Invasion of the Cake Theme - Love Huang Birthday

2012 is also another year we get creative cakes on someone's birthday party, it all started last year when I got my "Power Ranger" Cake, this time round, Love get her favorite cake - "Score" cake...Soccer Cake!!!

I bet she is wishing for studies..probably her focus now at this junction in her life, or am I wrong...she is wishing for love??

Her best Friend and probably one who either make her day or "trash" it...lol

It is for sure,when u worked in an Engineering company, there is only so many girls around....Why girls don like Engineering? Probably cannot wear nice nice..lol But Love sure is changing this trend. She got more than 2 weeks of fashion in her wardrobe..and counting..lol

The Whole gang of guys with a red kid in the middle....all waiting to score...who is the biggest scorer in 2012? We shall see....

Happy Birthday Love Huang, though there is still a long way ....Preserve and you will see the light at the end of the tunnel.....it shall be a bright one ahead...go for it!!!

My Nephew 乐俊 Arrived on the 6th of Jun

After 9 months of waiting, my nephew,Lejun finally came to the world on the 6th of Jun. The same birthday as his dad, through the technology of cesarean

He definitely weigh heavier than his Sister....and he is also more awake!!!

Both Sister and brother came out of Mt Elizabeth.

Probably the first time she ever carry a baby and for the very first time, she is given the responsibility to take care of his brother

I believe she is equally excited.

Mum love babies at this age. Good to carry....but I thought they were too soft....

Wow, When Dear carry him, Junjun turn and look at the camera.....one in a million chances for this to happen.

When I carry him, Arm to comfortable....fell asleep.

Haha, this picture seem to depict our future, us having a kid of our own, let's pray for God's timing and blessing. I believe this is both our desire.

Sister's MIL ......ever happy when kids arrive..

It is also Lawrence's Birthday today, the same Birthday as his Son, how blessed....

When it come to cake, Thanks to dear for buying the cake, When it come to cake cutting..Xuan's eyes turn big.

Happy Birthday Lawrence, May God Blessed you and your family with great gifts and many beautiful memories...

An Indian Wedding Event!!!

It was my first time ever, to attend an Indian Wedding Dinner. Mani, my operator whom I have work closely with her for the past 5 years, over lots of laughter, quarrels, her daughter is finally married....The whole dept was invited. Held at a Community club near Jalan Besar Stadium

Mani's daughter and Son in law, We usually look our best when we reached this stage in our lives...

All their tables have an Elephant icon - Part of the indian culture i think

The stage was setup for the bride and groom to seat!! This is very different from The chinese where most of the time, Wedding are held in Hotels and Resturants

The night begin with some rock music and some entertainment group where lots of the guest are seen dancing the night away. We also are treated to a nice sumptuous buffet in Indian style, spicy

This is our Mani, after make over, almost cannot recognise here.....totally different. Amazing power of make-up

We also have a very high profile Guest of Honour at the wedding Dinner. The Opposition party are really doing a good job. They even attend wedding dinner of residents in Hougang.

Devotion Sharing - God is for you. Not Against you.

As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up, and there were the Egyptians, marching after them. They were terrified and cried out to the Lord. ¹¹ They said to Moses, “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? ¹² Didn’t we say to you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians’? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!”

¹³ Moses answered the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lordwill bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. ¹⁴ The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.”

¹⁵ Then the Lord said to Moses, “Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on.¹⁶ Raise your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea to divide the water so that the Israelites can go through the sea on dry ground. ¹⁷ I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they will go in after them. And I will gain glory through Pharaoh and all his army, through his chariots and his horsemen. ¹⁸ The Egyptians will know that I am the Lord when I gain glory through Pharaoh, his chariots and his horsemen.”

¹⁹ Then the angel of God, who had been traveling in front of Israel’s army, withdrew and went behind them. The pillar of cloud also moved from in front and stood behind them, ²⁰ coming between the armies of Egypt and Israel. Throughout the night the cloud brought darkness to the one side and light to the other side; so neither went near the other all night long.

The whole verse talk about how the Israelite after being cornered by the Egyptian overcome by fear and they being to complaint.  They have the cloud as God Presence and yet they are still afraid. They have not put their trust on God Entirely to be still and let God.

Looking back in reality, how often I was like the Israelite  Often when troubles and trial came, All I did was to lament why I was being treated unfairly, why did the bad things happen, why did I do wrong to deserve, why was the relationship still not flowing. I totally left God's will out of the picture and only think of my situation. I really need the wisdom to be still and trust God is in control and I would not be short-change. He have been good to me in the past, leading me back to the path , he will be good to me now that I am near the path he wanted me to be at.

One of the danger I often related to being still and trust God is to wait and wait and donno what to do. I think after reading today's Verse,I found my answer to this. Trusting God involve actions, not just prayers. The idea is to try out the next step and let God be in control of the outcome of our faith. He will give us the green light or the Red light. It really take great faith to do this. At one side, it might seem like a lack of faith, but on the other, it might seem foolish to wait and not do anything.

I am brought up in the Singaporean society, that one must work hard, score the best results to be able to make it BIG in lives, The world proof my point accurately, all those who are happy and rich seem to be all those 1st class honors people, while those who aren't in that class ended up in mediocre career or lives....(with exception of the minority)

Trust in God cast out Fear, anything else, Fear overcome easily. Often I realise I use faith as an excuse to do nothing, and not that I don want to do, but I donno what to do. Faith is more than that, Now I know why Godly people excel, it is their Faith that make the differences, Faith is not about being unprepared or foolish, but it is being able to take up the challenge and let God be in control of the situation.

Maybe I should start reflecting on how to let go of situation in work or lives and let God be in control, I am to rise up to the challenge and give the control to God.

2011 will be remember as SCSM Cheapest Marathon + Screw-up Finisher Tee size

It is funny how sometime, the finisher Tee can turn out in horrible size. I got a M Size during last year - Full Marathon, Standard Chartered Run. To my surprise...it was super over-sized

Due to alot of complaint about sizes not available, I took the opportunity to change to a small size.

Pay a $20 Deposit and waited for almost half a year to change....what a long wait.

The places - Kallang SPEX House, which is near KFC.

There aren't alot of people Queing to change though, it was a fast process, done within 5mins

Just go in - Proceed to the counters, show them your documents, and the Tee to exchange, they pass u the Requested size, and that's it.

Even at small size..still quite big, so u know how out of specs they were.lol

Glad I got it changed....

Devotion - Beware of Heartening of Hearts

14 Then the Lord said to Moses, ² “Tell the Israelites to turn back and encamp near Pi Hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea. They are to encamp by the sea, directly opposite Baal Zephon. ³ Pharaoh will think, ‘The Israelites are wandering around the land in confusion, hemmed in by the desert.’ ⁴ And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and he will pursue them. But I will gain glory for myself through Pharaoh and all his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord.” So the Israelites did this.

⁵ When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, Pharaoh and his officials changed their minds about them and said, “What have we done? We have let the Israelites go and have lost their services!” ⁶ So he had his chariot made ready and took his army with him. ⁷ He took six hundred of the best chariots, along with all the other chariots of Egypt, with officers over all of them. ⁸ The Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, so that he pursued the Israelites, who were marching out boldly. ⁹ The Egyptians—all Pharaoh’s horses and chariots, horsemen^[a] and troops—pursued the Israelites and overtook them as they camped by the sea near Pi Hahiroth, opposite Baal Zephon.

In this Chapter, God is using the circumstances to bring glory to himself. Through this, Egypt will know that he is God, 

Often We can't help but ask why would God harden Pharaoh's Heart. I was wondering to myself, When I refuse to do something, it is God who make me refuse and hearten my heart such that I will come to realise the bad of it later?

It can be confusing at first, but one thing for sure, God created us with a will of our own,We have a choice. I believe Pharaoh, right in the first place was unwilling to let Israel go. He Huber up bitterness because he can do nothing to stop God's will. In the Process, his heart become harden without he himself knowing. (Exodus 8:15,32), all these lead to him bring his army to chase Israel to stop what is about to happen.

When it all seem to end...that the Israelite will be wipe off by Pharaoh's Army, but God lifted up the red Sea for Israel to walk through and in the process kill Pharaoh's Army and Pharaoh himself in it.

We can see 2 important things here about our human nature.

- When we are often face with difficulties, unfair treatment or negative influences, we often leave God out of the picture, and in the process, we build up bitterness against the situation we are in. As this last longer, our heart become harden to the fact that we are beyond help and it is no longer our fault.

I see this in my current job clearly, often felt unfair, mistreated, when I voiced out, the other party also say I judge them. Often I miss out God in the situation, to turn to him for comfort and to pray (which I am still not used to). 

- To trust that God is in control. He know the beginning and the end. He know what you are about to do and not to do. When Israel trusted and obey God instruction, peace comes to them and when they started to complain and grumble and choose to do thing in their own way, it is often difficult and failure results.

Being Obedient take more than just understanding and know God's word. It take a constant will and effort to denies our self of our own desire. God's will and instruction will not always appear as logical most of the time.

Step by Step @ the National Vertical Marathon

We Did a run together, 10km. Dear is not game enough for a 21km...the stress she give me.....just to train for a 21km. I did this last year with a colleges of mine...63th Floor Climb to the top of One Raffles Place, I thought Why not Climb the highest building in Singapore Together, anyway it is kinda suggested by her. Lover's Challenge...

This year, they changed the location at the last minute from One Raffles Place to Asia Square which is lower than last year's building by almost 20 floor. We are just going to scale a 43 floor building. Work well for me consider I just did Sundown last week and have yet to recover from my knee injuries (Or so I think, been feeling the ache since sundown, hopefully in time to recover for GC)

Load of NTU Student, probably from Student union, getting ready to register all those who came for the challenge. We are allocated a timing of 2.30pm.

We are group together with the Family group Challenge as well.....time to line up for our challenge. As usual, since this is organise by a University, we must be one of the oldest in our challenge...maybe the oldest...one...lol

A 50m dash to the stairway...Ready, Get Set...go....

The idea is to climb up step by step non-stop as we don want lactic acid to build up as we climb, we saw a couple who rush up faster than us...later we find them seating halfway resting....we overtook them.....and some from the earlier batch.....we are actually quite fit consider our age...but still no fight for the young people...lol...we came in 24th out of the 82 Teams, with time of 26min for 2 person. The First team took only 15min to cross the finishing line...that is like 7+ mins per person...fast..

We were each given a medal once we cross the finishing line.....there were loads of them for distribution.

Dear hated this photo....I thought it was the only decent photo we have up there....the bad of only me having a camera. Having been telling dear that she should get a camera so that I would be in more photos....(never listen one....hiaz...)

At only 43 floors, not expecting much to see .....

Asia Square must have a few towers...why is there another Asia Square opposite of us??

Google it and realize that the building here is Tower 2...which is a hotel by Westin.

Devotional Read - God's Presence and Love

¹¹ “After the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites and gives it to you, as he promised on oath to you and your ancestors, ¹² you are to give over to the Lord the first offspring of every womb. All the firstborn males of your livestock belong to the Lord. ¹³ Redeem with a lamb every firstborn donkey, but if you do not redeem it, break its neck.Redeem every firstborn among your sons.

¹⁴ “In days to come, when your son asks you, ‘What does this mean?’ say to him, ‘With a mighty hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. ¹⁵ When Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, the Lord killed the firstborn of both people and animals in Egypt. This is why I sacrifice to the Lord the first male offspring of every womb and redeem each of my firstborn sons.’ ¹⁶ And it will be like a sign on your hand and a symbol on your forehead that the Lord brought us out of Egypt with his mighty hand.”

Crossing the Sea

¹⁷ When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them on the road through the Philistine country, though that was shorter. For God said, “If they face war, they might change their minds and return to Egypt.” ¹⁸ So God led the people around by the desert road toward the Red Sea.^[a] The Israelites went up out of Egypt ready for battle.

¹⁹ Moses took the bones of Joseph with him because Joseph had made the Israelites swear an oath. He had said, “God will surely come to your aid, and then you must carry my bones up with you from this place.”^[b]

²⁰ After leaving Sukkoth they camped at Etham on the edge of the desert. ²¹ By day the Lord went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day or night. ²² Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place in front of the people.

Back in the past, I always known the Old Testament as something very Regimental in nature, while the New Testament show real freedom, But God would not be writing the bible in 2 different concept  Today's Devotion show how they are all related and none of it is not relevant and make not relevant by the New Testament.

In Exodus, A lamb dies in place so that a new born son of Israel can live. Jesus had to die for us in order for us to live with God. In Doing so, we are to remember what Jesus has done for us is all about God's Love for us. It will serve as a reminder to all believers to never take this for granted and as a result lives lives foolishly. We are to walk in what God want us to do and not on our own desire.

God Presence is also a focus here. The Ironical thing is that though Israel have god Presence  they are still unbelieving. We all know that When God is with us, All promises and victories are won. But if he is not there, promises are held, we would find it difficult to improve, and often we fail in our battle. But in today's concept, we might not see God as a Pillar like in Exodus, but Jesus has given each believer holy spirit. God is always present with us. Our Sin and relationship with God will determine how closely drawn to him we are.

To put Analogy into our current lives, Exodus to Israel is like Accepting Christ to us. It is a starting point. As we continue to read further into the other Chapters of the bible, We find that God will be our guide, we will go through area of wilderness, trial, suffering in order for us to enter the promise land, but the enlightening part of our journey is that God is going to be our guide, we are not going to fail. but The important thing for us today is to draw near to him for wisdom, power, care and mercy and our journey would be something we never would have thought off.

I am still working hard at this, I feel that I am in a state of wilderness, where I am going neither up or down, standing still which make me feel helpless. Though I use to complain and ask people how should I be hearing God, but though I don hear him as often as I would want to, I see his message now and then, actually almost everyday. The Question now is that how I am suppose to response to that message which I need God's Wisdom to understand and walk right.

Sundown Marathon - The year it pours in the Race

As usual, haven't got enough time to train for the Marathon. Am not expecting to Clock any PB here due to the lack of training. I would be glad if I can maintain it within the 5hr range.

Manage to Hitch a Free ride to the starting point as the 21km and 42km will be starting together...how timely. By the time we reached. The 10km have almost completed their runs.

Deposited my baggage and spend a good 15mins finding where they are. Lucky still in time to take some photo together.

 

Before going to the Starting point!!! All getting ready to score.

The starting point for the 21km and 42km are side by side. Expecting super jam later since so many of us are running.

Started the run and thought that the weather is super hot for night temperature. Spend the first 20km running terribly. Super lousy timing based on my Garmin. Definitely not expecting any PB now with 21km and 10km worst than last year.

What I entered ECP, small droplet, thunder and lightning can be seen along the MBS area. Was Thinking could it rain in the race. Sure enough, when I reach my 23km, it started to drizzle. 

By 25km It is pouring. I took shelter for a while as I am worry my Iphone will be drench. It happen to my 3GS, not even my 4S is affected. Decided to just get wet and continue the run. Iphone died after 25km. Total Silent from then on. I did received an SMS alerting us about the CAT1 Weather.

But Lucky for the rain. I did a much faster pace from then on. No need to put much Deep heat or water point drinking. Though my shoes are super wet and heavy

I manage to finished the Race in 5hr 41min. Just 6min shy of my PB, in fact this is my 2nd best timing. Very happy with the result actually.

Dear actually plan to support me at the finishing line with WY as Olsen is also running. But WY decided not to come due to the rain.

Thanks Dear for coming. Having a morning person GF have it's benefits. Someone here to take photo with and taken off...

Me with the medal  - A hard Earned one.

The Runner Tentage are filled with people. Wanted to take photos but since my camera is in my bag decided to go collect baggage. It quite a long walk and muddy all the way. In the End, ended up cannot take photos at the booth as it is closed. Really these booth catered to the sub 5 runners. I wonder I can ever do a Sub 5 here in Singapore. 

Starting to feel sleepy already..Ready need some coffee and food fast.

Left the place around 7+ via the Train to Serangoon NEX for breakfast.

After burning over 2000 Calories. I have alot of capacity to eat now. Dim Sum Breakfast @ Food Republic. Thanks Dear for the Treat and helping to buy...Leg painful from the 5hr of run.

Perk up with Coffee...but no use....sleepy...and need to go to bed liao.