing happened after the show. A couple of Nicole's and Jake's friends came up from Bristol for a visit, and just when I was talking to a group of Singaporeans after the show one of their friends found my face extremely familiar and asked Nicole for my name - turns out that he was my PRIMARY 1 classmate. oh my goodness. How much smaller can the world be!?!! And I was seriously stunned that he remembered my name after all these years. He left for another primary school before primary 3 so that makes it 13 years since we've seen each other - oh my goodness. Turns out he's an MOE scholar as well. A long while later we told each other again and again just how surreal the whole thing was. Haha, oh wells.. crazyyy serendipity. Thought I had to take a picture because the moment of shock deserves a memory. 13 years, man!
Maybe because of all the 365-blog hype, and because it's my final year, I feel like I've got to take more pictures of everything. Which is a pain sometimes, 'cuz in order to preserve that memory for the eye, I lose the magic of the moment, and sometimes I wish I could learn to linger in the joy of the moment rather than lose it in a camera frame as I close it off with a digital click...
Yupyups. And now it's time to retire into the quiet of the night, into the duvet sheets, into peace and silence, and then to awake tomorrow morning for a beautiful time of fellowship and worship in church...
(PS. Thanks Jason, you bike-legend. :))
