Jan Vogler was an inspiration at last night’s concert (and mahler #1 was good!) and I was very motivated to practice my octaves but my whole day was taken up by the above (: I had so much fun judging! I did the preliminaries for Middle/Senior Div with Kevin (who reminds me of Caleb and who also managed to hear bloodstream as ‘buttstream’) and Daniel Yee (yes I finally know who he is now! I remember staring at the name ‘Daniel’ in the email and getting this feeling that I somehow know the guy! and yes I do, he’s “my minion from Inspire”, as peiyi so aptly puts it), as well as Finals with the lovely Dr. V and Mrs. H! And the other AC helpers are just about as obsessed with cameras as our boys are, which is, of course, excellent, because I will get very nice photos

Lunch-cum-Judges Briefing started off awkward at first until Kevin introduced himself. I didn’t get to finish my pear because #1 I ate slowly #2 The participants arrived 15 minutes early. Judging was utterly enjoyable because most of the action plan presentations were quite hilarious (like spidey!) and Kevin, who has a very loud and infectious laugh, sat beside me so most of the time I was laughing at him laughing -.- Daniel had a nosebleed in the middle of it so :O He didn’t think he would have enough tissue so Cas (the prop girl ahahha) had to run to get more for him from the toilet heh. Mm plus the Ris-Low-like mandatory quote! The 3 of us took quite long to decide on the final results because there were alot of teams and some of our rankings didn’t tally, so we had to go through those and come to a consensus. And there was quite some calculation involved! Thank God for GCs (:

Then it was finals judging This time they announced the judges and I heard that quite a few rg girls/ex-rg girls got a shock when they heard “Miss Annie Zeng” read out hahah! The final 5 teams across the 3 divisions put up very commendable performances, though some more than others. Funny how the most creative use of the mandatory prop chaptek was done by one of the junior teams. I was very impressed! I’m glad that I had more time to write comprehensive comments for all of the teams this time, because there were fewer of them, and more time given. We were super fast in deciding the final rankings (like less than 15 minutes) that Ms. T and the other AC judges were surprised when I walked into the hall with the envelope.

Mmm after judging today, I really really miss OM! And I didn’t realise this in OM, but in FPS action plans, penalties are a bitch! For the teams really, not for judges. They’re very helpful for the judges, in fact, when it comes to rankings but that isn’t the point. It’s so wasted ):

Then it was reading of the winning pieces from scenario writing. Heh then prize presentation The junior division teams are superrr cute (as always) haha! The RG CmPS teams are POSITIVELY SCARY. I got this huge fright when I was just going to sit down after I came back from the toilet because one of the rg teams gave this banshee-like shriek of joy! Hahaha okay but OM prize presentations are worse I think, with RG cheering (or growling) trying to outcompete the AC boys. Mm and CONGRATS YONGSHENG (whose team I judged for action plan, twice! :O )AND TEAM AND ALL THE OTHER TEAMS (: Really well done. Eeps then Ms. M T made the student judges stand up so she could thank us :/ When we didn’t, she called out Kevin’s and my names. Embarrassing much. Haha but she’s so cute I can’t believe she giggled into the mike!

DINNER x) Pre-dinner was camwhore session, sort of. I caught up with loads of teachers! Like Ms. Chen, whom I talked to for ages, Mr. LPL who left the school but was back with the Dunman contingent and he told me to keep in touch hahah oh man he was such an awesome math teacher! And like Mr. Yeoh, and both Ms. Tans (: Then the AC boys & I happily went over to the teachers’/adults’/important people buffet table to get our food. Kyle and I piled two plates with brownies for the whole table, with Kevin telling me to put in more choc brownies -.- Yeah well I didn’t know he ate so much— he had two full helpings omg. We were also planning to get the unopened tray of brownies hidden behind the drink dispensers but they were gone when we wanted to execute the plan ): The food was absolutely heavenly x) I had to sit on my hands to stop myself from taking more brownies. Deborah Tang came over, saw the two platters of brownies, and asked if we were the reason why there were no more brownies! And we were all like NOOOOOO super defensively because we took from the teachers’ table (: The reason was Yongsheng actually– greedy boy ate FOURTEEN brownies omg! Sheesh.

Yongsheng: She (his sister) has ego issues.
Annie: Yeah I wonder who she got it from -meaningful look-
Yongsheng: Eh! From you, I bet.
Annie: I don’t even know her?!

After dinner, we just sat around the table talking. One of the ex-AC-currently-RG teachers was catching up with all the AC boys, and it was really nice to hear/watch, because it’s so family-ish and warm! And super amusing too. On the way home I wondered what it would be like if I really went to AC, but then decided that I shall not think about it anymore because I like it where I am now and I love the people around me (:

Terribly tired (Yongsheng says it’s because it’s Fatigue Pressure Sweat) but extremely happy x) There’s so much I need to do though– cards, forms, work, cello and the list goes on. But I’m so so so glad I took today off to judge. It was enjoyable, and also very nostalgic, and it got my rusty OM brain back into active mode. I do love all these creativity competitions! The spirit and atmosphere are always so fantastic, and there are always new friends to make! Pity I can’t do this next year cos of As ): NEVER MIND will judge OM Nationals after As! Wahaha.

Yingjie: France…it’s the one with the Eiffel Tower right?
Everyone stares.
Fangyi: Yingjie, was that a serious question?
Zhao Yang: No, Ying Jie, it’s the one with the Berlin Wall.

Chester: Procrastination is the biggest nation in the world.

OKAY I SHALL GO AND DO SOMETHING SEMI-PRODUCTIVE.

That was my quotable quote in the scrapbook (: [Everyone seems to remember my Golgi quote though] I love 3O we are so awesome! Everyone who was in Singapore (17 out of the 18 people!) turned up for Mr. Pan’s farewell

Sarah and I went to Ion during free blocks to get pretty things for Mr. P! It was really rushed, and we were convinced that we would be late but we weren’t in the end, amazingly. We got this huge teddy, a champagne bottle full of chocolates, a box, and yes we listened to the boys and got a rather cute cactus.

Heh then in the afternoon tessa fang sam matthew and I camped out at the amphi to do up the scrapbook We kept sending matt around to chase the boys for their notes (ASK THE BOYS TO GIVE US THEIR NOTES NOWWWW!). The scrapbook was uber pretty and cool, with our photos, our notes and some of our quotes! I especially loved the one we wrote for Tianchen– “TC: Do you all understand what I just said? Class: NO.” It was quite rushed towards the end and we were yelling exasperatedly at the boys to run to the bus-stop with some urgency! But no, they were strolling and they missed the bus -.- In the end even we caught up with them, heh.

Dinner was at thomson swensen’s (our usual table) and I managed to sneak the presents under the table without Mr. P noticing. Ordered, then I asked Ernest, Aaron & Chester to bring Mr. P to Yamaha so they can play a piece for him while we assembled for presents So they did that, and Yingjie & Daolang folded roses from napkins! Dao lang even dipped some into his grape juice so the purple would diffuse through the serviette. Smartttttt. When the boys finally brought Mr. P back, we started chanting MR P MR P MR P before bursting into the Barney song that attracted a lot of stares. After dinner, we cut the heavenly cedele pistachio chocolate cake that Nigel got and sang the birthday song hahaha. Eee I love the cake I shall ask my mum to get it for my birthday next year (:

After that we all colonized Aaron’s house. I swear the people on the bus probably hate us, we’re such a noisy bunch! The boys were playing Halo (I’ve never seen Wenjie smile so happily before), some of us were playing bridge, Yingjie was playing his guitar and singing (super good omg!), I think some were playing pool and there was a game of scrabble going on somewhere. Furball joined all of us, and he seemed to like humping Shuwen’s leg very much. He kept going to Chester too, and when Chester breathed on him to chase him away, he just cocked his head and winked at Chester Got in a game of Soul Calibur before I left. Wahaha I completely trashed Ernest 3-0 But then he was using Yoda, who is um cute but very small. My thumbs hurt though, from spamming the same old button too much.

And I love Aries he is so gorgeous! Hee and I realised he’s so tall when he jumped up on me a few times before I left! I think he hugged me too Like he jumped up and put his paws around me omg x) Okay must stop fangirling.

Eee very happy today but so tired don’t know why!

Sarah (points to video playing in the canteen): Eh that looks like your friend daniel.
Annie: Er, daniel? Which one?
Sarah: Daniel Lim.
Annie: Uh yes, which one? There are 3 in RJ!
Sarah: Oh, the one you’re friends with!
Annie: … I’m friends with all 3 of them!

Matt: Shu wen said he’ll write now, and I’ll collect it in ten minutes.
Fangyi: Good boy. What did you say to convince him?
Annie: Our wrath?
Matt: That I’ll set Fangyi on him if he doesn’t.

Annie: Is he in the building?
Tony: What? Am I the boo-boo?

Zhao Yang: Sit down!
Annie: No, it clearly states (reads out in chinese) that it’s for old people and the handicapped.
Zhao Yang: Yah, Sarah Chong is about there already.
Sarah: EXCUSE ME?! Did you just call me physically disabled? Annie, duck!
Annie ducks.
Sarah whacks Zhao Yang on the head.
Annie: Or old, actually.
Zhao Yang: It works for pregnant ladies too!

Plus I realised I need to stop bellowing at random people. It’s accidental I swear, like the MRT officer and the guy who threw a frisbee at me. Must stop, it’s not very ladylike.

Will we have such good times next year? ):

Yayyy I didn’t get in now we’re going to Franceeeeee! Our boys are superbly awesome, 1/3 of the 30 chosen! Mm it seems surreal that we’re flying off next week. Weather in France is erratic– it’s 15 degrees in Dijon now, but it was like close to zero just last week!

And I just realised that childaid isn’t a YO thing o.0 I wonder who else is playing.

Plus I really to stop. Must. Stop. Self-control!

Bio O prac training was super fun! Mr N is right, it makes me feel like I actually have an ounce of scientific skill in me! I loveeeeeee plants gosh I started off wanting to eat everything that was given (i.e. tomato, onion, apple, celery). I think this is one of the best pracs I’ve ever done. My onion cells are super pretty omg! And and and my xylem cells are all hexagonal (!!), which led Mr. N to compliment me on my awesome cutting skills :O HAHA. Maybe I should consider becoming a surgeon after all.

Mm and Matthew’s hibiscus flowers are SO HUGE and SO PRETTY! And they are really good to study, plus the pollen grains look absolutely gorgeous under the microscope! Nadia and I were camwhoring, and oh dear me you should have seen what the guys did to Shaun. Identity crisis is an understatement. Then after that we did the milk prac and though it was supposed to be individual work, people were talking here and there softly, and whenever Mr. N caught anyone, he would yell IRREGULARITY REPORT!!! hahahah.

CRASH!
Person responsible: It’s not me! It’s raining, it was the thunder!!

Mr. N: Can you people share the celery?
Chester: No! Then we will each get less money!

In the library this morning,
Tessa: Can we go to your house?
Ernest: No! Don’t!
Tessa: Why? Is it stacked to the ceiling with bio books?
Ernest: No, it’s stacked to the ceiling with protein powder!
Ying Jie spits on his hand.

and when i said to annie that day last year, that ill never want to ever not be her friend.

From Jo’s blog. Her post on time is so true. There were people who were So Significant to me, and now we’re reduced to mere acquaintances with a simple ‘hello’ upon meeting. No more “eh sit down let’s talk”, not even a “how’s life” without anticipating a simple answer of “okay” or “good” or “like that lor” instead of a whole long probably now-very-awkward-feeling ramble. And when you read that person’s blog, the daily events that used to bring about a knowing smile on your face only serve to highlight the ever growing rift. Maybe that’s why my xmas list every year keeps changing. There are people who stay, there are people who come, and there are people who go. While I think this can’t be helped, I’m pretty terrified of having the currently Terribly Significant people slip away into the I-Used-To-Be-Close-To-But-Now-I-Only-Have-Memories category (no I don’t categorise my friends normally, but just for ease of expression), especially since we’re all going to go our separate ways next year.

Ah Jo, I never want to not be your friend too (: Love you always, don’t be afraid I’ll always be around! Am terribly sorry, this topic probably deserves a much better and longer and well-thought-out post than this, but I’m rushing off to go to school and after reading your post, I just had to tell you that I love you, and tell everyone else that I love the them too, whether I’ve talked to them lately or not.

Annie: eh.

are there hibiscuses around your house?

Ruolin: hmm

is it the blue one?

blue flower?

Annie: RED.

Ruolin: so only the flower?
need the stock?
Annie: uh huhh
what stock?
STALK you mean
Ruolin: stalk yes yes
sry damn long nvr touch bio le
need stalk?

AZ says:

ernest!

go puck hibiscus!

[Earl König]             [RSBS] says:

huh

whats that

AZ says:

*pluck

A FLOWER?!

[Earl König]             [RSBS] says:

oh

haha boys and flowers don’t go together!

Mrs. W just smsed to tell me not to come for anymore rehearsals since I’m not doing the concert because JTan only wants to see/hear the concert people ))): Maybe I’ll just go on thursday to give her the letter and take a section photo, since I won’t be able to this time on stage with them ): OKAY ANNIE.MUST.STOP.WHINING. YOU’RE GOING TO FRANCE AND SWITZERLAND ISN’T THAT WAY MORE AWESOME THAN PERFORMING (AGAIN) AT VCH?!

Playing Debussy’s Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun
JTan: You know, this must sound like…what’s that movie?
Julia: Bambi? (giggles)
JTan: Narnia.

): Why Mrs. W chase me away ): Ugh okay must stop whining this is usual concert/rehearsal protocol ANNIE ZENG GO AND GET A LIFE (by going for bio o prac training right hurhur -.- ), AND SMILE DOING IT.

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, THE JUST SHALL LIVE BY FAITH. (Romans 1:16-17)

The gospel (in the Old English: good news) gives you true salvation, but what is salvation exactly? Salvation is more than just shunning hell and entering heaven. In the Greek, salvation is sozo. After Jesus heals someone, He says to them, “Your faith has saved you.” So, as we can see, salvation is also a rescue from danger, from evil. I went to check out this Salvation Doctrine on the net, and it says that salvation in the Greek means “to bring safely through a danger”. Salvation is essentially a protection from all things, except persecution, which Jesus did not take on the cross. And how is this salvation, this righteousness of God revealed? From faith to faith. Note that it doesn’t say from faith to works. It starts with faith and it ends with faith.

Now Job’s problem was that he had a deep-seated self-righteousness. (Okay I’m sorry this probably seems terribly disjointed, but I missed Pastor’s previous sermon on suffering, which he illustrated using the story of Job) Job 1:5 tells us that he made sin offerings for his children out of fear continually, for he feared that his sons had sinned. Job was an upright man of integrity–even God attested to that, but in doing so, he hath done despite (insulted) unto the Spirit of grace, and counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified a common (in KJV: unholy) thing (Hebews 10:29). To understand this, we must know that the blood of a common thing would be the blood of lambs or goats. However, Jesus, born of a virgin, received the blood of God, and thus His blood is not tainted, is divine and has the quality of eternity. Thus, his blood is not common, but holy, a direct opposite of an unholy thing, as written in KJV in that verse. Before Jesus came, when someone sinned, he would bring a lamb to the priest. The priest would not look at him, but at the lamb instead. The offender will then kill the lamb, symbolic of his sin having caused the death of the innocent, and symbolic of the lamb having taken his place (since the wages of sin is death) and him taking the place of the lamb. However, as this is common blood, it only covers since for a day or if done on the day of atonement, a year. That’s why people then made daily offerings and yearly offerings. These offerings are but a picture of Jesus, merely “a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things” and thus “can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.” (Hebrews 10:1) Perfect here means perfect conscience, or no consciousness of sins. Thus, we can see that while the lamb’s blood covered the sin, it didn’t give us no consciousness of sins. But Jesus’ holy blood, with the quality of eternity, covers all our sins–past present and future– and imputes to us the perfect conscience. Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin. (Hebrews 10:18)

Ephesians 1:7 says that we have forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace. Note that it’s not out of the riches of His grace, but according to His grace. The difference, you might ask? According to gives us all that’s there, but out of only gives us a little. Simple analogy: If I give you money out of the 1 million dollars (hypothetical!) in my bank account, I can give you 50 cents. But if I give you money according to the 1 million dollars in my bank account, you have all of it! You see, we didn’t get saved by our works, but by Jesus’ works, so our bad works can’t undo it! Thus there is no place, no place at all for self-righteousness. We must also remember that He accepted us and then forgave us (Ephesians 1:6). In Leviticus, the burnt offering, symbolic of our favour with God, came first while the sin offering came second. Favour first, but many people approach God with the sin offering first instead, indicative of our sin-consciousness. See, so the question is, do you believe that your sins are forgiven?

God made a few covenants with His people. In the Garden of Eden, And the Lord God commanded man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. (Genesis 2:16-17). So, there was only one way to get into trouble with God. Everything else was not sin, because sin is not imputed if there is no law, except for one and the devil finds power in the law. The devil’s only other option was to kill Adam, but then there would be no generations. So the devil tempted them. And when the devil succeeded, the devil himself became God of this world because God made Adam the God of this world (2 Cor 4:4)  but he bowed to Satan. But then Jesus came Then the first covenant was made on Mount Sinai. The people were to keep all 10 commandments. If one broke one be it in deed or in thought, one was guilty of all and would therefore die. So, at that time, to get into trouble with God, one would have to break the 10 commandments. However, God found fault with the first covenant (Hebrews 8:8). And in Hebrews 8:9, He makes it very clear that the new covenant would not be the 10 commandments, because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord. The people simply couldn’t keep it. So, His new covenant: For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and ther sins and their iniquities will I remember (to punish) no more. (Hebrews 8:12) And on the night of the betrayal, in Matthew 26:27-28, Jesus gave the cup, symbolic of the new testament and the remission of sins, to His disciples. Thus in the new covenant, there is nothing for us to perform– we just need to believe. Now, the only way for us to get into trouble is to be sin-conscious, to be self-righteous, to pay a debt that has already been paid for us on the cross.  Hebrews 10:2 so clearly states that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins.

And because of Jesus and the new covenant, we now have boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus (Hebrews 10:19), for our sins God remembers no more, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. (Hebrews 10: 22)

Ahhhh, awesome sermon today So blessed. Eek I think I might have missed out on some stuff though, like about the sanctification of Jews, but I don’t really know where to put it in here so :/

So it’s that time of the year again.

I ran into Mr. L, Ms. L, Jess Chan and Yihong yesterday, and I had a short chat with them I miss RGS, and I think Jess Chan, Yihong, and many other sec 4s will be missing her too very soon ): I just about rescued Jess Chan from having no JC to go to, haha!

Annie: So have you matriculated?
Jess: Nope I still have quite long. Till 16th Dec.
Annie: DECEMBER?! Seriously, so late? Are you sure it’s not november?!
Jess: Uh no I’m pretty sure I heard december! Yihong, we’re supposed to matriculate by 16th December right?
Yihong shoots Jess a weird look.
Yihong: Noooo… november what! Next monday!
Jess: OHMYGOD!

I was reading Irina’s blog this morning, and looking at all the photos of farewell assembly/class parties/last day of school on facebook. Omg it seems as if it was only yesterday that I was marching into the amphi with all the other CCALs to Star Wars to hand over, playing canon in D for the very last time with the cellists for our batch, and trying not to tear when Mr. C said over the mike to us, “409, two years is not enough.”  )):

It’s amazing how everyone has grown! Our juniors are now handing over, sec 1s that we were in-charge of are now stepping up to take on pivotal roles (I ran into Amanda Lee yesterday, a new JPSL whom I’ve never met).. Wow. Almost everything in RG is changing beyond recognition, and while I’m glad and comforted that they’re (gosh it’s not we, but they now!) growing, it makes me kind of sad that I’m watching from the outside. But I’m so so so proud of them all the same

I don’t feel such a huge sense of ownership in rj, at least not yet. Maybe it’s because I committed to so much in rg that I just feel connected to so much in so many ways somehow, maybe it’s because rg felt like home and rj only feels transitory, but I’d like to think that it was, and still is, the spirit, the flame, the love that kept us going despite everything. It’s just different. The four years were phenomenal, looking back. And I really think despite our constant grouses, we wouldn’t have had it any other way.

Nostalgia and sentimentality aside, the blue name taggers’ graduation also made me realise that half my time in rj is gone ): And perhaps just about all the good times? Since next year will comprise too much studying.

cause we’re moving on and we can’t slow down

The audition was….unbelievable, in a negative sense. She didn’t even bother turning around to look at me? And I played all of 5 lines for each piece -.- Heh well maybe I shouldn’t have gone down, especially since now I realise that the christmas thing is going to clash with childaid! Yep events in my life have an uncanny tendency to clash most spectacularly, unfortunately.

YO. Heh JTan is back! It’s rather sad that our Rach kind of degenerated when he was not around, but our Debussy was pretty okay x) Attendance was dismal today, especially for our section, so Mich and I had to move up to second desk :O But but but it went okay and I realised that the view was pretty good– can see Sam’s lovestruck expression all the way over at the v2s as she stares up at him HAHA. Though we all moan and groan whenever JTan conducts rehearsals, I think we all love him deep down because he’s really good and I’ve learnt alot. And okay I never thought I would say this, but I’m actually glad he picked the pieces he did, because they’re not our typical repertoire (not any usual orchestra’s, in fact) and we’ve gotten alot of exposure from this and his high standards. Heh I’m actually growing to really really like Rach & Debussy! Plus he has the energy to match ours and rehearsals are definitely more lively with him around.

JTan: Some of you have got your eyes glued to the score. So how do you follow? You listen. What’s the speed of sound?
Silence and blank looks from orchestra.
JTan: Actually I don’t know, but I know that if you try to listen, you’ll definitely be late. Whereas light travels faster than sound, so look at me, and you won’t be late!

YESSSSSSSSSSS! Thank God Thank God Thank God! I’m shagged I don’t know why ): I shall finish up edits on my I&R and go take a nap before I spam practice for tomorrow’s church audition :O

10  (out of 13 who did OP together!) of us went to J8 and omg I swear 3O has something bad on with lifts! Yeah well we almost got stuck again thanks to the SCDF Inspection thing. When we reached the 4th floor, just as the lift doors were opening, the lights went off and the lift doors stopped opening halfway. Omg.

In the end we went to cartel, where Sarah and I shared the delectable St Louis pork ribs, and where FAST (okay mostly Sarah and I actually) acted like bread-consuming monsters. Heh but the cartel bread’s pretty goooooooood, even though its quality has gone down since the last time our class went. YJ was folding roses with napkins (super pretty omg!) and Dao Lang was in charge of throwing them -.- The first and the last landed on me, while all the rest in between landed on fang HAHA.

Tessa: Huh you mean he (wenjie) left without saying hello?!
Pause. Everyone stares.
Tessa: Oh I mean goodbye!

From yesterday,
Annie: Sheeps go ‘meh’!
Sarah: Please, don’t be an idiot, cows go ‘meh’!
Everyone in the vicinity: HAHAHAHAHA
Sarah: Oh omg. Wait. Sorry sorry. Cows go moo!

Heh and she just had to to throw in the self-righteous ‘don’t be an idiot’