Wednesday, September 27, 2006
Birthday Thoughts
New Order articulated my birthday wish this morning when I travelled to work:
"Don't wanna have to work like other people do
I wanted to be free
I wanted to be true"
28 years. Old man indeed.
Ran 2 km in over 20 minutes. Twice the time of what I did 10 years ago.
Struggled to do 30 situps in 1 min. Half of what I did 10 years ago.
Am celebrating my birthday with my work today. 10 years ago, I received a Zippo lighter for birthday present (obvious reasons) while getting myself wasted at Boat Quay.
10 years ago and now. What a sobering thought!
10 years now and ahead. Will it be any different?
One thing I hope for sure is that I will still be blessed to have my beloved wife, kids, family and cousins celebrating my birthday with me.
Thank God. It's not easy getting old, but you have made it easier with these people around me.
"Don't wanna have to work like other people do
I wanted to be free
I wanted to be true"
28 years. Old man indeed.
Ran 2 km in over 20 minutes. Twice the time of what I did 10 years ago.
Struggled to do 30 situps in 1 min. Half of what I did 10 years ago.
Am celebrating my birthday with my work today. 10 years ago, I received a Zippo lighter for birthday present (obvious reasons) while getting myself wasted at Boat Quay.
10 years ago and now. What a sobering thought!
10 years now and ahead. Will it be any different?
One thing I hope for sure is that I will still be blessed to have my beloved wife, kids, family and cousins celebrating my birthday with me.
Thank God. It's not easy getting old, but you have made it easier with these people around me.
Thursday, September 21, 2006
My week in school
In my first week of returning to school, I have already made some blunders that obviously would have caused a "deep" impression to my Bosses and collegues. I am outright straight forward to my reporting officers with plenty of questions.
However, today i am writing because i am glad. Glad to have a terrific hubby who despite waking up very early in the morning to send me to school is still able to encourage me when i am down. I am also grateful to have a wonderful co-operating teacher and mentor. She is a very faithful servant of God and often urges me to spend more time with my "CHUBI" son Jotham Yeo. I thank God for putting me here in this workplace. With such a mentor, I sure hope that i will be constantly reminded of my purpose in this teaching career and the things i ought to be chasing after
However, today i am writing because i am glad. Glad to have a terrific hubby who despite waking up very early in the morning to send me to school is still able to encourage me when i am down. I am also grateful to have a wonderful co-operating teacher and mentor. She is a very faithful servant of God and often urges me to spend more time with my "CHUBI" son Jotham Yeo. I thank God for putting me here in this workplace. With such a mentor, I sure hope that i will be constantly reminded of my purpose in this teaching career and the things i ought to be chasing after
Tuesday, September 12, 2006
A Life of Dependency
Was pondering on the subject over the past 2 days from Christian Chen and Austin Sparks' messages. Today, I'm so focused on independence that I forget to rely entirely on Him. While I only saw a glimpse of this blinding truth, I've reproduced part of their messages (I hope they permit) so that you may see the light too.
Christian Chen:
" Let me tell you a true fact. When a baby is born, its IQ is zero. How do you know if somebody is wise or not? It doesn't depend on how much education he has. The scientists have a way to know if somebody is wise or not. They try to measure their IQ. Very interestingly: when a baby is born, its IQ is zero. However, if you compare a human baby with a newly born animal, you discover that an animal has a greater IQ. For example, a calf, on the day that it is born, can stand and suck the mother's milk. Its IQ is not zero. Have you seen a baby in its cradle on the day of its birth that can stand up and say: "Hello, mom?" The mother would faint! That is impossible. The IQ of a human baby is zero...
...from the first day, the baby only knows how to cry. What does that mean? When he cries, the help comes from the mother, or the whole family. What does that mean? "I cannot live by myself; all I can do is cry." It is a life of dependence. In other words, I can live on this earth because I depend on my mother and my father.
This is the principle of the tree of life, because the baby starts from zero, and finally becomes so wise. That is the secret. But, unfortunately, this is not our case...
We are zero, because we have a dependant life. Now, Christ can write everything in our hearts. Thank God! That is the principle of the tree of life. Sometimes we cried, because we were desperate. When one has ten thousand dollars in their pocket, it is very difficult to pray. When you don't have anything in your pocket your knees become very soft and now you pray. When you pray it is like when babies cry."
Austin Sparks:
"...Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men...
Do we now see what it all comes down to? The starting point of all blessings is there where it enters our consciousness that we have no valid rights, no valid claims; that before the Lord we are nothing other than beggars...
God’s starting point is there where our own self has come to an end..."
Christian Chen:
" Let me tell you a true fact. When a baby is born, its IQ is zero. How do you know if somebody is wise or not? It doesn't depend on how much education he has. The scientists have a way to know if somebody is wise or not. They try to measure their IQ. Very interestingly: when a baby is born, its IQ is zero. However, if you compare a human baby with a newly born animal, you discover that an animal has a greater IQ. For example, a calf, on the day that it is born, can stand and suck the mother's milk. Its IQ is not zero. Have you seen a baby in its cradle on the day of its birth that can stand up and say: "Hello, mom?" The mother would faint! That is impossible. The IQ of a human baby is zero...
...from the first day, the baby only knows how to cry. What does that mean? When he cries, the help comes from the mother, or the whole family. What does that mean? "I cannot live by myself; all I can do is cry." It is a life of dependence. In other words, I can live on this earth because I depend on my mother and my father.
This is the principle of the tree of life, because the baby starts from zero, and finally becomes so wise. That is the secret. But, unfortunately, this is not our case...
We are zero, because we have a dependant life. Now, Christ can write everything in our hearts. Thank God! That is the principle of the tree of life. Sometimes we cried, because we were desperate. When one has ten thousand dollars in their pocket, it is very difficult to pray. When you don't have anything in your pocket your knees become very soft and now you pray. When you pray it is like when babies cry."
Austin Sparks:
"...Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men...
Do we now see what it all comes down to? The starting point of all blessings is there where it enters our consciousness that we have no valid rights, no valid claims; that before the Lord we are nothing other than beggars...
God’s starting point is there where our own self has come to an end..."
Wednesday, September 06, 2006
Top 5 Things That Happened to the Yeos
1. I took up piano lessons as a beginner and it was a totally humbling experience. All for the joy of drawing "tao-gays" and co-ordinating my stubby fingers to play nursery rhymes. I felt retarded yet enlightened. I don't know how sustainable this would be but it may well be my second career - my colleague told me his friend earns 8K and drives a MX-5 with teaching piano lessons and being a lounge piano player. Cool! Ad could jolly well sit at home and shake leg!
2. Jotham Yeo tried to tweak with our family laptop while watching videos of "Matrix Ping Pong" and "Monkeys performing karate kicks". He destroyed the laptop nonetheless and looked really sheepish albeit without remorse (he was clowning around just 5 minutes after the episode). This explained why Ad hasn't been writing/checking mails. We were thankful for our foresight in purchasing a 5-year "insurance" on the laptop.
3. Jadon Yeo had started to grow more hair, do more head "push-ups" and began expressing himself less in cries but more in "ahs". He had grown to become cuter and more handsome - just like Jo and me (when I was young). Ad would certainly choose to disagree.
4. Ad and I decided to visit Hong Kong on a long-awaited getaway from the "prison-istic" Singapore. We thought we could have more rest but NO! We literally "jumped" off 20 storeys on the Abyss at Ocean Park and walked through the plethora of shopping centres and night markets until our feet were swollen. Astonishing! 12 am and Hong Kong was still very much eating and shopping. Ad would fill in on the photos but it was really great fun!
5. Ad and I visited Tatsuya at Crown Prince. According to the true-blue Japanese, Tatsuya was THE place for Japanese food, esp. sushi/sashimi. I'm not really a connoisseur of sushi/sashimi ("Matsuo") - all I could tell Ad was that they were fresh (she couldn't eat raw fish as she was breastfeeding, she had tempura soba instead). Well, the freshness cost us over a hundred bucks. We had recently vowed to make visiting the top 50 restaurants in Singapore our workplan for the next 2 years. We believe the total cost could be up to 10 grand but really, what can beat experiencing/sharing good food with your beloved?
2. Jotham Yeo tried to tweak with our family laptop while watching videos of "Matrix Ping Pong" and "Monkeys performing karate kicks". He destroyed the laptop nonetheless and looked really sheepish albeit without remorse (he was clowning around just 5 minutes after the episode). This explained why Ad hasn't been writing/checking mails. We were thankful for our foresight in purchasing a 5-year "insurance" on the laptop.
3. Jadon Yeo had started to grow more hair, do more head "push-ups" and began expressing himself less in cries but more in "ahs". He had grown to become cuter and more handsome - just like Jo and me (when I was young). Ad would certainly choose to disagree.
4. Ad and I decided to visit Hong Kong on a long-awaited getaway from the "prison-istic" Singapore. We thought we could have more rest but NO! We literally "jumped" off 20 storeys on the Abyss at Ocean Park and walked through the plethora of shopping centres and night markets until our feet were swollen. Astonishing! 12 am and Hong Kong was still very much eating and shopping. Ad would fill in on the photos but it was really great fun!
5. Ad and I visited Tatsuya at Crown Prince. According to the true-blue Japanese, Tatsuya was THE place for Japanese food, esp. sushi/sashimi. I'm not really a connoisseur of sushi/sashimi ("Matsuo") - all I could tell Ad was that they were fresh (she couldn't eat raw fish as she was breastfeeding, she had tempura soba instead). Well, the freshness cost us over a hundred bucks. We had recently vowed to make visiting the top 50 restaurants in Singapore our workplan for the next 2 years. We believe the total cost could be up to 10 grand but really, what can beat experiencing/sharing good food with your beloved?
Our Haven: Re-opened
Just realised that the last time I wrote was last year. While my wife has been using this platform to grumble about school and confinement (with some of her students actually leaving comments and messages), so many things have happened meanwhile that weren't chronicled, which really made the past year seemed transient.
Honestly, I still haven't entirely gotten over the bizarre episode of celebrating birth and mourning death within a month, but the close support that ensued had certainly helped our family to move on.
We've decided to re-open our haven and it all boils down to 1 motivating factor - we realised our lives could be so transparent before our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, our close friends and relatives and we didn't like that.
We didn't really like that notion of being superficial beings that don't have deep connections with anyone. We wish to share our thoughts, our joys, our frustrations and our disappointments to anyone who cares and wants to know more about us.
I recall vividly in the early days of this blog someone actually commented that we used this platform to exhibit our vocabulary and langauge skills. That was indeed laughable - how could anyone that knows us thinks of us this way? While we couldn't shape people's perceptions, we wish to reiterate that we didn't want to be pretentious at all.
So, do stay tuned to this humble e-abode of ours. We would love to look back on our days, and convinced ourselves that we had led fulfilling lives with no regrets. We hope you would too.
Honestly, I still haven't entirely gotten over the bizarre episode of celebrating birth and mourning death within a month, but the close support that ensued had certainly helped our family to move on.
We've decided to re-open our haven and it all boils down to 1 motivating factor - we realised our lives could be so transparent before our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, our close friends and relatives and we didn't like that.
We didn't really like that notion of being superficial beings that don't have deep connections with anyone. We wish to share our thoughts, our joys, our frustrations and our disappointments to anyone who cares and wants to know more about us.
I recall vividly in the early days of this blog someone actually commented that we used this platform to exhibit our vocabulary and langauge skills. That was indeed laughable - how could anyone that knows us thinks of us this way? While we couldn't shape people's perceptions, we wish to reiterate that we didn't want to be pretentious at all.
So, do stay tuned to this humble e-abode of ours. We would love to look back on our days, and convinced ourselves that we had led fulfilling lives with no regrets. We hope you would too.
