Being Still Allover The Place

Sooo.... after writing the last post about Being Still, I received this email yesterday morning. 

And guess which verse was attached in that email? 

LOL!!! 

Seriously, I'm not making this up! 

My mouth kinda fell open when I saw that verse because... well because it was exactly, exactly, exactly what I needed to hear!

You know that phrase that goes like "God works in mysterious ways"? Well... He never fails to surprise me, and I love it!

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So I've been seeing a lot of this girl lately. 

We keep eating at the same place too- Green View in Far East Plaza. She ordered the same exact thing as she did last time.

This time I went for the Indonesian Laksa. The only difference from regular laksa was that there weren't any cockles in it. 

Lift shenanigans...

 We were too lazy to take the stairs down to the basement, so we went into the cargo lift (on my insistence).

Had to walk in and out of the lift twice when we went to either the wrong level, or when the lift just didn't open to the shopping centre on that level. 

Still had to take one flight of stairs in the end. Fail!

Then this afternoon, I went to Temasek Polytechnic again to drop something off for work. 

This has got to be one of my favourite school campuses in Singapore!

Even though it's kind of ugly architecturally speaking, this place still gives me a very open, relaxing vibe. 

But I guess I'm glad I didn't study here, because I'd be spending WAY too much time relaxing instead of studying!  

Sigh...

Would it really be that nice to be a student again?

Eating Food

Ran out of cash for lunch today and had to wing it with a sandwich from 7eleven. Tasted like I was eating cardboard paper really. Should've gone with instant noodles instead!

Gosh, in Singapore, we are so spoiled for choice when it comes to food. I could literally think about having Greek, Brazilian or Korean cuisine for dinner tonight and be able to fulfil that thought without fuss. Sometimes though, I would like to go for days just eating plain porridge or flavourless noodles. Guess sometimes you just tire of all the variety. 

In a way, the past few months have felt like that to me, spiritually-speaking. I've been out and about, running, working, doing... never really pausing. 

I'm not sure when I felt started feeling tired. My brain just doesn't seem to recognise that word, until my body does. After falling sick last weekend and being forced to LIE STILL, I realised what a whirlwind I've made my life to be. 

I guess my greatest challenge this year is for me to actually be still. 

Let's just say that I am not naturally inclined, to recline. 

I'm the kind of person who shakes my leg when I'm talking to someone. My idea of a relaxing day comprises of going to the beach somewhere and jumping in and out of the water for a few hours. Most people just want to lie in bed. In theory, I will say that I want to lie in bed too, but I know that in real life, that won't last for long. My legs will start itching within half an hour and then I'll be grabbing my skates or running off somewhere. 

I just don't know how to stop!

Unfortunately, my body and spirit runs just like a car. After my body ran out of fuel last week, I started to feel my soul run out of fuel too. I haven't felt this way in a really long time- somewhat depressed, empty, strange, just... off. The last time I felt this way was right before I started attending church again. 

As I crawled into bed last night, I felt God whisper to me that the origin of this "off" feeling lies in my not being still and spending more time with him.

See, as we grow and mature as Christians, our dependence on Christ grows as well. Before, I used to be able to live off small morsels of God's Word daily, but now, I realised that I need more. Kinda like how a teenager eats more food than a baby. So essentially, the amount of spiritual food that I used to eat is no longer sufficient for me. And to top it off, I've not been eating quite as much as I used to. 

I'll be trying to spend more time with God now, because I know I can't live my life without His voice speaking into it. If I ever walk far from His side, there is nothing for me out there but darkness. I've been in that darkness and I know I never want to return to that sad place again. 

Last Week

I really admire people who lead busy lives and still manage to blog regularly. The last time I actually did blog daily was when I was stuck in homeroom every morning for at least one hour without anything to do! Ever since, blogging has always been an on and off thing. I'm sure many people out there can relate...... 

Anyway, since the last time I've updated, this is what I've been up to:

Went out to lo hei with the company peeps last week. 

We had it at Crystal Jade in Great World City. Food actually wasn't bad at all. It had been some years since I last ate there, and I thought the food quality might have fallen since more people started eating there. 

THEN let me tell you what this girl... MANDA, did.

She came to my hang out at my place last week and didn't say ONE WORD about it being her birthday! So we ended up watching a movie and that was it. Didn't even get her a cake or sing a song or anything! 

:(

Okay okay... I know it exposes the fact that I'm a really bad friend, can't even remember people's birthdays... but I really don't usually keep track of birthdays. I don't even wish people happy birthday on Facebook. 

But I gotta make it up to her somehow!

On Thursday, we had a really beautiful sunrise, coupled with fresh cool morning air.

Early that morning I had to head to Paya Lebar MRT, where I met this kitty who looks almost exactly like Koshka!!! When I saw her, my heart flipped. I couldn't believe my eyes; it even rolled on the floor in the same lazy manner as Koshka!

This bowl of mee siam looks good right? Things are not always what they seem though... It wasn't spicy enough and tasted too sweet. 

You might be wondering what I'm doing at Paya Lebar MRT early on Thursday morning, staring at kitties and eating mee siam instead of going to work. 

In fact, I was working, at this event in the Singpost building. 

The conference hall was held in a CHURCH of all places. Didn't see that coming, but I felt a lot more at ease afterwards. 

Early in the morning, not many people besides the reporters were there to listen to the live interviews. Basically the conference was for showcasing all the new upcoming IT stuff from around Asia. 

We were there to promote our iPhone app.

Free gift packs for those who downloaded the app on the spot!

On the first day of the two-day conference, the rooms were really crowded and the air-conditioning didn't seem to function at all. Not only that, but the Wifi and 3G connections were horrendous. We could hardly get anything to function. At least people were sympathetic because everyone was having right about the same connection problems. 

Spent the whole day doing demos and speaking till our throats were hoarse. 

Yep.

The next morning, Talia and I went near the Singpost area to walk about and to have breakfast. 

Still kinda sleepy from watching movies till late.

It's so sad to see Tanjong Katong show traces of change. All the places we used to see on a daily basis are starting to either disappear or look renovated.

Had porridge for $1.50 here! 

Then on Friday night, I met up with Manda again and her foreign exchange friend Andrew for dinner and arcade. Had a lot of fun! But the arcade was a little too crowded and we ended up spending a lot of time just waiting around for machines to be free. 

Sunday morning, went to breakfast at the good ol' Boon Lay Market where I used to spend a lot of time as a kid. Things look completely different now, but I still remember the uncle who used to sell us pork every morning. 

The sights and smells of this place has been altered somewhat, but all I have to do is close my eyes and the memories will come rushing back. It's sad to know that you can never return to the past sometimes. I wish I could come back to the old Boon Lay with its unpopulated streets, cheap food and wide sweeping carparks with tall raintrees over them. 

All gone now.

On Sunday afternoon, after the Bible gathering at the Hanes' house, Papa drove me to MacRitchie where my siblings and I participated in the bimonthly MR25 5k time trial. I totally wasn't in the mood to run, let alone race, but I was really curious to see what times I would run now that I haven't actually trained or run regularly for months. 

Turns out that my times didn't depreciate that badly at all!

I ran the 5k course in 22:52:55, about 3mins slower than my fastest time. 

Next week, I'll begin running on the track again now that I've found some people to train with. I hope that will help to get me motivated again to train regularly. 

Thing is, I can't run just to stay fit or look good. That to me is hardly motivation at all. I need to race, need to feel like I have to improve my times- that's the only way that I'm gonna jolt my lazy butt into action.

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So much is going on in my head these days concerning church, God and my spiritual life that I don't even know where to begin. I think I need to just quiet down and BE STILL.