Contented

The best thing to hold onto in life is each other.

The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.

2011- A blessing in disguise

 11 days late but better late than never right?

This year was a hell of an emotional roller-coaster and I wouldn't have made it all the way through without my friends,family and God.

I remember the first few days of 2011 in sec 3 we were already getting an earful from all the teachers about O's. That was just the beginning though. Lectures about how we should spend our time more wisely and do more studying blah blah blah were frequent and the endless amount of nagging I received from my mom about not spending enough time burying myself in my books, became incredibly frustrating for me. So that was when i decided that i would put a stop to all that nagging and put more effort into studying. I promised to make everything else secondary to it. My plan didn't go too well, but along the way i did learn alot about myself and perhaps, just maybe, i've become a better and more matured person.

So these 12 months of 2011 were one of the best I've ever had; no matter how painstakingly tiring or wonderful they were.

January: Start of the new school year! First week of school our LTC group were busy hosting the sec one orientation day and camp. Missed a whole week's worth of lessons but it was definitely worth it. We had so much fun manning the games stations and watching how different groups had totally different "ways" of playing the games made me realize that the people around you can make a big difference to how you carry yourself. By the end of day 1 all our voices were soooo hoarse after a whole day of yelling at the top of our lungs. HAHA i think i popped 3 strepsil tablets between dinner and bedtime. THAT BAD. We had debrief till late and we were all dead tired by then. All of us slept in the hall; we slept on the stage so we could monitor them HAHA. Day 2 the PB's lead each orientation group in designing their class sculpture, cheers while we ran around the school setting up the amazing race stations for the day :) It was reallyyy fun. Like somehow just overnight all each orientation group had gotten so much closer and all of them were so eager and energetic when they had to do their cheers for us to get extra points. I think we all felt really relieved and happy that our coaxing and 'lectures' about teamwork work paid off (: The day ended off with a campfire and a dance that Andrea and I choreographed(: We did shakira's WAKA WAKA HEHEHE. This is how we roll^^ Check it out!

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10150115832008923&set=t.1555012334&type=3&theater

(music a bit delayed though)

Sam and I explaining the rules of the game while the PB's slack for awhile :)

So stonned after the whole morning for activities. HAHA

Teaching half of the SL'S the WAKA WAKA ^^ EPICNESS

PB and SL's for Sec 1 Orientation!

So the rest of Jan i did a lot of catch up on school work and intense training started. Like 6 times a week? It's not as bad as compared to last years but i had so many things going on in school so there was so little time for trng;(

Come February: CNY!! That's all i remembered... oh and CT1. Haiz. Did the usual house visit to the eldest of my grand-aunts, collected lots of angpaooooo. And as usual my grandma's red packet is the nicest cuz its so faaaaaaaaaat:) You wouldn't want to know how much money she stuffed in there HAHAHA. Played with the cousins and yeah pigged out on CNY goodies yum yum. We had so many dinners with so many relatives on my mom's side so it was guuuud ;D Did a bit of exploring in their gigantic houses! Found so many old pictures hehehe. CNY and Christmas are the only times i actually get to see the rest of my family so i'll always treasure those times <3 Luckily i was trng so frequently if not i'd probably put on 5kg HAHAHA. Oh Oh and Dad, mom, Nat and I stayed at RWS for a night and went to USS the next day;) It was quite fun pigging out together^^ Nat still had some fat then; scroll down all the way to December and you'll see how much she has changed;p

Daniel and I ^^

With Dadday at the lobby :)

It's the year of the rabbit! Do you see the bunny? :)

March:One of the busiest months. We still had some papers on the first few days of march so i was busying myself with last minute studying LAWL. Its so typical of me but i can never remember anything that way so yeah, that's why i never do well in tests HAHA. Surprisingly i didnt do THAT badly but i still got an earful from my mom when she signed my report slip:/ Training schedule during the march holidays was so hectic! School trng for 2 hours and then club trng for another 3 or so hrs EVERYDAY. But we did have loads of fun after school trngs;) Team lunches, camwhoring in the CCAB toilet, laughing together, gossip sessions. MG Synchro 2011 is probably the most bonded team ever;) We performed at the MG swim meet but our routine was like a giant mess cuz the damn underwater speakers weren't working -.- Embarrassing ttm!  A week later or so was Inter-school! Had butterflies in my stomach for duet... I was so tense that I didn't want to talk to anybody HAHA. Our routine was errr okay i guess... but there were lots of parts where Stacey or I made very obvious mistakes so ;( yeah... we wanted much better scores ;( Partly also cuz we didnt do the whole routine many times together... So we only managed a 4th ;(( But our Bdiv team was gooooooood;) Like one of the best we've done! HEHH and we managed to beat SC to 2nd place by a point or so ^^ I was overjoyedddddd and when the scores came out we were all jumping about like monkeys going crazy over bananas HAHAHAHA I love you MGsynchro2011!! <3

team trng suits ;)

Stacey and I @inter-school ;)

BUFFNESS.

<3

APRIL:Hmm.... i dont exactly recall anything interesting that happened... just those little outings that make your day(:  

May: We had CT2 in the first two weeks. I was also sooooo busy. Had to rush from trng to tuition so often. On top of that i still had so much studying to do. Stressedddd. Didn't have ANY free time cuz my schedule was so packed! Distractions distraction distractions. Sigh my ''studying hours" dragged and dragged cuz i kept picking up my phone to reply whatsapps,texts and all. How productive. After CT's i trained alot more cuz S'pore Open was just around the corner.

Then we had OBS camp for 5 days at the end of may! I was looking forward to it since sec 2 and we finally got to go for it. WOW. It was like the best camp i've ever attended. EVER. In that 5 days, i learnt so much and had too much fun ;) The first day of OBS I wasn't sure that i'll enjoy the camp cuz our group was soooooo silent during the "get-to-know-each-other" session. I was the only one talking:/ We took a ferry to Pulau Ubin;) Never been there before! Yeah so we spent the entire morning doing the technical stuff like unpacking the equipment from our store, distributing food. Everyone warmed up a little but i still wasnt sure if would be having any fun the rest of the camp. If you know me well you would know that i love to make lots of noise, joke about and go all crazy and stuff, so i was feeling a little out of place at first because my group was barely talking even! Misha came to join our group in the afternoon cuz she had a french exam in the morning... i was like ooh we can talk HAHA. She was in my LTC group so we knew each other well. We learnt how to pitch our tents (that took quite while) and cooked our own dinner with solid fuel! It was funnnnnn. Yeah so everyone FINALLY started proper conversations. Our dinner actually tasted quite good! So as the days went by we got closer and closer and we had a hell lot of fun together;) So the 16 of us and our instructor Nicholas were probably the most bonded group. REALLY. Even up to now, our facebook group is still alive ;) We kayaked non-stop for a day with 3 other groups. Misha and I were the navigators so we got to lead the way ^^ It was such an amazing experience!! We both could kayak pretty well so we were SO FAR AHEAD from the rest of our group. Our instructors had to keep telling us to slow down, so we stopped and floated around and nibbled on some apples while waiting for the rest to catch-up. We talked and talked haha it was funnn. Our faces were like snow white because we slapped on shit loads of SPF 130 sunscreen on our faces HAHA.(sounds like typical tai tais) But it was scorching hotttt okayy. Kayaking for almost 10 hours non-stop in the sun was insane HAHA. So many things happened during the kayaking trip but i'll be ranting so much if i put it all down here. LOL. The rest of the days we did rock-climbing up a stone-faced wall, trekked up to the quarries with 12kg bagpacks, had a cooking competition ( heheh i came up with so many weird concoctions). To sum up the 5 Days away from tall buildings and civilization, i think it was a camp that i'll NEVER EVER forget, the burdens shared, laughter, lunch chit-chat seesions with Nicholas, putting up tents and pulling them down together, dinners in the dark, midnight stories. There's truly something about OBS that will stay with me for life!

JUNE: June holidays!! Well, holidays only mean no school. I had so many things going on it felt like any other school day except i didn't see my school teachers... We had 3 weeks cuz the school had to spoil things for us and make us go back for an extra week of lessons-.- I had a 3 day chemistry camp thing... SO INTENSE. Like 5hrs of chem a day. Haiyoh. It still didn't get the chemistry geek out of me so... $600 was not well spent there HAHAH. The third week I was so busy training for s'pore open and our performance at Sentosa! Yeah we did a team performance IN THE SEA. They were crazy to make us do that. You know how bad it is to swim in the sea, what more do synchro throws, lifts, barracudas, spilts and all the underwater synchro stuff in the salty sea water?! We spent 3 days of our week at wavehouse sentosa practicing our routine over and over again the entire morning. Swallowed so much sea water! Yuckkk! At least Uncle Phillip bought us pizzas and ice-cold jugs of water from the bar there everyday :) That made things a little better;) After practice was called off for the day we sat in the sand and baked ourselves in the afternoon sun ^^ After each trng at Sentosa, the bus took us all they way back to Sports School for more trng. sighhhh. Trained the whole day! By evening i was so freaking tired and didnt feel like doing my solo. Our performance went quite well despite the high tide and choppy conditions that day:D AND WE WERE FEATURED ON TEEVEEEEEEE ;) I mean who doesnt want to be on tv?!

On mommay's birthday, laura, lixuan and I met up with Rach to make a birthday cake at the Icing room for my mom! WE HAD A MINI CAKE FROSTING FIGHT. HAHAHAHA. But our cake was preedyyyyy. (overload of cute icing flowers, sprinkes)

A week after school started, i had SNSSC( Synchro Nationals!) Missed a day of school ;) Figures were quite sucky.... except for one of them... I did so much better during morning practice ;( Was kind of upset but oh wells... Solo was sucky too:( Didnt meet my expectations! Blame it on the nerves. After years of competitions,races,meets, my nerves never fail to take control of me. Happens every single time. Never happens for team events though cuz i have my teamates, but for all the other events, i become soooo tense and i do well:/ Coach wasn't angry with me after solo. Surprisingly. But i think she knew i was just nervous so she just talked stuff out(: The last day of comp, was team and duet! I was really happy with our routine ;) THE COUNTLESS PRACTICES FINALLY PAID OFF. We got better than expected and our promised gold(: Becky and I ate soooooo much at the buffet lunch after that. I seriously hate her extremely high metabolism. LIFE IS SO UNFAIR. Eat's like a pig and still like a twig :/ HEY HEY HEY IT RHYMES^^

Synchro nationals ended the month perfectly(:

JULY: Osim triathlon! Didn't take part this year cuz i was too lazy:P My mommay did though :) Rach and I signed up as volunteers cuz we wanted CIP points badlyyy. We had to report at 5.30am at east coast park for 2 days! Insaneee. It was really nice and cool just sitting there in the grass trying to spot some stars (: First day we were prize presentation staff which was sooo boring. Second day we got to be run marshals^^ It was quite fun cheering the olympic distance runners on. It's no easy feat completing a 1.5km open water swim, 40km bike and a 10km run so they really need some "Ra-ra" from the marshals! Apparently i was the only one that kept cheering them on cuz everyone else got so tired after half the morning of standing there HAHA. Somewhere around lunch time, a few metres away from where rachel was standing, some guy apparently blacked out and fell and twisted/popped his ankle. I got a call from rach and she was like panicking on the phone i couldnt hear her properly. Then the other runners passing me were like " quick! go! someone fainted!" Then i was like shit shit shit and just dropped all my stuff and dashed like 300m past all the competitors to rach. I was also so shocked when i saw the amount of blood dripping from his shoe, like there was a puddle of blood on the floor and his shoe was SOAKED. The sun was scorching hot so a few other volunteers helped shade him. Called my group head and explained where we were and he called the ambulance. WOAH. First emergency situation i experienced myself. Luckily, it wasn't a life and death situation. Rach and I were a little traumatized after that but we got over it. Made a few friends from our run marshal group! HAHAH and when Nigel came over to talk, i joked about wanting mc donalds for lunch instead of the yucky food they gave us, then he really went to get Mc Chicken burgers for Rach and I!! HAHAH SO NICE. We had so much fun there plus they gave us 25 hrs of CIP!!

Rest of July was so busy. I had RYC( regional youth conference), attended Rhapsody @ the esplanade as a cohort, birthdays and so many other things. Ooh and we hosted our chennai friends from Vidyr Mandir! Took them to orchard road and hung out together for a day;) They were a really fun+talkative bunch! Had some trouble understanding their strong Indian accent at first but it got better :P 

HIPPIES!

Ashley, Dora, Yihui and I with our buddies!

Chennai friends trying to teach me Indian swear words

RYC group+mascot (: Nice annot? :P

Rhapsody instax(:

WOW. what a month.

AUGUST:  Guess who turned fifteen! ^^ DAY TO REMEMBER: AUGUST 3OTH :) Spent my birthday with the fam for lunch then went out with Caitlyn, Shayyy and Soepra! Cait, Shayy and I hung at Plaza Sing for quite awhile aimlessly looking at scrapbook shops while trying to coax marcel to join us. HAHA he said he was "sick'' so he didnt want to come. Then i suggested Art Impressions at cluny court! So we met Soepra and Jerel at Island creamery before walking to Art impressions. HAHAH Jerel didnt want to paint mugs with us so he left... We spent the entire afternoon working on our masterpieces^^ Cait, Shay and I did 3 different mugs and Soepra picked out a hairbrush, of all things. LOL. It was a rather fun birthday afternoon :>

Our fine pieces of art after they were glazed (:

SEPTEMBER:Sept holidays! we had a MG synchro sec 4 farewell ;) Good times^^ Laura and I baked muffins and cookies for the team early in the morning. They were sooooo yummeh! I miss you guiseeeeee; Stacey, Amanda, Rachel!! <3 <3 <3 AMAZING SENIORS;) Can't believe i've known y'all since primary school... HAHAH. And the MG synchro team couldnt have been any better without my dear Stacey! Grateful for such lovely friends, teamates, seniors <3

We also had free Universal studio tickets for our whole class hehe, So we had a class outing to USS during the hols! Hooligans gone wild on the roller coasters^^  Cait, Fung, Nic, Fi, Tracey, Kok and I went on the 'Cylon' and 'Human' coaster 17/18/19 times each! They need a wall of records man! We'll be the record holders^^ HEHE. Nikki even after much persuasion didnt even dare go on it once ;( USS was so much fun as a class! Needa have another outing like that. (Y)

The rest of september was like 'emo-nemo' then 'happy pappy'. So many things were going on and i got so frustrated. EOYs made everything worse. I remember lying in bed thinking about stuff the whole night and tearing half way. Sigh. Life of a VERY busy teenager.... At least God answered some prayers. Thanks so much for the friends who gave me a shoulder to lean on and listened to me complain/sigh non-stop. You know who you are and i love y'all so muchhh <3

Study sessions with cait before EOYs were kinda unproductive cuz we kept talking and talking when we should have been reciting the bio textbook HAHAH. But, they were good times;) OH and call her crazy.She finished the tub of ben and jerry's peanut butter cup while talking and "studying" HAHA leaving only the reeses for me:P

OCTOBERRRR:EOYS. It was so painful to sit and the table and "study" the whole day cuz hardly anything got in! I deleted my twitter, fb, whatsapp, camera apps, almost EVERYTHING off my phone and left my phone tucked away in some crevice so i wouldn't get distracted and keep checking it. It helped a little, but there were times i got so bored and tired of studying that i just plopped my head down on my books and slept :/ IM ALWAYS FINDING EXCUSES TO SLEEP.( In class, at home, in the car) I need to rid of this habit! 

After EOYs, I had a short getaway with the fam to Bangkok! 4days of intense shopping, walking, eating. Thai food is HEAVEN. Nothing tastes better than mango sticky rice and pad thai(: We had bags and bags of typical girl paraphernalia, t-shirts, shorts and  loads of things that i dont think i'll ever wear/use. It's called buying on impulse :p Other than the cheap thrills and walks through the upmarket shopping centres, we also saw the homeless, sick, dying along the road sides. My heart just sank when we walked past them. I had this urge to drop a few coins into their outstretched hands but something just stopped me from doing so. I wouldn't have been able to help all of them but at least i could have given one or two a bowl of rice to fill their hungry tummies. It was my first trip to somewhere in SEA(other than malaysia and bintan) and i'm longing to see more of these charming cities. I'll definitely be back!

Last week of october: RESULTS. Depressing much. Luckily, our year ended off with the long awaited fun fair! It was truly a rainbow of colours;) We had red and blue hairsprays, drank green coloured bubble tea, ate pink cotton candy HEHE. The rides were 10 bucks each?! Insaneeeee. Did some 100 plus challenge with tracey, fung, nic while the rest hobo-ed at the side. Later we all tried the mini rock wall on the 100 plus van. It was harder than it looked! Cait's friend maya monkey-ed up the wall in 30 secs while the rest of us took a few minutes. Blame it on her long limbs!! LOL. It was epic though, we spent half of the fun fair at the 100 plus truck:/ But it was definitely a nice way to end the school year!

NOVEMBER!:Back in school for an extra week of lessons :/ WAIII. Did lots of chennai preparations in the afternoon and finished the cultural dance! 


A week or so later, the group of MG and SJI gals and guys were on-board a little plane, seated on some blue cushioned chairs, crammed next to someone we hardly knew, tray tables in front of us stowed, seat belts fastened all ready for take-off to a destination most of us were still apprehensive about. 


However, after 9 days in the flourishing city of Chennai,India, all 25 of us had some affinity with the Indian people and culture and yearned for a few more days in the beautiful country. I met such amazing friends along the trip and these friendships will serve for a years to come. Probably one of the BEST trips/camps we've all had and I'm quite certain this is the nicest group of guys I've ever met. 


Apart from strong bonds we forged and great friends we met at the Indian school, we took back so many life lessons. Refuse and rubble piled high along every street and highway, shops looked unkempt, thick layer of dust blanketed the city, cacophony of car horns and traffic hub-dub resounded the city atmosphere. But behind the dilapidated buildings and noisy streets, you can find so much love, care and smiles. The kids in these village schools and special homes we visited brought so much joy to us. They were fortunate, in a way, to have been able to attend a school and have a roof over their heads. It is still a far cry from the lifestyles we lead, yet they were more than contented with whatever little they had. My heart melted when i saw the doe-eyed, child-like joy in their eyes. It was like a mystical charm that drew me to them, breaking all language barriers. Most of the experiences cannot be put-into words but I had such an amazing journey to this little-known part of the world where God showers his undying love on all his little children. 
Thank you Lord for letting me go on this trip you've planned, though it wasn't any of my 3 choices. I left with no regrets but with memories and lessons I'll cherish for a lifetime.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=au60_hg2nIM&feature=player_embedded

(A video on our trip ;) Song credits to the RA-ONE, a bollywood movie we watched there^^)

DECEMBER: 19 days holiday was really good. (read the other blogposts for the details;) ) First day back wasn't pleasant AT ALL. Confused with what you want me to be, do, become. Flustered and upset was all i was. Luckily I had you to talk to, rant, share how i was feeling. It helped alot. The week to Christmas and the week after that was one of the best I've ever had. So many things happened and I loved all the little moments spent with my relatives, friends, family. Daily skype calls, video calls, late night chats. Oh, the thrill of sleeping when dawn breaks everyday(: I'll miss those two wonderful weeks. Spent the last few minutes and first 2 hours of 2012 on skype with Andre HAHAH while everyone else was at watch night. hurhur dont know why you so special. Anyway, we jammed to "2012" by Jay sean and Nicki Minaj when the clocked stroked 12.EPIC. Skyped JieLe who was still in Turkey and somehow was left behind in the year before :P Talked to so many people on the phone that night HAHA. But mostly just to yell '' HAPPY NEW YEAR!" into each others phones (: One last call ended the last night of 2011 perfectly :>

 

So that was just a rather brief summary of all the more memorable (happy) events of the year. Many other little fruitful moments spent; made impacts, impressions that I'll keep close for years to come. I've doubted myself many times, spending late nights alone in the darkness on my bed trying to hush down. Always questioning my existence in the cold cold world. But after those endless nights of crying myself to sleep and thinking about the meaning of family, I realised that God was always there for me. No matter what circumstance or troubles I was facing he always had this backup plan ready for me. It was during those times that I actually felt God's grace, him cradling me in his arms and guiding my little baby steps. I've come to realise that he is the one that can truly mend the broken hearted, bruised, hurt. I've come to realise that if you have faith in God, really, all things are possible. No matter how draining the year may seem, I've grown from all the tears shed, silent cries for acceptance, disillusions of my place in this family. I wouldn't say that all cracks have been filled, but i can say that I have learnt to forgive and forget all the little misgivings and just focus on the things that matter the most.   

I am ever so blessed with the amazing friends i had all these years and those newly found friendships over the year or so. I'll be ever grateful for those who cheered me up, encouraged me, gave up their precious sleep to hear my sniffles and ranting down the phone. I am ever so blessed to have you to spend all my nights with, the little outings we had, spaz moments together and if you will, sweet nothings. I loved it. You all know who you are ;)

I am ever so blessed with two trips to Third world countries. It was during those trips that I had a wake-up call and become aware of how much God had provided me with and that i should face everything, no matter how torturous, with a smile and not a heavy heart. I'll wipe those tears, pick myself up and run. Run not away from reality but into it and I'll be ever ready to face the biggest challenge for the next year: "O" levels. Anticipating yet a little apprehensive what the year may bring; I know it's going to be a another thrilling ride. I've set my sights on a few things so it's up to me to achieve it. 

"Life battles dont always go to the stronger or faster man, but sooner or later the man who wins is the man who thinks he can."  

"But those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint."  

-Philippians 4:13

I'll just dwell on these for the rest of the year and see what God has planned for me (:

Till then,

xx

Sheryel

All I want for christmas is us

It's finally Christmas!! I've been dying to say that phrase since the start of EOYS and now Christmas day has come and gone. I'm typing this at 1.50am so bear with me if start ranting and all, because my brain isn't functioning too well after a week of sleeping at 3/4 am in the morning. Ah see, there i go again.

So, lets start with the Christmas eve, 24th December.

I had multiple alarms set so that i could wake up and bake some cupcakes for the christmas party later at night. I managed to drag myself out of bed at 8, i then yelled at Nat to get up(so she could help bake) before going to the kitchen to nibble at some banana cake. Checked twitter, replied some msgs. Oh and i got a really funny morning text from Daniel; LOL-ed for quite awhile;) When i came back to the room she was still in lala land so i decided that we wouldn't be baking for the party because 1. I didn't want to wake her from her dreams 2. I wanted to go back to bed myself (: Can't blame me ok. I slept at 3+ the night before! But at about 10.45 I got up for real,washed up and finished a few more christmas cards. i love writing/making cards (:

In the afternoon, Ben and I arranged to meet at cathay at 1220 but it was raining so we were both alittle late. I went up to the box office at cine and waited and waited. then i was like eh it so late already where is that piggy! Then he called; but it was really noisy in the background so i couldn't really hear what he was saying. So somehow i heard that i was to buy tickets. We flipped a coin the night before to help us decide between Mission impossible and New year's eve. We got new year's eve. But the new year's eve 1250 time slot had already started playing and there was only front row seats left and Ben wasn't there yet. So i instinctively bought tickets to MI4 instead which was at 130. While waiting for him i watched all the trailers that were playing on the screen there. SO MANY GOOD MOVIES NEXT YEAR, I WANT TO WATCH TITANIC AND HUNGER GAMES (okok not the point). Waited for eons! So i was like i better call him. In a exasperated tone i was like "where are uuuu" he said the same thing back. Then i was like " im at the box office" he said he was there too. So we both were sooo puzzled cuz we didnt see each other. Then we went   up and down the escalators in case we were on the wrong floors. After much " WHAAAAT'S  and HAIYO'S and OMGG WE'RE SUCH IDIOTS" into the phone. GUESS WHAT. WE WERE AT TWO DIFFERENT CATHAYS. He was at the one next to plaza sing and i was in orchard. OMFG. We both didnt clarify which cathay cuz he assumed it was the one at plaza sing where he frequents because his church is directly across, and i assumed it was the one in orchard cuz that's where I usually go to. Damn, i felt so so bad. Oh worse thing is, he bought tickets for new year's eve at 110pm over at The cathay;( SHIATTT SO WE HAVE TICKETS TO TWO MOVIES SHOWING AT AROUND THE SAME TIME IN TWO DIFFERENT THEATRES?!?! Madafakaaaaa. Ben had to (brisk)walk all the way from plaza sing to Cine cuz I wouldn't have made it for the movie there.. So poor thing leh. I felt really bad :( I think this probably topped the list of "stupid things I've done in my entire 15 years"  Am i right Ben? HAHAHAHAH. Most expensive movie ever. 22$. GG

TWO MOVIES TICKETS AND BOTH AT 1+ epic faillll.

If you lasted up to this point, i really salute you for putting up with my long winded-ness and my grandmama story telling(: *hugss*

MI4 was reallyyyyy good;) I love tom cruise hehe even though he's so old. It was a bit of an ear strain when they kept speaking in code or their own jargon, if you will. But other than that i quite like the story line(: HAHAH especially the part when they were in India and attended some big party and paula patton had to flirt with the Indian host. It was hilarioussss.

After the movie, we strolled down orchard road, went to Hereen and Got "each a cup" ;) Havent had bubble tea since school ended!!! Watched some retarded ballet performance, looked around for christmas gifts, had lunch at yoshinoya in taka, didnt find what we wanted at wisma so we went to ION. After jostling with the christmas crowd we finally bought something from artbox;) yep.

We said our goodbyes then he went to meet his church friends before candlelight service and i had to rush home and got ready for the party! 

We collected the turkey from Shangri-La then headed to grand-auntie May's house! I was a little overdressed for a house party HAHA. My grandma saw me and was like "woah going clubbing issit!" It was really good to meet the whole fam again (: We had two new additions to the fam this year;) Baby Giles flew in from the states with Uncle Peng and Auntie Fanesca!!! Havent seen both of them for yearsssssss. Baby Stephanie stayed in Aussie and didnt come for the party :( Good thing she's coming for the new year!! HAHA ALL THE HALF ANGMOH COUSINS ARE SO CUTEEEE. Spent the night entertaining all the younger cousins and talking about loads of shit with Daniel :) I love my extended fam ;) James the adorable quarter british kid is still as fascinated with the pool jets like he did a year ago. Times havent changed one bit :) 

Chatted with Ben on the phone and we wished each other "MEEEEERRY CHRISTMAS'  at the exact same time. HAHAHA. Slept at 3 again;( But it was such an eventful christmas eve, no? 

Christmas day, 25th December

I love this song so muchhh! I forgot all about it until i read YanKayKay's blog. Take a listen (:

What to give the girl who has everything
All i want for Christmas is you
Here's my list
I checked it twice
Wasn't good, wasn't bad
I was naughty and nice.

Had my eye on you all year long
And now i know for sure
I wouldn't even have to try you on
No need for gift return.

It's going to be a cold winter
But i wont need the heat to keep me warm
As long as you wrap yourself around me
On Christmas morning
Whether it's now or later
As long as it's before you go, you know
My love is always in your favor
And now you know that
All i want for Christmas...

Sweet like a candy cane
Hanging from the tree
I will stripe you red and green
When you hit me like a sugar rush
No need for the other stuff
This season you're all that i need.
They say wishing for you
Is like wishing for snow in California
But you know that i can prove them all wrong
Cause my love is true
I simply adore ya.

It's going to be a cold winter
But i wont need the heat to keep me warm
As long as you wrap yourself around me
On Christmas morning
Whether it's now or later
As long as it's before you go, you know
My love is always in your favor
And now you know that
All I want for Christmas...

I can't say that i've been good all year
But I've been making resolutions to get you here
And if it means being better than whatever, no sweat
Well I bet my halls that i deck for the cause
And Santa Claus, he knows what my intentions are
Even dismissing mistletoe
So I get to know ya, first of all
We're singing oh my god
You're the reason that i decorate my yard

It's going to be a cold winter
But I wont need the heat to keep me warm
As long as you wrap yourself around me
On christmas morning
Whether it's now or later
As long as it's before you go, that
Love is always in your favor
And now you know that
All i want for christmas...
All i want for christmas is us...

Spent christmas with my mom, sis, grandma ;) We had a nonya buffet at Princess terrance @Copthorne kings! Gosh i love that place <3 We use to go there every month when i was still in primary school;) YOU.DONT.KNOW.HOW.MUCH.I.LOVE.NONYA.FOOD. 

Opened my only present at grandma's and lazed there the entire afternoon and played some carols on the piano(:    

At night,  i sat by the pool alone and enjoyed the quiet time for awhile before my mom came down with meepok and popiah!!! yum yum. local hawker food for christmas dinner (: Spent a good 3 hours lying on the deck chair and enjoying the breeze while frantically trying to reply whatsapp,twitter an texts on time. I wished you were there to spend christmas night enjoying the cool breeze with me... Yeeeeep, thats how i spent my christmas. Wasn't too exciting this year but I quite enjoyed every single bit of it. Christmas is a time where you celebrate the birth of Jesus. But i also think of it as a time where the whole family comes together and celebrates; where we treasure all the friendships we've made.

So once again, MERRY CHRISTMAS AND MAY ALL YOUR CHRISTMAS WISHES NOT COME TRUE <3

xoxo

Sheryel

Ronannnn parke!

In our continuing fashion with TV talent shows, we are so used to those who can sing, dance, act and just occasionally we chance upon a few who can do all three. Most of the time, the hype about these overnight celebrities fade within a few months after the talent show ends; they easily get forgotten or just left in a corner. Very rarely do these talents make such strong impressions that require capital letters, italics, exclamation marks and much buzz long after the show.

Well here's one of them.

This cute soft spoken 12 year old Ronan Parke from Britain's Got Talent 2011 has such an AMAZING and ANGELIC voice. The first time i saw his audition video for BGT 2011, i was simply taken aback by his sweet yet powerful voice when he sung Nina Simone's Feeling Good. His composure while singing is so unique for such a young and raw star; his voice increasingly capable of eliciting the kind of emotions surprisingly few singers ever really can. Maybe that's what caught my attention...  But my mom on the other hand had one comment, " so gay". Sigh. Why judge others by their sexuality or whatsoever? Anyway he's not even gay-.-  So from that video onwards i just got HOOKED on his voice and kept clicking on other youtube uploads of him. Such a pity he didn't make it tops on BGT... lost that top spot to some older guy singer.. But i'm pretty sure he'll go reallyyy far in his career :)
I'm hoping he'll make world tours and come to singaporeeeeeeeee! Like what the judge michael said, " i would definitely pay to see you!" :)

Check him out!! --->