Drive-and-sing

went for a drive with mum and sang along to everything from Sarah Brightman opera to Disney to K-pop. #mymumisawesome 

Confirming my future on UCAS

Well yesterday night I finally confirmed my Firm and Insurance university choices on UCAS. I was pretty nervous about it...I mean what if I clicked smth wrong, what if I don't make the offer...so many what-ifs. But the thing is when there's any doubt it means I have to work doubly hard to remove the stupid what-ifs plaguing my mind and get those grades to meet the requirements, right?. :) With IB exams in less than a month, the next few weeks are gonna be crazy. Well, life, here goes.

Le Cirque Majestueux

Senior Formal with a Cirque de Majesteux theme @ Ritz Carlton
Date: Friday 14th March 2014

no event is complete without a selfie nowadays, sooo here:

Share some love, share some hair

This little 3 year old is amazing. Period.

Watch! It's only 2 minutes.

Who Let The Dogs Out

Credits to Abbie (first row, left-est girl) for the post title. :P She was our team's MVP for the competition and in short, she's a beast. Tall and talented. 

So, throwback to our SEASAC Basketball competition held in UWC East Singapore back in January. This was a dream team, everyone gelled together and helped each other out. It was my first SEASAC Basketball; for the past years I've been doing SEASAC Football but because that clashed with my SATs this year, I tried bball out.

Bball has always been a favourite sport of mine and I'm glad I got to be in the team in my last year of high school. (Gosh having to actually admit that still feels unreal, my last year?! Well. Aren't I aging.) My first and last SEASAC Basketball with a beautiful and fabulous team. We may only have won one game and all, but we played our best and didn't lose without a fight. The scores were close and in the end, cliché as it is, we had fun. :D We won't look back on this trip as a failure but remember the hilarious moments we had instead. Like when the opponent scored a basket for us because she forgot which way she was shooting. >.<

that's me holding the basketball :) surrounded by smurfs

Seventeen going on Eighteen

This year's birthday was a big one - I turned 18! And it was the first time I celebrated with friends too. Didn't expect all this but they got me presents! Who doesn't like presents?? 

Christmas Bbq

Family Christmas Bbq. #asianstyle

Merry Christmas everyone!! :D

Gratitude and Happiness

Watching these two TedTalks made me seriously reflect on my life and what I have. Yes it's totally cliché and yes you experience this reflection many times in your life, but still, I think it's important.

Every once in a while you must, as the following TedTalks say, "Stop, Look and Go". We should stop to appreciate what we have in the midst of our fast-paced lives, look for and take opportunities to be grateful and then go share our good fortune with others. 

http://on.ted.com/Gratitude

http://on.ted.com/gratefulness

Yup I'm totally preaching what the TedTalks said but it's something I'll remember so as not to be spoilt and all. IB CAS (Creativity, Action, Service) at my school is great and I believe we give back a lot to the local community around us. The students who really engage in CAS have a wonderful capacity to cultivate an attitude to challenge the untried disposition to put the wrong right. 

We have an eco-school built by CAS students 2 years back 10 minutes away from my school. This school, called Sekolah Bisa!, educates 25 young children from the nearby local shanty area. For these kids, begging on the streets is their norm, but Sekolah Bisa offers them the foregone access to education as a restoration of their Children's Rights as UNESCO dictates. 

'Sekolah' means 'school' in Indonesian, and 'Bisa' means 'can'. It's symbolic of enabling the children, instead of their circumstances immobilising and ensnaring them. 

http://www.sekolahbisa.org/

Everyday, they can wake up and go to this amazing school where they learn Maths, Science, English and Indonesian. They paint, draw and do various stimulating activities. These kids who previously could not read, now can. These kids who hadn't an inkling of the multiplication tables, now have. These kids who had never been cared for, now are. 

We may not be able to change the lives of all the kids in the surrounding shanties, but at least for these 25 children, they have a part of their childhood restored. 

My CAS group is involved with Sekolah Bisa through sport. We have a football team comprised of Sekolah Bisa students that we enter into the local Jakarta Schools Football Association (JSFA) League, otherwise known as the Coca Cola League here. Last year we entered an U12 team, when the league starts in January 2014 we will be entering a new U10 team with a few new students. 

I have a Facebook page for my CAS project here: www.facebook.com/jsfacas

 Bintang Bisa! :) 

My beloved CAS team :) 

We call our football team Bintang Bisa. 'Bintang' meaning 'star' and 'bisa' meaning 'can'. These children, with some care and fostering, have so much latent talent and capacity. They are stars and they can, with some guidance, be integrated back into society and be proper Indonesian citizens. 

My CAS group and I have never been so proud of an achievement in our lives. Seeing the children run carefree in their jerseys, playing football happily with smiles on their face - they throw off all the heavy burdens of their harsh lives in those moments and embody childhood. 

Smiles, laughter, play. 

Boots, sweat and smiles. 

I know full well I am still young and may not understand life's harsh realities, but at least through this community service and caring for these shanty children these past few years I have somewhat shared in their harsh reality, and in the process, deepened my compassion and empathy to some extent. 

I have not elaborated thoroughly on what my CAS group does or accomplishes, but the point is that gratitude and happiness can go hand in hand if we allow it. I never want to forget the lessons of the afore mentioned TedTalks and I hope to always carry out my community service with kindness, so that even if the extent of my reach is only 25 children, it is still 25 children more than before with better lives each day. 

I now express my gratitude to you for taking your time to read this post. Thank you! :)

Hokkaido Milk Soup Ramen

Tried this at Quarry Bay, Hong Kong. Actually tastes pretty good!! :)

Rainbow Cake :)

a friend's lovely birthday dinner back in March with 
beautifully decorated cupcakes anddd rainbow cake! 

Homemade Pizza

baked two pizzas for lunch today :3