Creatures of the wild

Living next to the bukit timah nature reserve has sure provided a nice view and sense of peace. but it has also brought along stray wild creatures wandering into my home. of course the land animals are kept out of safe reach, but theres no stopping the creatures of the air.


1. last night, my home was invaded with a massive swarm of flies. actually more like bugs with wings. they were attracted to the bright lights here, and first began hovering around my dining table lamp. started with a few, and within minutes many more came and turned into the flyer flurry as seen in the picture.
then, despite my advice not to, my dad switched off all the lights. the next thing we knew, the flies were all flying aimlessly, into our food, bags and clothes. was not a good feeling of bugs in ur shirt. after that they landed all over the sofa. then they shed off their wings, crawled around and died soon after, leaving the whole place full of dead bug bodies and wings.

something funny too.
dad: i tell u what. ill turn on the toilet lights and turn off the living room lights.
me: for what?!
dad: make them go there la. better that they go there, isnt it?
me: oh, so just because u dont use that toilet, then u dun care about it huh...
dad: whats wrong? just flush them down the toilet bowl can already what...
me: hello, the lights are not in the toilet bowl!!


2. some time back, my home was invaded by these wasps. or bees. seems like a cross between both. they are huge and had stings. and they were trying to build nests near the lights. would sure be bad if that happens. fortunately, they were quite blur and did not dodge newspaper. so i whacked them all down and gathered them up.

3. this giant bird was sighted perched on the railings outside the window of my neighbour directly opposite the window of my room. it was the top storey, and i dont know why the bird chose to go so high. plus, it began pecking at the window glass and trying to pry into the sides of it, like it really wanted to go in. i wonder why it didnt go to some other window that was open and exposing food instead. it stayed there for about half an hour before flying back to the nature reserve. interesting. i have never seen such a bird before, nor such bird behaviours.

4. from my room window, i also witnessed 2 mynahs looking for a place to build their nest. they finally found their choice place by crawling through a tiny opening in my neighbour's window. (seems like a toilet window.) so over a few days they made many rounds carrying twigs in their beak, crawling under the window and then crawling out again. but they have since stopped - my neighbour must have found out and destroyed the nest.

Update 18/4

it has come to the end of the holidays, a good 7 weeks but which didnt seem very long. time flied really fast, and now that i know it, im into my last weekend. what have i done meanhwile? sad to say, nothing much. i had envisioned this holiday to be so much more activity-filled than it turned out to be. and that venture with venture era was kind of a flop. hope what i learnt there has indeed built me up, somehow.

looking forward, its come to the last semester! the last academic semester, that is. there would be abit of study during internship after that, but majority is just practical work. counting the credits and the hours spent in school, it is the least for this semester, compared to all of year 1 and 2! ironic huh.. year 3, the advanced level and supposedly most hectic year, is the slackest of all. although it may be abit too early to say... the projects may turn out to be rather demanding and taking up all the extra time we are given. i kinda dread it, now that i discover that 2 of my tutors would be keeping close watch on me and being extra critical, following the unfortunate incident not long ago. i have to stay good, for my internship is at stake!

i just got my new phone. finally. my mom, dad and brother had already gotten their new phones, and meanwhile i am stuck with the very old phone which has served me faithfully for about 2 years despite being dropped, wet and scratched countless times. simple phones are the most hardy. before that it was used by my mom for some time, so this new phone would be my first brand new phone given to me. very modern design, the gadgets are good. all functions there and more, 5 megapix camera. but i still dont quite like it. simply because im not used to the touch buttons and the way it works in general. being a different brand from all the nokia phones ive been using, this would certainly take some getting used to. maybe i would come to like it after some time. but for now, no.

i dont know if its global warming or some fires in indonesia or what, but the weather these few days have been extremely terribly hot. causes me to sweat - the sticky kind - the whole day, even when i stay indoors. even at night when its supposedly cool and windy, theres no escaping the heat. i open the windows and hot wind rushes in. i tried ignoring it and went to sleep without aircon one night, trusting that it would be fine once i go to sleep, but only to wake up in the middle of the night, burning. even with my above-average resistance to temperature, both hot and cold (or so i think), this proves intolerable to me. maybe we should aircon the whole house.

Gabrielle Lee Ker Ting (as she requested her name to be put up) made a rather... cute statement today.
"Its not my fault that i suck at math. its my brain's fault. if i pay attention, i can definitely score better. but i cant be bothered."

can score better by paying attention = brain is alright.
cant be bothered = your fault.
she simply made two stands, and immediately gave contradictory explainations to both of them! lol. its funny how some people try to justify themselves.

random reflections

today at the beach pavilion, there were these 2 cute and nice looking pigeons that kept walking in circles around us waiting for food, and occasionally went to other parts of the pavilion. the same kind which built a nest upon my aircon compressor cables in the past. later when i went to feed them, there were 2 mynahs hanging around them too. so i threw a potato chip near them, and a mynah quickly rushed to get it. i threw another a distance from all, a pigeon saw it first and slowly paced towards it, but the mynah again rushed past it and got the chip. but i didnt want the ugly mynahs to get the food. i wanted to feed the cute pigeons. so i threw a chip nearest to a pigeon, and this time it got to the chip first, but even then, the mynahs came and snatched the chip away, and the pigeon just backed off like it was scared, despite being bigger than the mynahs. so whenever a chip is left on the floor, the mynahs would always get it.

i found this rather interesting cause the pigeons were bigger and perhaps stronger. But it was just not in their nature to compete and fight with others, but instead to be gentle, graceful and merciful. though they may be stepped upon by the mynahs and lose some food, i see the desirable qualities in the pigeons and they win my admiration instead. then perhaps when i see pigeons next time, i would feed them, but not the mynahs. i think we can have something to learn from the pigeons, applied in human lives.

how would you feel if God were to use you as a tool to tell your good friend that a particular choice he made isnt the right one, by making you fail to do something that your friend entrusted you with which was important to his goal?
And whats worse, when looking at why it failed, it was all my fault. although unintentional. it really seems that God caused me to be that way. what other purpose could there be, but to prevent that plan from going through.... but why couldnt God do it Himself? why must i be made the scapegoat..?
well but if in the end we see for ourselves that that plan was not the right one for him after all, then i would be glad that i was used as an instrument of God's plan and 'rescue' from his own..

Final Performance

Today, it was finally time for the final performance for the vocalists, as part of the vocalist course and a form of assessment, as well as to showcase for friends and family to see. though we practiced our songs many times before, this time was especially nerve-wrecking cause its a live performance in front of many ppl we know. parents; the greatest contributor to the stress.

so there was i, waiting for my turn to arrive. and i was the 7th singer. one by one they took the stage. i could see some were nervous. some made blunders and it kinda wrecked them. that so didnt help me. and throughout the time i had reoccuring bouts of nervousness... prolonged over the wait. if it were to continue when i took the stage, it would sure affect me lots.

and just like there are the annoying suspense-creating commercial breaks during Singapore idol or its kind, so there was the food break after half the vocalists had sung. arrrgh... all the psyching for nothing; it really broke the momentum. and i couldnt eat those nice food in case any of it were to interfere.

When it was finally my turn, i went up and wasnt so nervous thankfully, but that didnt prevent me from making a big blunder at the very first line. i mixed up part of the first verse with that from the second verse! threw me into panic, causing me to go shaky for awhile. but God brought me comfort and i was able to surpress it, and quickly find a solution. i simply swapped the first and second verse except for the parts where the tune was different. sounds alright, but if anyone bothered to pay attention to the lyrics, it was a big blunder. still, i managed to hide it and make it seem to be all fine. thats the advantage of singing an unfamiliar song!
the rest of the song, the hard parts later, i managed to get it all. what a relief!

after the performaces, i thought i would get some pokes on that blunder i made. but it really occurs to me, nobody even noticed! they just told me i did a good job, and nobody talked about the mistake! and so i partially forgot about it too, and didnt bring it up to any of them. got away with it.. whew!

Thanks be to God, for giving me this opportunity of a vocalist course which really trained and grew me in this area, and for really helping me through during the whole performance. Through this i have grown closer to music, to God, and my fellow vocalists. Like never before, i felt a sense of pride for each of us who went up to perform. yes, this course was a great idea.

And i noticed a certain interesting trend among the 10 vocalists in the course - each of the Jym cell groups are represented!
Oak - Kenneth & Elza
cedar - Sabrina
poplar - Clement
myrtle - Joanne
willow - Eunice
Acacia - ME
cypress - Charlene
sycamore - Joshua
juniper - Sien

After the performaces, Elza's dad commended me on my performace, and then asked "how old are you... sec 3 now arh?"
when i said no, he continued "sec 2??"
i gave him that shocked expression and motioned upwards with my finger, signalling him to go higher. but he misinterpreted it ..
"oh... sec one." =.='
so i had to quickly correct him and stuff.

funny how ppl always misunderestimate my age... even up to 6 years below the actual!
well sometimes looking young is to my advantage. it allows me to relate to the younger ones and relive my younger times, without feeling too out of place. and same time i can also relate with those my age cos of my true age.. wonderful ability, come to think of it. hopefully when i am really old, i would still look young as well!