I think i'm gonna start writing in here again.

I took a new step today. I thought i could wait out for some time, before taking it, but nope, the opportunity came, and i just had to do it.

Tmr's going to be a day to remember, while the next month's going to drain my life outta me. I foresee tough weeks ahead, but even more exciting times to come after.

Recently, there's been a youtube video that's been circulating.. titled 'Disconnect to connect' - basically how we should really stop and disconnect from all our gadgets, ie, our iphones, blackberry, facebook, twitter etc.. and really start connecting proper with the people around us.

Drawing a parallel to the 'disconnect to connect', i'd say - experience sorrow to discover joy.

Just last week, someone in the family was diagnosed with leukemia. She was on the way to my place to share a dvd and the gospel with my mum (who prepared like food and drinks and was waiting for them to arrive at my place), when she felt unwell. So they had to stop by the clinic for a quick consultation with the doc. And since then, it's been a spiral of blood and marrow tests, drips etc in the hospital for her.

We've been visiting her pretty regularly, and everyone's flying back to sg to visit as well. As much as it's sad to hear of her sickness and see her get bruises that don't heal too quickly, it's always a joy to visit cos she uses all her energy to talk about God. Her trust in God is immensely comforting as she talks of how she will make another appointment with my mum to come by my place again once she gets discharged. She tells us about the Christmas performance she has at her church in december, and how she'll get tics for all of us to come watch.

It was just me and my 2 sisters, and my cousin +wife with her at the ward just now when she said, "You know, we're all Christians already and we believe in God. So how can we leave your parents behind? We need to make sure that we will all meet together in Heaven one day."

Despite this sorrowful piece of news, we have seen God work in many ways. Everytime my mum visits, there's sure to be a pastor or someone from church at the hospital too. And she ends up getting ministered to. The opportunities have presented themselves again and again. And it is indeed great joy to see such fervence in Christ despite such trials, and a heart to pursue, lives for Christ.

I lived the high life today! Or had a taste of it at least.. hahaha..

Woke up bright and early as usual, and went for my weekly morning dose of pilates. My instructor wasn't there today, so it was this other instructor. And she pushed us to our limits. It was horrendously tiring. I now feel the pain from the fibrous tears in my muscles.

After a quick toast for brekkie, m and i headed to sentosa to meet yh and j. We had drinks at sakae izakaya and played monopoly deal while waiting for the rain to stop. And when it finally did, we spent a good afternoon lounging around at Tanjong Beach Club. The place was really nice, and had some great food at really reasonable prices. Loved the salad especially! Yums.. woo came to join us thereafter.

It was a good afternoon spent chilling over topics that revolved around work and crap. And of course we learnt some new acronym that would surely come in useful in future! haha.. who wld've guessed what 'YDR' stood for.

It was ice cream for us all at ecp after sentosa, before m and i headed to the spa for a good jacuzzi soak and steambath.. to relax and detox!! And the day ended with a good hard swedish massage.

Now, if only i could do this everyday, life wld be quite perfect.. no?

I had an absolutely amazing time in Johannesburg, South Africa. Despite the initial fears of the dangers of roaming the country as a female, getting raped, shot or robbed, these fears were countered with the beauty of the country, politeness and warmness of the people there.

It was a rather long flight to Johannesburg, 3 hours to Hong Kong, followed by a 13 hour flight to Johannesburg. The flight was tiring as hell, but when i arrived in the early morning at Johannesburg, and saw the magnificent colours of sun rise in the sky (the most beautiful i've ever seen), i was immediately awake.

We finally arrived. Grabbed our luggage from the conveyor belt, and were greeted immediately by the blackboards which read, "Sony, Makedotbelieve.". Yup,that's us. So off we were whisked to a waiting area in the airport. Met up with a few others before we were shipped off to our transport, with security personnel close to us.

Settled into our hotel for a bit, took a walk around the hotel premise, before getting ready for the gala dinner that night. By 4.30pm, our transport came, picked us up and sent us to the Nelson Mandela Square. There, we had to walk outdoors to a Sony Dome for a Sony 3D presentation. Walking outdoors was amazing, cos we had to walk in a single file, with security personnel keeping the crowd, camera crew and photographers away. Way cool for a first experience with paparazzi.

After that presentation, we headed to the Sandton Convention Centre for the cocktail session, with free flow of champagne and tapas. The champagne was simply divine. Not to mention, free flow always wins.

After an hour in the cocktail recep area, we were led to the dinner area, where we were served up some delish dishes, prepared by renown Chef Luke Dale. Great fine dining it was. Since we didn't get to meet any soccer players, they had Shakira perform a number of songs at the dinner, including the FIFA world cup song, Waka Waka.

That concluded the very surreal dinner experience, with Shakira there.

The following day,the hotel cab driver drove us out to the Nelson Mandela Sq and Sandton City for us to get some shopping done. These are amazingly huge malls. To top of the shopping experience, EVERYONE in the mall were dressed in eiher red or orange, since it was afterall, the DAY of the finals. Then there was this spain fan holding a sign which said " We'll all be having orange juice for breakfast tomorrow morning." Then a netherlands fan came up to him and said " In your dreams." I wish i could have recorded that down.

The spain jerseys were sold out everywhere. Luckily i managed to get one from a small shop tucked in a corner

Many roads were closed that day, and we'd find 1 policeman every 5 steps we took. Security was on a maximum high everywhre in Johannesburg that day.

We headed back to the hotel after a half day of shopping before prepping for the match that night. We met with the rest at the hotel's SOny Hospitality lounge, before heading to the Soccer City! Once there, security checks were tight. We were kept warm in the Sony Hospitality lounge at the stadium, with free flow of wine and tapas once again. There was japanese sushi platters amongst other food. Yummy! When the time finally came for us to head out into the open for the match, we were almost sure we had enough food to keep us warm for the night. But noooo! I almost froze in the cold, even with my 3 layers of clothes. Thank goodness for Sony's provision of the fleece blanket and heat pack for our use durin the match.

The atmosphere in the stadium was beyond description. Everyone was decked out in their favourite team's colours. We had good seats,pretty close to the field. Well, I saw Pique quite close up. And i cheered and blew my vuvu like mad. And for once, the World Cup to me was FUN. I'd be glad to do this all over again, even if i had to pay, i think.

While we were seated during the half time, we saw some fans in front of us, pointing excitedly to someone behind us. We turned, but didn't see any one we found familiar. Until we saw the fans in front, draw out a mic and the camera started rolling. After they were done with that short snippet, we asked that fan, "erm, who's that you were filming?" and he said in his heavily accented spanish voice " OH! he's president of the barcelona football club! he decides on which players to buy!" We were embarassed, but since we were never going to be meeting Sandro Rosell again, decided to turn around and ask for a picture with him. He of course,was very nice to agree with a shot with us. Though i'm quite sure he didn't hear me asking the fan who he was.

The day after the world cup was a free and easy day for us. We arranged for a tour, half a day to see another part of South Africa, Soweto, and another half a day to visit the Rhino and Lion park.

Soweto opened our eyes to the reality of life in Africa. And you'd wonder what they do with the revenue the World Cup brought in for South Africa.

The Rhino and Lion park was superb! Aside from seeing the African animals roam the wild, my fav was the up close experience with the lion cubs. Thse lion cubs were the cutest things ever. I played with one, then another came alone, and thought i was a fellow cub when it saw the fur on my jacket. So it tried to chew my jacket. A fellow visitor managed to get the cub off my jacket. But the cub was still pretty sure i was one of its kind. So it tried to chew my leg. And it was PAIIIIINNNNNFFFULLLLLLLLL! What an experience.

We lunched at a small home-owned eatery in Soweto that day, where they were oh so hospitable, and prepared such lovely food for us. The food was quite 'chinese' i thought.

Dinner that night was with our new found italian friends in the hotel, where we dined over great african wine. And at the end of dinner before we headed back to our rooms,we heard what we wanted to hear most, "Call us if you're coming over to Milan. We'll take you around."

All in all, it was such an amazing experience, one i don't think i'd be forgetting any time soon. Thanks to Sony.

Photos are on facebook.

T'was a good day today, despite the mad rush. A visit to the warehouse in the mornin to check out corporate gifts, followed by 3 back to back meetings at the Marina Bay area from lunch time today.

Came back to find some artworks sitting in my mailbox. And i'm liking my pocket booklet and fact sheets. Wheeeee!

I thank God for a great end to the extremely long week. Had an extremely satisfying japanese dinner with the team and our management team. It was an enjoyable night out with loads of drinks though it would have been better if i stuck to just ONE type of alcoholic beverage.

Anyways, i had a nice restful weekend, with my much needed dose of exercise. Slept the drinks off till late saturday morning, before dragging myself up to attend a session of stretch fit class. Totally hated the class cos it felt like i was doing ac pe all over again. I'll be sticking to my pilates class in the weeks (and months) to come! Smuggled some time for shopping and dinner with the girls, before we caught a movie in town.

And today, despite the aches on almost every part of my body, i managed a 4.5 km run. Yay for me.

I sure hope i'm ready for the week ahead.

I'd really love to say "bring it on". But it has come to a point where i can no longer say that. And the feeling really sucks big time.

I attended a cocktail reception in the raffles place area yesterday with a colleague. And during dinner after that, we were just talking about work and all. And it really seems like this IS the season for some things to happen.

My entries these days are getting ambiguous and void of any interesting content. But that's exactly the way my life is now.. almost bleak.

Oh dear July, please come quick.

I was checking out some youtube videos, and i chanced upon an old song that i used to sing along to each time i hit a rough patch in pri/secondary sch..

Is the rain falling from the sky
Keeping you from singing
Is that tear falling from your eye
because the wind is stinging

Don't you fret now child
Don't you worry
The rain's to help you grow
So don't try to hurry the storm along
The hard times make you strong

Don't you know a seed will never grow
If there were never showers
And though the rain might bring a little pain
Just look at all the flowers

I know how long your day can seem
When storm clouds hide His face
But if the rain dissolves your dreams
Just remember His amazing grace

Don't you know the sun is always there
Even when the rain falls
Don't you know the Son will always care
When he hears your voice call

How apt.

I'm almost drained of all energy. It's 10pm now and i'm having my first meal of the day.

I need my sleep please.